$250 U.S. rent...not likely

If you've read the article that ran in the Washington Post back on April 23rd, Expatriate Games Travelers are Heading to Buenos Aires for the Culture -- and Staying for the $250 Rent, they you are probably already packing your bags (or at least thinking about it) and getting ready to head to Buenos Aires. If you are just seeing this headline for the first time, then read it but then return here for a taste of needed reality.

$250 US rents in B.A.? Sure that's possible if you're living here and have a garantia from a local and aren't looking to live in an upscale area. But the reality for most of us expats here is that rents aren't going to be costing 750 pesos a month, and if they are you might want to think twice about where they're located. Rents were already on the upswing this past year, and with all of the property owners putting their apartments into tourist rentals, the number of places that are really inexpensive is dropping almost as fast as the number of long-term rentals on the market.

The government even toyed with the idea of stepping in to stem the fast rising prices, but as of now they have decided to take a hands off approach. The issue of rents has been all over the TV and in the papers. Clarin ran an article on August 2nd and INFOBAE.com just ran an article as well.

While it is possible to rent something that is affordable for long-term, you will still need to jump through the hoops of getting a garantia or do a pre-paid rent of a three or four months to as much as a year, or be forced to pay tourist rental prices. It's not an easy task.

The bottom line is if you're coming here, be prepared to pay more than what you might have heard. I got an email from someone last week asking if it was possible to live on 700 U.S. per month. While many things here are less expensive, like private health care insurance among other things, by the time you add up rent, food, monthly expenses and such, 700 U.S. is not going to be very easy to live on.

This post is not to tell you don't come here as it is a great place; and at the current peso to dollar exchange is VERY affordable IF you are living on dollars and NOT pesos. But, if you do decide to move here, be ready for some difficulties in finding long term housing in general and be prepared to make a large rent and living budget.

 

Comments

[Alan Patrick]

I don't want to be difficult or disagree with what you say just for the sake of it, but I pay 600 pesos a month for my nice studio apartment in barrio norte - I am an extranjero with no garantia, I just came to an agreement with the owner to pay 6 months rent up front.

Also, I quite easily live on 700USD a month here including rent, bills, food, going out etc.

Just wanted to point out that these two things are possible, even if they are not common in today's BA.

[raven]

hey I used to live in chile and visited argentina many times, im completely fluent in spanish bieng of hispanic descent and have us citizenship. im 21 and my best friend is 22 and between us we have close to 80 grand in the bank, we want to move to argentina rent an apartment in palermo and open up a small clothing boutique/ artist gallery.
i just recently went there and looked around for some apartments but have had a difficult time getting real answeres about opening a business, what can we do?

[Meg]

Laura.

have you stopped blogging?

hope everything is okay.

Meg

[bradley]

I'm looking for some help…

We're starting a podcast for/by people who have immigrated to another country. We'd like to bring stories/articles by contributors FROM every continent, TO every continent. (i.e., a Mexican living in Canada, or a Scot living in France, a Dane living in Japan, an Ecuadorian living in Brazil, an Australian living in Africa, etcetera, etcetera.)

The "immigrant" category is rather large, examples include: expatriates, academics, aid workers, refugees, foreign businesspeople, spouses of "foreigners" etc.

I've written to quite a few organizations searching for good contributors; journalism schools, international corporations, non-profit aid organizations, etc. I've had a lot of interest, but not a lot of actual work submitted.

I was hoping to find help here in the blogosphere, as you all are prolific writers!

Please help! I need people to contribute articles (2-3 pages), 3 times per year. You may of course choose the topic, it may be light or heavy. Please see the guidelines set out in our website in the "contribute here" section.

Bradley

http://www.freewebs.com/rabbitholedaily/

P.S. Podcasts will be available starting mid-to-late September, please check us out on itunes; Rabbit Hole Daily. (Go to the website for an explanation of the funny name)

[back2ba]

Is it safe to say if someone earns $12,000 a month in the U.S. that they would want to earn $12,000 pesos in Argentina to maintain their standard of living?