Explore, connect, thrive in
the expat community

Expat Life: Local Discoveries, Global Connections

Newcomer Life in Buenos Aires after 1 month of living here as an expat

Thank you! But on first glance most of these look like very plan and dumpy apartments. Dumpy I don't want. I went to visit many apartments like this and the biggest problem I have is most of them had mattresses hard as a rock!
I don't think anyone in Buenos Aires uses top-quality mattresses. Those are very expensive. That's why many still prefer hotels vs. apartments. I asked my friend whose family has Airbnb's how much they spend fitting out an apartment and she told me they only spend about $3,000 to $4,000 US on everything. A great mattress in BA can cost over $1,000 USD itself.
 
He won't sell it. I already asked him and he said not interested. It might be going for $160,000 or so now. I'm no real estate expert though so keep that in mind. I recently read about a new construction apartment that is 1 bedroom with a good view and I believe the asking price is around $155,000. Studios are going for around $100,000 in good areas. But you can get less if you're willing to wait a few years.

I don't think anyone doubts that prices are heading UP over the next few years.
@Bill is probably close with his estimate. Much depends on how many sq. meters it has and the location of the property. Prices are all over the map. right now. You will find some pre-existing stuff like Bill is in the owner is making great income and probably will raise the rents so he won't sell. Plus the value on them have fallen over the past 4.5 years. If he wanted to sell, he should have sold in 2018/2019 but prices will go back up to peak levels and will surpass peak. It will take several years.

HOA fees are very reasonable in Buenos Aires. So the carrying costs aren't high.

I'm buying 1 bedroom units in new towers for around $150,000 to $160,000 US dollars. And they are a decent size around 47 sq. meters (506 sq feet) including indoor and outdoor space.
Thank you! But on first glance most of these look like very plan and dumpy apartments. Dumpy I don't want. I went to visit many apartments like this and the biggest problem I have is most of them had mattresses hard as a rock!
Yes, that is the biggest issue between really high end properties and low end properties. You can find anything you want in Buenos Aires from really budget to high end. Many people don't want or need a high end luxury apartment. In fact, the segment for those apartments is lower than general public however, there are FAR fewer of these so the occupancy is very high.

I don't think anyone in Buenos Aires uses top-quality mattresses. Those are very expensive. That's why many still prefer hotels vs. apartments. I asked my friend whose family has Airbnb's how much they spend fitting out an apartment and she told me they only spend about $3,000 to $4,000 US on everything. A great mattress in BA can cost over $1,000 USD itself.
Yes, there are a few but it's very rare. I recently rented a 2 bedroom apartment that my friend manages. VERY nice on EVERYTHING except the mattresses. It was horrible. In fact, this month for my 2 month stay I rented a house I formally purchased for a client. When I first bought it, I purchased Simmons Beautyrest pillow top mattresses. But when they replaced them, they put hard and uncomfortable mattresses. It was horrible!

On all my owned properties in Buenos Aires, I put in the same mattresses as the Four Seasons Hotel. They were about $1,200 US dollars for each mattress. Almost NO owner will do that. I'm going to do the same in my new apartments that I just purchased.
 
@Spend Thrift I would love to hear more details on the apartment you are interested in. $1,700 US for rent is on the high side for rentals in Buenos Aires. Yeah yeah I know there are much more expensive apartments but the average middle-class Porteño doesn't have the money to spend this amount of money.
$1,700 a month seems like a lot but I saw a lot of expensive apartments when I was looking for places on my trip. I ended up staying at the Hotel Mio which was about $120 USD per night. It was nice but to rent that same room for a month I would have spend over $4,000 USD per month.
 
Thank you! But on first glance most of these look like very plan and dumpy apartments. Dumpy I don't want. I went to visit many apartments like this and the biggest problem I have is most of them had mattresses hard as a rock!
Wow I lived in Buenos Aires many years ago and it was expensive then it got cheap. Prices seem to yo yo over the years. $1,700 used to be able to get a big 375 meters apartment. It sounds like those days are gone.
 
settle for a Double bed and you will have more options. you're limiting yourself to 5% of listings from what i see.
No way Jose. This Flaming Hot Cheeto is too big for a double bed when you consider that Sr. Flaming Hot Cheeto #2 will be with me. No room for a double bed in that scenario. It has to be a big king bed.

i just booked something in Palermo Chico on Bulnes for 700 USD/month, so if you're okay with a normal apartment and not a luxury penthouse hotel room, the prices aren't crazy like 325/night
$700 a month is great value. How many sq feet is it? How is the bed? What size bed? I'm already old. I figure I'm too old to cheap out. I'm probably old enough to be your father. Consider I probably have been working longer than you are alive. My goal is to end up in the grave as close to $0 as possible. I will spend it on whisky, wine and novios.
 
settle for a Double bed and you will have more options. you're limiting yourself to 5% of listings from what i see.
I noticed the same thing. Almost no king bedrooms on the market. Or if it's 2 bedrooms only 1 will be a king bed.

i just booked something in Palermo Chico on Bulnes for 700 USD/month, so if you're okay with a normal apartment and not a luxury penthouse hotel room, the prices aren't crazy like 325/night
I didn't mention that one for the luxury. Just someone mentioned a 4,000 sq foot place so I wanted to post for comparison as I saw that listing is about that size. I didn't mean to imply someone should rent that. Just giving comparison on large property.

