What to check before renting a shop in Argentina

The first question is not how large the shop is. It is whether your trade can legally operate there. In the City of Buenos Aires the Agencia Gubernamental de Control, the city inspection agency, asks for this as a first step: the plot must sit in a zone where your activity is allowed.

In the City, the mix of a plot is checked in Ciudad 3D with the street and address number (called chapa catastral on the official page); when the map is not enough, the Consulta de usos applies. The step by step is in Commercial permits in Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires Province, land use is decided municipality by municipality. Each one has its own zoning and licensing ordinance, and you ask the local Dirección de Comercio or Dirección de Habilitaciones. La Plata, for example, organizes its territory under the Código de Ordenamiento Territorial of its Partido master plan (Ordinance 12,692/25), requires a pre encuadre, a pre-classification of your activity, before the file opens, and issues a Certificado de Factibilidad de Localización, a location feasibility certificate, for the activities its ordinance lists. Find the ordinance of your municipality on its official site or in its official gazette, and get the answer in writing before you reserve anything.

• The exact address of the unit and its cadastral number.
• The trade you will run, worded the way your municipality words it, plus the floor area you need.
• The municipal answer on use, on paper or by email, even if it is just an email from the licensing office.

Every commercial activity in the city needs an Autorización de Actividad Económica, an economic activity authorization, before it starts trading. The unit you are about to rent may carry a permit for your trade, a permit for a different trade, or nothing at all. Each scenario changes your schedule and your budget.

Ask for the document that proves the current permit: a certificate, a wall plaque or a QR sticker. Read three things: the licensed trade, the licensed floor area and the conditions it was approved under. A permit for a minimarket does not cover a commercial kitchen, and a small licensed area does not cover the whole unit you plan to occupy.

There are two answers to get before you sign: that the existing permit covers your trade and your floor area, and that the unit is unchanged since that permit was approved, because a transfer is granted on the same conditions as the original procedure. If the unit was altered, bringing it into line is part of your start-up budget. An existing permit can be transferred: the procedure asks for a transfer statement, a sworn declaration signed by a registered professional stating that the unit keeps the conditions of the original procedure, and the document that proves the permit. The permit procedure is in the guide Commercial permits in Buenos Aires.

Also ask whether the unit qualifies for the city fast-track licensing route or falls outside it because of its conditions: that answer changes your schedule and your start-up budget. The requirements and exceptions of that route are in the same guide Commercial permits in Buenos Aires.

The frontage sells before your product does, and there are two different measures: the width of the unit and the width of the display window. A pillar in front of the window, or an entrance step, can change the business without changing the floor area.

• Window width and what blocks it: pillars, the neighbor's awning, street trees, a bus stop.
• Level changes between sidewalk and floor, and whether the entrance can take a ramp.
• Clear door width, how it opens, and whether your largest deliveries fit through.
• Ceiling height and the real room for a sign readable from the other side of the street.
• Window light at the hour when most people walk past.

Signage needs paperwork. In the city, front and projecting signs and canopies carrying advertising visible from public space require a permit called permiso de anuncio publicitario exterior, and in certain areas advertising, canopies and awnings go through the same Consulta de usos. Before signing, ask the landlord and the building administration what may be installed and what may not. The condominium by-laws are executed before a notary and form part of the title to the unit (article 2038), so their restrictions travel with the property.

Access is also regulated. Article 21 of Law 22.431, as amended by Law 24.314, requires buildings of public use to have at least one entrance free of architectural barriers, horizontal circulation that allows movement and maneuvering, accessible vertical communication and adapted toilets. A high step or a narrow door is not just an aesthetic detail: it can force construction work before you open.

Foot traffic is measured on the sidewalk, not in the listing: three visits to the same spot on different days and hours, notebook in hand.

Example of how to count: pick one fixed point in front of the unit and note how many people walk past in fifteen minutes on a weekday morning, a weekday afternoon and a Saturday midday. Count how many walk into the neighboring shops as well. The number is useful to compare hours and streets with each other, never as a promise of sales.

Then look for context. Ask the shops on the block about their quiet hours and how deliveries arrive; check for bus stops, banks, supermarkets, gyms or offices that release people at specific times; find out whether the street has municipal works planned. Look at the immediate surroundings as well: predominant uses, density and public transport flows.

When you compare areas and prices on PlataStar, the neighborhood and market pages show asking prices and availability, never vacancy or closed rents. An asking price is not transaction data: it helps you sort options, not promise an outcome.

Two trades can occupy the same square meter and need installations with nothing in common. Confirm the unit has what your operation needs every day, and leave in writing who pays for what is missing.

In the city, fixed fire protection systems, lifts and heating appliances are registered through their own procedures, and the unit's self-protection system is filed according to the establishment's group; ask which group the unit falls into before you commit. The permit procedure is in the guide Commercial permits in Buenos Aires.

Bring a registered professional (architect, engineer or master builder) to the second viewing: they can check ventilation, fire safety and accessibility before you sign. Which procedures require their signature is in Commercial permits in Buenos Aires.

Toilets and access count twice, as installation and as accessibility. Article 21 of Law 22.431, as amended by Law 24.314, treats buildings of public use as accessible in all their parts, and requires the areas of industrial and commercial buildings without public access to have the degrees of adaptability needed to allow the employment of people with reduced mobility. A toilet that cannot be adapted limits your team and your customers.

The rent is one line of the budget. A commercial unit adds at least three more: property taxes, service charges and utilities.

ABL and property taxes

Property taxes and municipal charges carry different names and different rules depending on the jurisdiction; in the City of Buenos Aires the property is taxed as ABL. Ask for the latest bills of the unit and ask the municipality what the property owes; the composition of ABL is in the guide Real costs of renting an office.

Service charges

Service charges on a commercial unit depend on the building: concierge, security, pumps, central air, gallery maintenance, cleaning of a dedicated retail floor. Ask for the statements of the last few months, not just the latest figure, and ask what happens with major works and how costs are split when a building mixes homes and shops.

Article 1209 of the Civil and Commercial Code charges the tenant for costs arising from its activity, not charges on the property or extraordinary building expenses. Only habitual costs of normal, permanent services may be passed on, regardless of their label. Have a lawyer check its application to the lease and which agreements the applicable rules permit. Repairs follow separate rules, not article 1209. The allocation of these items is covered in Commercial leases in Argentina.

Always calculate with the unit's real bills, not with the figure in the ad.

The landlord's folder should close with no excuses. If any item on this list is still in process, the lease must say who finishes it, by when, and what happens if it is not finished.

The clauses on service charges, taxes, repairs and handover get their own explanation in the guide Commercial leases in Argentina.