// South · Comuna 4 · Port culture
La Boca
Iconic, colorful, river-port historic, and culturally important, but not a default residential landing.
Hero: illustration adapted from a photograph by Lars Curfs (Grashoofd) (CC BY-SA 3.0 nl). Illustration credits and adaptation licenses.
Photos: P. Hughes CC BY 4.0 · Jorge Royan CC BY-SA 3.0 · ProtoplasmaKid CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
La Boca at a glance
La Boca is painted zinc houses, conventillos and port sheds along the Riachuelo — the most photographed and least residential-feeling blocks in the city. It covers 5.05 km² in the city's south, Comuna 4, with 44,205 residents at the 2022 census — about 8,800 people per km², well below the median barrio (14,700).
People with a specific reason to be here — the art scene, the port history, Boca — not newcomers looking for convenience.
Tourist areas and residential practicality are very different conversations.
Anchors
The places that define La Boca · our read- LandmarkCaminito
The painted alley and the tango postcards: two blocks of tourists, and not where anyone lives.
- StadiumLa Bombonera
Boca Juniors' ground; the barrio's identity, its economy and its crowd-control problem.
- MuseumFundación Proa
The contemporary-art foundation on the Vuelta de Rocha, with the best café view of the Riachuelo.
2 on the calendar - MuseumMuseo Quinquela Martín
The painter's house and collection; the barrio as it saw itself when the port still worked.
- Cultural centerUsina del Arte
The city's concert hall in a converted power station — free music, and the one reason porteños come here at night.
11 on the calendar - WaterfrontVuelta de Rocha
The bend in the Riachuelo with the old transporter bridge; the view, and the smell when the wind turns.
Photos: Hernán Piñera CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dennis G. Jarvis CC BY-SA 2.0 · Gonzabar77 CC BY 4.0 · Mauricio V. Genta CC BY-SA 3.0 · Gelpgim22 (Sergio Panei Pitrau) CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Fit scores
12 marks · 1 low · 10 highhealthcare, cost value and culture
schools and quiet
Fair
median barrio
The overall read is an even weighting of the 12 marks we have for this barrio — a starting point, not a verdict. Of our six lenses it ranks highest under “Creative & nightlife”. Cost value stands on the asking sale price per m², as no rent is quoted here. The tick is the median of the 48 barrios. Eight marks are computed from public data and four are our read; what goes into each is on how we score.
What it costs
average asking prices · Q2 2026The city statistics office had too few rental listings here to quote an average this quarter. Missing data does not tell us whether rents here are cheap or expensive.
To buy: about US$1,343 per m² for a used two-bedroom (−38% vs the city). Budget separately for expensas (building fees) and utilities. These used-apartment benchmarks are not furnished short-stay quotes or offers. Figures are averages of what landlords ask — IDECBA (city statistics office), from Argenprop listings; 2nd quarter 2026, provisional — converted at the Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA, Argentina’s central bank) retail seller rate, Q2 2026 average.
Reported robbery & theft
reported crimes · 202537.4 reported robberies and thefts per 1,000 residents — above the city rate of 32.2.
996 robberies (with violence or threat) and 657 thefts were reported in La Boca in 2025, against 44,205 residents in private dwellings at the 2022 census. Reporting rates, visitors, population changes since the census and differences between blocks limit the comparison. These counts do not measure all crime or predict personal safety. Source: the city's open crime map — method and sources.
A barrio is half the decision. The other half is the lease — the guarantee, the up-front cash, the contract terms — and that part we walk through with you.