@StatusNomadicus where did you find you $700/month place? On a level of 1 to 10 what would you rank it on how nice it is? Furnished, etc?
 
No way Jose. This Flaming Hot Cheeto is too big for a double bed when you consider that Sr. Flaming Hot Cheeto #2 will be with me. No room for a double bed in that scenario. It has to be a big king bed.


$700 a month is great value. How many sq feet is it? How is the bed? What size bed? I'm already old. I figure I'm too old to cheap out. I'm probably old enough to be your father. Consider I probably have been working longer than you are alive. My goal is to end up in the grave as close to $0 as possible. I will spend it on whisky, wine and novios.
@Spend Thrift - you sound like me. No way I can sleep in a double bed. I'm in my late 50's and I am also a divorced gay male. I haven't slept on a double bed since my University days. I sent you a DM.
 
for anyone renting in BsAs: you're paying a premium for a King bed, so just factor that in; almost all the listings i see are for Double beds, which are smaller than a Queen in Argentina from how it's felt for me and my partner. yeah it's not as amazing as a Queen, King, or CA King for 2 people, but there's no way in hell i'm paying 1,300% in rent (325/night versus 24/night) for a little more bed space. just not how i live my life, but @Spend Thrift you're free to pay as much as you want for whatever you can afford :) i'm in my late 30s, so i doubt your my father's age (mid-60s), and i doubt you'd tout your work history as much, if we compared how many countries were on our CV/Resume...but it's irrelevant to the discussion here. for most Expats, spending over 10x for a slightly bigger bed is not going to be appealing, whether they're 18 or 118, but this is something the market can determine!

@MikeYoung you ever work for the State Dept? here's the airbnb link, so you can decide for yourself: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/871810920517293570

i like regular places in regular areas, so my taste might be different over 7 months in Argentina versus someone visiting for a week/end
 
for anyone renting in BsAs: you're paying a premium for a King bed, so just factor that in; almost all the listings i see are for Double beds, which are smaller than a Queen in Argentina from how it's felt for me and my partner. yeah it's not as amazing as a Queen, King, or CA King for 2 people, but there's no way in hell i'm paying 1,300% in rent (325/night versus 24/night) for a little more bed space. just not how i live my life, but @Spend Thrift you're free to pay as much as you want for whatever you can afford :) i'm in my late 30s, so i doubt your my father's age (mid-60s), and i doubt you'd tout your work history as much, if we compared how many countries were on our CV/Resume...but it's irrelevant to the discussion here. for most Expats, spending over 10x for a slightly bigger bed is not going to be appealing, whether they're 18 or 118, but this is something the market can determine!

@MikeYoung you ever work for the State Dept? here's the airbnb link, so you can decide for yourself: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/871810920517293570

i like regular places in regular areas, so my taste might be different over 7 months in Argentina versus someone visiting for a week/end
@StatusNomadicus Thank you son. Ha. Yes, as mentioned in my first post I am 68 years old. So yes I am even older than your pops.

I don't know what is normal for an expat and thank you son for sharing that link of your Airbnb but that bed looks tiny! No way it looks like it can even fit one Flaming Hot Cheeto let alone 2! :p

That bed and apartment look too tiny for me. I also see the neighborhood is not my cup of tea. No wonder it is so cheap. I do not like that area at all. The airbnb looks nice enough but I need something with more room and a King size bed is a must have. It's essential and not negotiable.
 
I don't think anyone in Buenos Aires uses top-quality mattresses. Those are very expensive. That's why many still prefer hotels vs. apartments. I asked my friend whose family has Airbnb's how much they spend fitting out an apartment and she told me they only spend about $3,000 to $4,000 US on everything. A great mattress in BA can cost over $1,000 USD itself.
^^^^^^^^^
This is true. I'm not sure why locals don't use a good mattress. I have stayed in several Airbnbs in BA where the apartment was great with everything EXCEPT a decent mattress. And the worst thing when I complain is the owners always say that everyone loves the mattress! Ha! They are just cheap. If they only realized I would stay with them many more times if they just spent money on a good mattress. I don't think locals care about repeat biz.
I noticed the same thing. Almost no king bedrooms on the market. Or if it's 2 bedrooms only 1 will be a king bed.


I didn't mention that one for the luxury. Just someone mentioned a 4,000 sq foot place so I wanted to post for comparison as I saw that listing is about that size. I didn't mean to imply someone should rent that. Just giving comparison on large property.

