Latin America
Student accommodation regulation in Argentina (2026)
In Argentina there is no national act regulating student residences. The Civil and Commercial Code applies: the lease, which Decree 70/2023 left to whatever the parties agree when it repealed Law 27.551, or an accommodation-with-services contract. The building and the operating licence depend on each municipality. And residents' data depend on Law 25.326, with the AAIP as supervisory authority and the European Commission recognising the country as adequate.
The short answer
Argentina has no national student accommodation act. A residence is built from general rules: the locación (lease) of the Civil and Commercial Code if it grants rooms (in Spain it would be called arrendamiento) or an accommodation-with-services contract; the licence of the municipality where it stands; and Law 25.326 for data.
| What | Rule | Who applies it |
|---|---|---|
| Legal figure | No national act | — |
| Contract | Lease: Civil and Commercial Code, Arts. 1187 ff., as amended by Decree 70/2023 | Civil courts of each jurisdiction |
| Building | Each municipality's rules; fire protection under Decree 351/79 if there are staff | Municipality; labour authority |
| Data | Law 25.326 and Decree 1558/2001 | AAIP |
| Data outside the country | Law 25.326, Art. 12; Disposition 60/2016 | AAIP |
| AI and whistleblowing | No AI act; a voluntary reporting channel (Law 27.401, Art. 23) | — |
What residences are called there
The law does not define a student residence. University residences, private room-by-room residences —outside Argentina, PBSA— and boarding houses (pensiones) sit side by side. What decides is what is signed: a locación of the room, which as a "parte material de un inmueble" (physical part of a property) must be in writing (Art. 1188), or accommodation with services, a contract the Code does not regulate, governed by the agreement and the general rules (Art. 970). If the residence is a business and the student the end user, it is also a consumer contract (Arts. 1092 and 1093).
The contract: the lease after Decree 70/2023
Law 27.551, the 2020 rental act, was repealed by Decree 70/2023 (a decree of necessity and urgency, Art. 249), published in the Official Gazette on 21 December 2023, which also rewrote the Code's lease chapter. The updated text on InfoLEG already reflects the changes:
El plazo de las locaciones con cualquier destino será el que las partes hayan establecido. ("The term of leases for any purpose shall be the one the parties have set.")
- Term: whatever is agreed. Without agreement, a temporary lease follows local usage; a lease of a permanent home lasts two years, and others, three (Art. 1198).
- Currency and adjustment: pesos or foreign currency, with the index the parties choose (Art. 1199).
- Deposit and payments: the deposit is freely agreed; payments, no less often than monthly (Art. 1196).
- Early exit: the tenant may terminate at any time by paying one tenth of the rent outstanding until the end (Art. 1221).
- Non-payment: for a home, before suing for desalojo (eviction; in Spain, desahucio) the landlord must demand payment giving at least ten calendar days (Art. 1222).
The building and the licence
There is no national framework for licensing a residence: the premises licence (habilitación; in Spain, a licencia de actividad), land use and building conditions are set by each municipality under its own rules.
National rules arrive through having staff. Law 19.587 on Health and Safety at Work applies throughout the country to "todos los establecimientos y explotaciones, persigan o no fines de lucro" ("all establishments and operations, whether or not for profit", Art. 1), and its regulation, Decree 351/79, devotes chapter 18 to fire protection, whose aims include ensuring that people can be evacuated (Art. 160).
Data protection
Law 25.326 applies, regulated by Decree 1558/2001. Its supervisory authority is the Agencia de Acceso a la Información Pública (AAIP), the enforcing authority since Decree 746/2017 (Law 27.275, Art. 19). For a residence that answers on WhatsApp:
- Basis: free, express and informed consent, in writing or by an equivalent means, unless the data arise from a contractual relationship and are necessary to perform it (Art. 5).
- Information: what the data are used for, who receives them, who the controller is and how to request access, rectification and deletion (Art. 6).
- Health: it is sensitive data (Art. 2) and nobody is obliged to provide it (Art. 7).
- Registration: a private database that is not for exclusively personal use is registered with the AAIP (Arts. 21 and 24).
