El rent expense Access to housing in our country is increasingly significant, particularly in the lowest-income segments to which, in recent times, more and more middle-income families are joining. This is nothing more than one of the consequences of a more comprehensive problem that is the housing deficit.

In the report presented, elements are provided to evaluate the effects of the new rental law in general, and on UNR students in particular.

El housing deficit It is not a problem exclusive to our country. Throughout the world, population growth and housing needs in general do not match urban growth and the development of new properties. However, the difficulties in accessing decent housing are greater in the poorest and least developed countries, and constitute a critical structural problem that is growing in all Latin American countries.

En Argentina, the housing crisis is a constant that in recent times seems to increase more rapidly. The new rental regime that came into force in June 2020, broadly speaking, imposes more risks and restrictions on bidders and encourages them to launder their activity. For their part, the mechanisms to balance risk taking in the sector are not yet fully regulated.

The latter seems to have its correlation with the movement of housing rental prices. Information from the sector indicates that a sustained price increase began to operate as of October 2020. That is, four months after the sanction of the new rental law. Although causality cannot be affirmed from this statement, there is a strong correlation between approval and the increase in rental prices, conditional on a period of lag generally associated with the formulation of new contracts.

On the other hand, when the problem is approached from a theoretical point of view, it cannot fail to be highlighted that -at least- there is no contradiction between what is proposed in the theory and what was observed in the behavior of the real estate market. That is to say, for the moment, everything tells the same story: in the current context, the new rental law favors a reduction in the supply of units, as well as the formation of expectations for higher price levels.

What perceptionWhat does the UNR student body have regarding this topic, towards May - June 2021? The study carried out indicates that the cohorts of students surveyed have not yet felt the full impact of the new rental law.

The reason is obvious, the majority of those who were already studying maintain contracts signed under the old rental regulations. On the other hand, it is feasible to assume that the new cohorts of students have not carried out all the housing searches, conditional on the virtual modality of teaching classes that was the majority during 2021.

Even so, the information collected allows guess that:

• Households that cover their children's college education expenses have enough resources to support at least one family member living alone in some type of housing, holding everything else constant (for example, price level).
• There are elements to affirm that the decision to rent by the UNR student community is sensitive to variations in the entry barriers to the real estate market. Typically, proprietary guarantees or cash deposits.
• Even though they can keep family members dedicated to university studies, an important part of families seek to reduce costs related to the preparation and monitoring of rental contracts. Which is an indication of the budget limits families face when renting.
• There is an expectation that significant changes in rent prices (increases) may be a risk factor when deciding whether or not to continue university studies by students.

Obviously, a study on the effective influence of the new rental law on the student community of the UNR, requires a greater perspective and successive measurements around the same topic. Even so, the contribution of this work lies in describing a scenario to which attention should be paid, especially because the rental price is a decision vector with regard to the continuity of studies of a significant part of the academic community of the A R.

An unsought, but desirable aspect of this study is that it indicates some perspectives in relation to teaching post-pandemic classes. So much so, that in addition to the general context of the Argentine economy and the emergence of the new rental regulations, the forms of course that are adopted in the future (in-person, virtual or hybrid), constitute a novel factor with respect to the expectation of continuity of studies of some groups of the student community, as well as the possibility of incorporating new students.

El full test which the report that accompanies this entry is much broader than what has been exposed so far. In the first part, the elements are provided to contextualize the responses of UNR students, in relation to their rental situation and strategies. An outline of the rental market is presented, the population information available in public statistics on tenants, the elements that are taken into consideration when valuing a property and a summary of the differences between the old and new rental laws.

The second section discusses the information collected in the survey conducted with UNR students. The third part presents a group of generic proposals that can be used as a partial solution to the housing problems of UNR students. The document closes with a conclusion section.