Housing market in the university area of the city of Bahía Blanca, Argentina. The impacts of low maintenance cost units on the landscape

Abstract

The university sector of the city of Bahía Blanca in Argentina presents a functional imbalance generated by a new modality in the house market as a result of the proliferation, very accentuated in the last five years, of buildings of three floors in estates occupied by old large houses with garden whose lands extended until the square center. The new buildings characterize by his low cost of operation since they lack elevator and other expenses derived of the maintenance from common places that all the proprietors use; it is possible to also emphasize the speed of his construction that does not exceed the seven months, situation that causes deep transformations in diverse aspects: in the landscape, in the urban and population structure, the social and commercial dynamics of the sector, in the game of the real estate supply and demand and in the value of the land. The intensity and rapidity of the changes produced by these enterprise cause serious conflicts; in the first place those derivatives of a lack of parallelism between the constructions of these buildings -that in some cases surpass the three by block- and the extension and adjustment of the services basic public, in special sewer networks and of potable water supply, according to the requirements of the increase of population. The emergent conflicts are perceived and declared permanently in different means of local press and in presentations to the executive authorities and the Municipal Council of the city in search of a solution immediate, difficult to mainly make specific due to the lack of legislation and budgetary problems.