Outside the country. Transfers to countries without adequate protection are prohibited (Art. 12), except with express consent (Decree 1558/2001, Art. 12) or contractual safeguards. Disposition 60/2016 lists the European Union Member States among the adequate ones (Art. 3); the United States is not on the list, and for such destinations the AAIP approved model clauses (Disposition 60/2016 and Resolution 198/2023). The other way round, the European Commission has recognised Argentina as adequate since Decision 2003/490/EC, reconfirmed in January 2024.
What the rules do not say
Worth knowing
Decree 70/2023 freed up the lease, but it did not create a student residence figure nor define the temporary lease: without an agreed term, it leaves it to local usage (Art. 1198). Nor is there a national AI act: in September 2024 the AAIP published, as a preliminary version, a guide to responsible AI that guides but does not bind, and Law 25.326's only rule on automated decisions (Art. 20) is limited to court decisions and administrative acts.
The European Union's Standard Contractual Clauses are not the AAIP's models: according to the agency itself, a contract that departs from its models has to be submitted to it within thirty calendar days of signature. And no general law obliges a private residence to have a whistleblowing channel: Law 27.401 lists it among the possible elements of an integrity programme (Art. 23), required only for certain contracts with the national State (Art. 24).
Where Bedel fits
Bedel answers WhatsApp in the language of whoever writes (languages) and puts on a person's phone whatever a machine should not decide (handover to people). Its data lives in the European Union (Ireland), an adequate destination under Argentine rules, and the AI model runs in the US under the Standard Contractual Clauses, a destination that list does not include. What changes in the contract and the processing for a residence in Argentina is discussed before signing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Law 27.551, the rental act, still in force?
No. Decree 70/2023, published in the Official Gazette on 21 December 2023, repealed it in its Article 249 and rewrote the lease chapter of the Civil and Commercial Code. The updated text of the Code on InfoLEG already reflects those changes: a free term, currency and adjustment chosen by the parties, and early exit by paying one tenth of the outstanding rent.
What is the minimum term of a contract with a student?
There is no minimum: the term is whatever the parties agree (Art. 1198). If they do not agree one, a temporary lease follows local usage and custom, a lease of a permanent home lasts two years and leases for other purposes, three. The student may leave at any time by paying one tenth of the rent outstanding until the end (Art. 1221).
Do I have to register the residents' database?
Yes. Law 25.326 requires every private database that is not for exclusively personal use to be registered in the register run by the supervisory authority (Arts. 21 and 24), with its purpose, the data it holds, who receives them, the security measures and the retention period. The supervisory authority is the Access to Public Information Agency.
Can I use a provider with servers in the European Union or the United States?
In the European Union, yes: Disposition 60/2016 lists it among adequate destinations. The United States is not on the list, so you need the resident's express consent or a contract with safeguards, such as the model clauses the AAIP approved in Disposition 60/2016 and Resolution 198/2023. A contract that departs from those models is submitted to the AAIP within thirty days.
Is a special licence needed to open a residence?
There is no national licence for student residences. The premises licence, land use and building conditions depend on each municipality. National rules apply because of having staff: Law 19.587 on Health and Safety at Work and its Decree 351/79, which regulates fire protection and the evacuation of people.
Other countries
- MexicoNo act of its own: a lease or a lodging agreement under each state's civil code, civil protection for the building and a federal data protection law that is new since March 2025.
- ColombiaNo act of its own: an urban residential lease or the contrato de pensión of Law 820, commercial lodging, and habeas data under Law 1581 and the SIC.
- ChileNo act of its own: a lease or a lodging agreement, the OGUC's "hogar estudiantil" and a data protection law that changes on 1 December 2026.
- PeruNo act of its own: a lease or a lodging agreement under the Civil Code, a municipal licence with a safety inspection, Law 29733 with a new regulation and an AI regulation in force since 2026.
- SpainThe starting point in Spain: which rule governs the legal figure, the contract, the building, the data and the AI of a student residence, with the guide for each.
- United KingdomFour systems in one country: in England, membership of an approved management code weighs on whether a student building is an HMO and on which contract is signed; data follows UK GDPR.
- IrelandA figure of its own: student specific accommodation, within tenancy law and under the RTB since 2019, whether signed as a lease or as a licence.
- PortugalRules of its own for the building since January 2022 (Decree-Law 14/2022 and Ordinance 35-A/2022); the contract is a Civil Code tenancy and data goes through the GDPR and Law 58/2019.