STORY: For 61-year-old Sandra Kattan of Argentina, high inflation and a healthy distrust of banks made buying a home complicated.
With her hand-drawn blueprints and scribbled calculations, she and her husband purchased land in Buenos Aires.
They paid 30,000 dollars in cash, and raised more money by selling their car and truck.
Then she used a credit card to pay for materials to start building and paid workers with her teaching salary.
KATTAN: "We don't use mortgages. We decided to build this way because we were a little afraid of bank loans. Back then, mortgages were too expensive for us, and they were inaccessible. We were afraid of inflation generated by their quotas, so we preferred to do it this way."
Kattan's fear of bank lenders is not unique.
Economic uncertainty in Argentina has borrowers - and lenders - both fearing the risk of long-term credit... especially considering Argentina's track record with sovereign debt defaults and the mass protests they sparked.
Pro-free-market President Javier Milei is trying to turn the page and revive the local mortgage market.
But buyers and real estate agents say that won't be easy.
OWNER OF BUENOS AIRES BROKER "SUCCESO PROPIEDADES," JUAN VERZERO:
"People buying properties in Argentina come with cash, in a backpack or a bag."
Juan Verzeros is a real estate broker in Buenos Aires.
VERZERO: "Now and in recent years everything we sell is done without a mortgage. Besides these new credits in the markets, I still don't see large numbers of sales with mortgages. Those new credits create a small change, but at least in my experience they are not turning out in large numbers of sale closures. How are properties sold today? People in Argentina have their savings in dollars. Many people have dollar savings in their pockets."
Just a fraction of Buenos Aires residents are actually buying property.
Right now, the mortgage market is tiny, less than 1% of the country's GDP.
And even with new, more enticing mortgage options, bankers say most potential buyers in Argentina - where inflation is among the highest in the world - are still afraid to take on the financial risk.
