Buenos Aires more expensive than New York, London and Paris

Anonymous Anonymous said…

Hey Derrick, I’m a North American who’s been living in Buenos Aires for 5 years now, and I’ve stayed for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I won’t lie, the last year has been rough with insane inflation, but even now, I have a nice apartment to myself in Capital and get by on a fraction of $5000 USD/month (no offense Fernando, don’t mean to contradict you — also, I’m pretty frugal). My burn rate is about $1500/month, and I live quite comfortably. I’d say go for it. Good luck getting your residency though — they hate us yanquis in Migrations! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a mail at jeroextran (at) hotmail (dot) com. Best of luck! Chris

Oh don’t worry. If I was single, lived in a small place, sure. The thing is, Argentina is expensive, especially Buenos Aires.

If you find an affordable place to live, go frugal as you say then sure. But if you need a bigger place for a family, if you want maybe a house in a safe, upper class neighbourhood, rather than an apartment, you want to have a car, have good medical care and send your kids to a good school (which therefore needs to be private, 500 to 1000 USD each for a good one) then the price is very different.

Groceries, food, toiletries and electronics in Buenos Aires are significantly more expensive than New York, London and Paris.

Buenos Aires un 8% más caro que Nueva York, un 24% más que en París, un 63% más que en Londres y un 68% más que en Madrid.

I buy Argentine products in Spain, made in Argentina, such as yerba matte and cookies, that are sold cheaper in Spain than in Argentina where they are made. Makes no sense? Of course it doesn’t. Its not just the terrible inflation, but also the speculation. The same company that is happy enough selling abroad at 10 knows it can get away with charging 15 locally and they do so. Why? Simple. The European Union bargains a good price and gets it, while locally in Argentina no one protects the consumer and they get robbed, plain and simple. There’s no explanation, no logic for most products available to be cheaper in Spain than in Argentina which not only is the country in which its is made, it happens to be at the other end of the world.

Oh, and don’t worry about Migrations. Its not that they hate you, all public sector workers in Argentina hate life in general and are awful at their job. Its not personal.

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”