By Gram Slattery and Juliana Castilla
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine real estate and banking tycoon Eduardo Costantini is bullish about the country's high-end real estate market and plans big investments for the remainder of 2016.
Costantini, president of asset management and real estate firm Consultatio (BA:CON), has made a name for himself in recent decades with luxurious residential mega-projects, such as the massive Nordelta community north of Buenos Aires.
In an interview on Tuesday as part of a Reuters Summit event on Argentina, he said a high-end real estate recovery that began with an increase in sales last year has shown signs of accelerating.
"In our case, there was a strong bump in sales in 2015, and we're selling more this year," Costantini said in the offices of MALBA, a modern art museum he founded in downtown Buenos Aires.
"In Puertos as well as Nordelta, we have launched new neighborhoods and up to today, the total value of sales is practically what was forecasted for the entire year," he said in reference to a pair of Consultatio's key developments.
Beyond the high-end market, construction in Argentina has so far been largely moribund in 2016, as free-market reforms by center-right President Mauricio Macri have yet to bring a promised economic turnaround.
However, there have been tepid signs of recovery lately.
The square footage covered by construction permits in Argentina rose 11.8 percent and 6.8 percent year over year in May and June respectively, according to the government, and architects are reporting additional demand.
Costantini said Consultatio had an "excess of liquidity" and was looking at a potential project on a piece of land now occupied by an iconic polo field in the central Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo.
"The first thing that's going onto the market are the lands in Palermo, which are more than 100,000 square meters, and Consultatio is going to be part of that process," he said. "We clearly intend to participate and invest."
Costantini added that a recent tax amnesty program aimed at bringing undeclared funds home will be successful.
Known as the "blanqueo," the law allows Argentines to declare funds at preferable tax rates by investing them in government bonds or certain types of mutual funds, among other options.
Real estate has long been a preferred area for domestic investment by wealthy Argentines, analysts say, and Costantini said it is "very probable" Consultatio will put together a real estate-based mutual fund to accommodate blanqueo clients.
"We're receiving rather intense queries as to whether we will create a fund," he said. "The blanqeuo will be a success, I believe."