@StatusNomadicus where did you find you $700/month place? On a level of 1 to 10 what would you rank it on how nice it is? Furnished, etc?
I agree about the lack of King size beds. I don't understand why owners don't just put in a King size with so many couples traveling. Many Airbnbs that I have rented there is definitely space in the apartment for a King bed. It probably boils down to smaller mattresses and beds being less expensive.
@StatusNomadicus Thank you son. Ha. Yes, as mentioned in my first post I am 68 years old. So yes I am even older than your pops.

I don't know what is normal for an expat and thank you son for sharing that link of your Airbnb but that bed looks tiny! No way it looks like it can even fit one Flaming Hot Cheeto let alone 2! :p

That bed and apartment look too tiny for me. I also see the neighborhood is not my cup of tea. No wonder it is so cheap. I do not like that area at all. The airbnb looks nice enough but I need something with more room and a King size bed is a must have. It's essential and not negotiable.
Hard pass on Monserrat! That is the only neighborhood my friend got mugged in at night at knifepoint! No thanks.
 
I went on Craigslist but beware lots of them are fake! I went to go look at some and wasted an entire day. They all wanted a deposit and most of them cancelled on me when I showed up to go see it. Beware!

 
Those days are mostly gone on nice properties. Here is a large property and you can see it's over $325 US per NIGHT -

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/503460...share_id=8c274cfa-2c05-43d5-94c3-6e8532307b57
Rental prices are insanely expensive on luxury or higher end apartments. As noted, apartments with nice king size mattresses are demanding a big premium. They cost more than double mattresses but local owners don't think ahead of time to spend more on the bed and mattress. I have friends that live in Puerto Madero from wealthy families and they are paying $4,500 US dollars per month for apartments that only have 2 bedrooms.

Some expats that I know are paying $2,500 for a 2 bedroom in Recoleta. Rental prices are very high here and the occupancy rates are very high. It will probably get more expensive too.
 
Hard pass on Monserrat!
sure, like anywhere downtown, in any big city, gotta be safe and use common sense. i was there 2 weeks with no issues (well, one time a bum wanted to fight me near the obelisk, but it de-escalated). i got to walk 6 mins to Congress to see the inauguration...for super cheap. win/win in my book.

Rental prices are insanely expensive on luxury or higher end apartments. As noted, apartments with nice king size mattresses are demanding a big premium. They cost more than double mattresses but local owners don't think ahead of time to spend more on the bed and mattress. I have friends that live in Puerto Madero from wealthy families and they are paying $4,500 US dollars per month for apartments that only have 2 bedrooms.

Some expats that I know are paying $2,500 for a 2 bedroom in Recoleta. Rental prices are very high here and the occupancy rates are very high. It will probably get more expensive too.
and people who "need" these things, like SpendThrift, will pay for them, while i get a sweet apartment for under 800 bucks. works for me! luxury is a luxury, after all. i haven't met any Expats in real life who live like this, i suspect because they aren't really living in the real world or interacting with locals and assimilating into the culture at all. maybe not even learning the local language.
 
sure, like anywhere downtown, in any big city, gotta be safe and use common sense. i was there 2 weeks with no issues (well, one time a bum wanted to fight me near the obelisk, but it de-escalated). i got to walk 6 mins to Congress to see the inauguration...for super cheap. win/win in my book.


and people who "need" these things, like SpendThrift, will pay for them, while i get a sweet apartment for under 800 bucks. works for me! luxury is a luxury, after all. i haven't met any Expats in real life who live like this, i suspect because they aren't really living in the real world or interacting with locals and assimilating into the culture at all. maybe not even learning the local language.
I'm curious. Why did a bum want to fight you?
 
sure, like anywhere downtown, in any big city, gotta be safe and use common sense. i was there 2 weeks with no issues (well, one time a bum wanted to fight me near the obelisk, but it de-escalated). i got to walk 6 mins to Congress to see the inauguration...for super cheap. win/win in my book.


and people who "need" these things, like SpendThrift, will pay for them, while i get a sweet apartment for under 800 bucks. works for me! luxury is a luxury, after all. i haven't met any Expats in real life who live like this, i suspect because they aren't really living in the real world or interacting with locals and assimilating into the culture at all. maybe not even learning the local language.
That is the good thing about Buenos Aires. Something for everyone here. Some are on a budget and some just don't want to live a lower quality of life vs. where they came from. I'm old. I don't know how long I have. I need to stay in a really nice place. Show me an apartment that has the space and King beds in the area I want and I don't see any for only $800 a month. My guess is those are smaller, aren't too big and probably not furnished too well.

Everyone is in a different stage in life.
 
I noticed there are big prices differences on places. Not too many King beds compared to Queen or smaller beds. Not sure why that is. @Spend Thrift are you happy with the place you got on the long-term lease? Any regrets?

I found some places on Airbnb I like but they have booking between and the owner said I would need to move for those dates. Don't want to do that.
 
Back
Top