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Uruguay: Moving to Montevideo, Uruguay:
Hi, I sent the following to someone here before..you may also want to read it.You wanted an honest opinion, well that is what I did. I just came across these expat chat rooms and as a Uruguayan, I find it sad that people would want to retire here without really knowing what the place is really all about. Really you seem to be really interested to know the truth, most expat do not care until is too late, so for that reason I addressed it to you. People talk easy, but reality on the ground is very different.
You are going to find tons of investment bait no matter where you go, but Uruguay is very special. Real estate agents, lawyers and notaries have made a killing in Uruguay for the last 5 years. They promote all these schemes but the truth is that in the last 5 years prices have gone through the roof for Uruguayans thanks to foreigners buying property. A little "shanty" that may have cost 8000 dollars 5 years ago, has gone up to 10 times. As a matter of fact Uruguay can be far more expensive than Boca Raton, Naples or Miami. A coffee is cheaper a Starbucks than in a cafe in Montevideo. We used to be able to go out and eat extremely well for $20 dollars a head...well that is a thing of the past. We have restaurants that will set you back 240 dollars for lunch for two. A good bottle of wine may be 50 dollars and over.
I can tell you for sure that no matter how much Spanish you know, it will be almost imposible to understand the "nuances" of our spanish. Uruguayans are cinics by nature and we pride ourselves of "la viveza criolla", you have to have a lot of understanding of the culture to navigate that! People will make fun of you constantly and you would think that they are just being nice! Uruguay is very pretty but can be extremely dul as well. Depending where you live you can have a house in front of the ocean from 250,000 and up to 10 million dollars or more. People will tell you about this 28000 dollar cottages, but reality is that your dog would not live there. 5 years ago you might have been able to find a small house within walking distance of a beach for 35000 dollars, but that is not longer the case. A decent house anywhere in Uruguay will cost you 100,000 and up, and they will not be what you are used to.
Once you find the house of your dreams, or so you think, you will prepare yourself to make an offer...only to find out that the owner just raised the price! Owners can have several agents marketing the house and they will advertise it with different prices. Once an owner gets the offer and the realtor tell them you are not from Uruguay the price went up another 10%. This is a game they play, it is part of the culture. They will tell you they have other people interested in it and you need to put 10% down as a deposit. What they do not tell you that if there is something wrong with the papers, and most of the time there is, you will not get your deposit right away...in some cases you need to get a lawyer,or go through years of court.
I will not believe any expat that tells you they pay less that what the property was advertised for, that does not exist in Uruguay. You may need to remodel the home most probably because even in ritzy properties you will see the defects in construction right away. Unless you are paying 1300 dollars a square foot you will need to do repairs. A lot of owners do not have permits for the houses so they are selling them "cheap" say 80000 dollars or so, but when the escribano is gathering the papers he may tell you that what you are buying is the land only because the building does not have permits.
It takes about a year to have a house regularized and tons of money! If you buy it and then you need to sell it you may not be able, because the laws are changing. If you have to remodel or permit the home you will have to deal with the permit department and the architect, who will be ripping you off like you were made out of gold. Although workers earn very little (less than 10 dollars a day), architects who are usually in charge of the whole project, will charge you as much per sq meter as if you were remodeling in Nice. My sister in law just remodeled the kitchen of her home and one of the bedrooms and spent 40,000 dollars...she lives in a small townhouse. The ones that are cheap will take your money and fly.
Then you have the security issues. You may wonder why the women hold the purse on their chest when they are waiting for the bus or why they tell you it is not good to leave your house unattended. 20 years ago we used to pride ourselves or living in peace and quiet but that has changed a lot thanks to misery and widespread drug about. You will need bars in each and every window, because we have "copamientos" everywhere. A group enters your house, jumps over the metal fences, go pass your German sheperds and get into your house in the middle of the day while you are having lunch in the patio...you will never know they were there! People in Uruguay live behind bars! and electric fences and automatic gate openers and have several barking dogs to go with it.
People have lost their lives during copamientos, and you are a prime target. If you live in a house in the coast,like many foreigners do, you may see people going around in bicycles with cell phones on their hands exchanging information on what is going on in the neighborhood. Please do not think that you may not be a target of that, maybe some expats have not gotten it yet, but it is a matter of time. There are two class of expats in Uruguay, those with megatons of resources who do not live there full time and have a large staff to take care of the property, and those with just enough to get them by; if you are on the second group I strongly suggest that you look elsewhere to retire because in the long term is going to be hard.
A lot of expats go there for cheap medical care, but once you hit 55 your premiums go through the roof. There are some very good doctors, but do not expect what you have in Europe or USA. Bureaucracy is king in Uruguay and when you have a problem with them is when you really find out what the people are made of. We have had the left in the government for many years now , this year we have President who used to be a comunist guerrilla fighter and he is not a man that is careful with his words. He absolutely loads Americans and Europeans and he has already said that his government will put a stop at all the foreigners buying the land that belong to Uruguayans. We all agree to tell you the truth; the free market has only brought more misery to the people of Uruguay. A gardener may cost you 2 dollars an hour and so you house cleaner, and while you may brag with your other expat friends about it, the truth is those people are working really hard and cannot
afford to rent, let alone buy a home.
Additionally, Uruguay has huge environmental problems. If you are going to live near the River Uruguay: Colonia, Paysandu, Salto you are not only dealing with severe floods but also we all the environmental problems from the pulp processing plants. Uruguayans do not have a clue what dioxin is, and to make a joke about it they tell you they are not afraid to drink it with their mate!. Look, I wrote a lot and I can go on for longer, but just like realtor in Bulgaria told me recently when I was looking to buy a home there: nothing is what is seems here!. Good luck.
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Uruguay: relocation freelancer:
Hi, what kind of work do you have?
Uruguay: Cost of living?:
Hi, yes you can make it for under 1300 dollars, but life will be rather different that what you are used to. Having spanish language skills is really essential if yo do not want to be taken for a ride. When you look at houses do not expect that owners will take a lower offer, as a matter of fact all of a sudden you will find out the price just went up!. The costs of living could be as much or more than in the US..a cup of coffee is cheaper at Starbucks in the US than in Uruguay. Health care if you are under 55 will cost you around 100 dollars a month with funeral expenses covered. Construction is shoddy unless you buy a very expensive property and then you never know. People are very friendly and laid back but rarely mean what they say, so be weary
Uruguay: Uruguay:
Hi, getting residence in Uruguay is not very difficult. You would be required to provide a health examination, proof of regular funds going into your account (500 us), police report from your country of origin. The whole procedure can be done very easily and there are countless professionals dedicated to help foreigners settle in Uruguay. As far as work is concerned there are two issues you need to consider: language skills and salary expectations. Generally speaking people make very little money here, unless you can establish yourself as a company working for the new ritzy developments along the beach communities. In Punta del Este a good electrician can earn pretty well but never as much as in the USA. Of course if you are the owner of the company you can make a killing. Paraguay is a different ball game all together. Infrastructure is deficient, everything goes pretty slow, a lot of bureaucracy that will bring tears to your eyes. It is pretty good for those who want to buy land and start farm or cattle operations. Hope this helped
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