Real Estate Terminology in Buenos Aires
In Buenos Aires, “departamento” is the common term for an apartment.
A furnished apartment has a bed, a desk and chair, linens and towels, a couch and table with chairs (depending on the size of the apartment), and the basic kitchen essentials, such as flatware, plates, glasses, coffee-maker, microwave, stove (depending on the size of the kitchen), and cooking utensils with pots. A furnished apartment will be identified as “amoblado” or “amueblado“.
Studio apartments are called either studios or “monoambiente,” which means “single-room.”
If an apartment has one bedroom that is a separate room, it will be listed as “dos ambientes.” Apartments are listed by the actual number of divided rooms (excluding bathrooms), not just bedrooms.
PH, or “propiedad horizontal,” refers to a multi-unit dwelling, usually no more than two stories, and is a common term for a townhouse.
All buildings have a ground floor, which is called “planta baja” or PB for short. The PB level is for the main door of the building, the doorman (“portero”), and possibly storage. Apartments are rarely located on the PB floor.
The next floor up is considered the first floor. The floors are called “pisos” and are called in sequential numbers. For example, if you live on the second floor, it is called “segundo piso,” and is written as 2°; the third floor is the “tercer piso” and is written as 3°, and so on. An apartment is called a semi-piso if it is one of two apartments per floor — one facing the street and the other facing the back or central courtyard of the building.
Addresses are listed with the street name first and then the number of the building, with the floor and apartment number following, such as: Suipacha 261, 6° C.
