Win-a-Loan Lottery

Like most Latins, Argentines love a lottery. Latest to capitalize on this weakness are Argentina's 100-odd savings and loan societies, each of which now holds a monthly drawing that generates almost as much excitement as the national lottery. The prize: the right to borrow money to buy a house.

For Argentines this is a prize indeed. Housing in Argentina is so short that unpretentious apartments rent for $300 a month, after "key money" of at least $1,000. And between galloping inflation and the fact that moneyed Argentines prefer to invest overseas in safer climes, mortgage credit is scarce and costly. Loan sharks charge up to 45% interest, and most banks have a five-year waiting list of would-be borrowers of mortgage money.

To ease the mortgage market, savings and loan societies have grown up in the past two years. Unlike those in the U.S., the Argentine S & Ls accept deposits only from prospective borrowers. Each depositor makes monthly payments of from $15 to $60 toward a future mortgage loan of up to $18,000, then waits an average of three years to get it, at 12% to 14% interest (current mortgage rates in the U.S.: about 6%). Since the wait is pretty discouraging, the societies have tried to help a few, and stir up the curiosity of all, by means of a lottery.

Every month the S & Ls set aside 20% of their lendable funds for lottery loans. Each subscriber gets a number, which is jotted on a ball that is dropped into a spinning cage. At the tense monthly draws, about 150 lucky depositors win the right to jump the queues and borrow immediately for the houses of their dreams. So popular are the lotteries that of the 200,000 middle-income Argentine families still looking for homes, 40,000 have signed up with the savings and loan societies.

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