Are you researching a country’s cost of living? Looking for a place to live? Use these tips to get local prices, not inflated ones for foreigners.
Prices are from mid-2024.
Don’t believe English-language sites
Sites published in English are aimed at foreigners who don’t know the local prices. The site might be from a real estate company that deals with expats and knows how profitable they can be. Or, it could claim to be an English-language clearinghouse of many listings, but they actually show only the pricey ones.
Use sites aimed at locals
Even if you plan to use an English-speaking realtor, first use a local real estate site to learn the local prices.
How to find local sites:
- Figure out how to get your browser to translate a page if you don’t know already. I use the Simple Translate plugin on Firefox but there are many.
- Find out how to say “apartment for rent” or “house for sale” or whatever in the local language.
- Search the internet using that phrase and the location.
- Choose what appears to be the site with the most listings. Give it bonus points if it has no English, not even a translation button.
That site will show you what the local asking prices are. It will also include more listings than a curated English site.
For extra fun, compare what you see on the local site to the listings on an English site.
Example: Mérida, Yucatán
In 2011, I paid about USD $420 to rent an unfurnished three-bedroom house in a slightly posh neighborhood. I found it through local friends, and my landlady was Yucatecan. Rents charged by gringos or English-speaking agencies were higher.
Since then, prices have increased, but not as much as the expat-oriented sites would have you believe.
English site: “Expect to pay at least $1,000”
In June 2024, most rentals on a big English-language site for Mérida charged more than $1,000 USD per month. There were only two rentals for $550 USD (10,000 MXN).
Mexican site: “Cut that in half”
In contrast, a big Mexican site, Vivanuncios, listed 16 Mérida houses and apartments for rent for $550 / 10,000 MXN. There were also several below and many slightly above that price.
Most were compact, modern houses in new developments, where you’d need a car, but you’d also have new parks and wide streets.
The difference is even more stark when we look at sale prices. What’s available for less than $100,000 USD (1.8 million MXN)?
- English site: Only two beat-up houses
- Local site: 18 pages of homes – about 360 listings that the English site ignored.
The cheapest homes could be in troubled areas. However, others are in peaceful zones. They’re just not in the absolute center or the posh areas around the malls.
There’s not enough profit in foreigners who are happy to live modestly, so the English sites will pretend those areas don’t exist.
Don’t compare the prices to “home”
Maybe $1400 in rent for a two-bedroom house sounds like a bargain, because where you live now it would cost twice that. But rents in your home country reflect a higher local income.
For example, the average salary in Mérida in 2024 is reportedly 78,946 MXN or $4287 per year. That’s $357/month for everything, not just rent.
Even if we double the average income to account for informal earnings, the rents listed on the English sites are far beyond the reach of local people. The agents and landlords are taking advantage of the fact that foreigners have no clue what local housing should cost. And if foreigners let themselves be tricked, the prices go up for everyone.
Do compare prices across countries
Before you believe that Country A is amazingly affordable, compare it with Country B.
For example, housing in Mérida is cheaper than many places in the US. But European locations can be cheaper than Mérida.
Example: Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Remember how we found 16 rentals in Merida for $550 USD? There are more than 150 listings in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, for $550 or less. We’d get similar results for any other city in Bulgaria, even Sofia.
These listings range from studios to two-bedroom apartments. Some are modern; some are old school. They’re all in the central neighborhoods of a walkable European city with potable water, trains, and easy access to the rest of Europe.
Plovdiv is one-third the size of Mérida but appears to have more options for affordable housing. It also has a milder climate and no drug wars. You haven’t heard of it because it’s not trendy.
Example: Spain
I didn’t bond with Spain, but if you’re happy to live in a small Spanish city, you could find real estate at the prices we’ve been considering.
For example, Zamora has a charming old town and river, plus a fast train that takes you to Madrid in a little over an hour. Idealista lists several apartments there for less than $100,000 USD.
If you prefer the beach, Gandia and its little sister, Grau de Gandia, are on the Mediterranean, about an hour by train south of Valencia. Idealista has several apartments for sale there at less than $100,000.
Beware of fake listings
Wow, look at those photos! What a beautiful apartment, and at a bargain price!
It’s probably fake.
When you contact the agent, they’ll say that apartment was just taken, but they have this other one that you’re sure to like… and it’s an overpriced dump.
The property shown in the ad might not even be in your target country. Some agents pull a random photo off the internet and claim to have the place for sale or rent, just to get you to call them.
If these scams are common in your new country, ask established immigrants to recommend a real estate agent to represent you. That agent will know which listings are fake and save you a lot of time.
Be careful with expat landlords
The woman you met at the expat bar has a sweet house for rent! And it’s so easy – she speaks English, and you’re sure that if there’s an issue with the house, she’ll be right on it.
She might be an upstanding person and landlord. However, there’s a good chance that some or all of the following is happening:
- She’s charging you far more than she could charge local people.
- She’ll be out of the country most of the time and expect you to call a flakey friend for repairs, and that friend will show up drunk, if he shows up at all (it happened to me).
- She’s not reporting the income and requires you to jump through weird hoops to pay – that’s why there’s also no lease.
- She might suddenly decide she needs the house and kick you out.
Quietly ask around to learn more about your possible landlord, and compare her rent to local rents before you accept this “deal.”
Photo at the top: Kalofer, Bulgaria