The government of Javier Milei is pushing the Private Property Inviolability Bill through Congress to expedite eviction proceedings. However, official statistics contradict the Executive’s narrative about alleged squatting , showing that two out of every three cases initiated involve tenant families with formal contracts who fell into arrears after the deregulation of the real estate market.
The economic situation is forcing a growing number of workers to allocate more than 50 percent of their monthly income exclusively to rent payments. A study conducted by academic institutions and social organizations revealed that 57 percent of tenant households in the Greater Buenos Aires area exceed this critical threshold of housing expenditure, far surpassing internationally recommended sustainability limits .
Faced with soaring rents and expenses, families have systematically resorted to debt to avoid homelessness. In the Greater Buenos Aires area, 45 percent of rental properties have accumulated debt , while 77 percent of those who took out formal loans in the last year used those funds to cover their monthly household expenses.
This dynamic of taking on debt to maintain housing is categorized by economists as a form of invisible default that masks the vulnerability of the social sector. In provinces like Córdoba and Santa Fe, there are constant increases in claims for unpaid utilities and rent , where workers resort to credit card debt to postpone the formal loss of their individual contracts.
Although the government’s proposed legislation is still under debate in the Chamber of Deputies, expedited eviction procedures are already in use in the capital’s judicial system. In the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the application of summary eviction procedures went from representing just two percent of cases in 2024 to accounting for 58 percent of all registered cases in 2026.
The repeal of the previous regulatory framework at the end of 2023 left tenants without rent caps against general inflation rates. If the Executive’s initiative is approved, the legal recourse available to vulnerable families will be drastically reduced, increasing the risk of mass evictions for those unable to afford the costs demanded by landlords.