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04/04/2005 Entry: "Cost of housing in Mexico City"
What is the cost of housing in Mexico City? To answer this question, let’s use a top-down approach. Firstly, it is worth considering that the Mexican capital was ranked 87th in the latest Mercer Worldwide Quality of Life Survey, slightly worse than Athens (83rd) and a little better than Atlanta (90th). Hence Mexico City is not a catastrophically bad option for expatriate living, with a quality of life higher than any South American city.
Naturally, such positive facts come at the expense of a higher cost of living. In 2004, the Mercer Cost of Living Survey found Mexico City to be the second most expensive place to live in Latin America (just behind San Juan, Puerto Rico), ranking 84 in the world.
Expatriates in Mexico City tend to live in areas (called “Colonias”) such as trendy Polanco, Condesa or Roma, while executives often migrate up the hills on the West of the city to Lomas de Chapultepec, Bosques de las Lomas or Santa Fe. A few adventurous foreigners wanting to get an authentic taste of the Mexican way of life settle in poetically named areas like Cuajimalpa, Narvarte, Tabacalera, etc.
To find your dream apartment or house you can rely on friends’ advice, newspapers or Web sites. I personally favour the latter option since many newspapers post their ads for free online. Be aware that the real-estate ads are generally published only once a week, so don’t miss that issue and act promptly: the best homes will disappear faster than a car parked in the Colonia Doctores. You can consult the following Web sites (all in Spanish) in your search:
You will find hundreds of housings options in these sites, with rental prices ranging from Pesos $2500 for a cockroach training center near Taxquena to well over Pesos $30000 for a drug lord villa in Bosques de las Lomas. In my experience, if you want to live in a 2-3 bedroom unfurnished apartment or house located in a good area, you should expect to pay around Pesos $14000 to Pesos $22000 per month (plus utility bills and maintenance).
Finding your nest in the capital is only the first hurdle in a long and painful process that involves visits, negotiations and contractual hassles. Renting a home in Mexico is not for the faint-hearted: you will quickly become familiar with strange terms like “fianza”, “fiador”, etc. Be sure to prepare yourself by reading one of the articles featured, for example, on the Metros Cubicos Web site.
On the bright side, your monthly rent is likely to be the highest recurrent expense you have to consider while living in Mexico City. Most other costs are very reasonable compared to Western Europe, except if you are a Parmiggiano Reggiano addict like I am!
Replies: 1 Comment
You forgot to mention how painful it is to get the realtors to arrive on-time (read no more than 30 minute wait), when you are scheduling your house visits. I remember myself waiting for people who would happily arrive 45 to 60 minutes late, with a funny smile in their faces...
Tic, toc, apparently the clock runs backwards to some people in Mexico DF.
Posted by Juliana @ 04/04/2005 08:16 AM MEX
