I want to find housing in Buenos Aires

Honest first answer: don't decide from abroad. Land somewhere furnished for a few weeks and let the city argue its case — the barrio (neighborhood) that photographs best is rarely the one you end up loving.

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For most arrivals it's a ladder. A furnished landing pad for the first weeks — an Airbnb or a registered temporario, a furnished short-term rental. Then a local furnished lease for a few months to a year. Then a standard two-year unfurnished lease, only if you're staying at least that long.

Less than you'd fear on paper, more than you'd hope in cash. Landlords want proof of who you are, proof you can pay, and a guarantee behind the contract. Up front you'll typically pay the first month, a deposit, and the cost of whatever guarantee you use — plus the expensas, the monthly building fees, on top of rent from then on.

Yes. A passport signs leases here all the time — the recent foreigner signings we know of were all pre-DNI. The DNI, the Argentine national ID that comes with residency, is not what gets you a lease. The guarantee is.

First, the fact almost nobody tells you: no law requires a garantía — the rental guarantee, traditionally a relative's property in the city pledged behind your lease. It's a landlord's demand, and demands can be met other ways: months of rent prepaid, a bigger deposit, or a paid guarantee — a caución or fianza, where an insurer or a company stands behind your lease for a one-time fee.

Not in the city. On residential leases in CABA — the city proper — the tenant owes the inmobiliaria (the real-estate agency) nothing: no commission, no 'informes' (credit-check fees), no 'gastos administrativos' (admin fees). That's Ley 5859, the city's tenant-commission ban, and the Supreme Court refused the last challenge to it.

You can, and many people do. About half the market never touches an agency — and that half is also where the no-written-contract deals and the fake listings live.