I saw a few posts lately about real estate in different cities around the world, and wanted to add my own Guatemalan experience. For more posts, you can check:
CANADA
- Save. Spend. Splurge.: Montreal
- Urban Departures: Toronto
- Financial Diffraction: Halifax
- Money after Graduation: Calgary
U.S.A.
- Frugal Portland: Portland
- Broke and Beautiful: New York
- Shop my Closet: Denver
- Don’t Quit your Day Job: Silicon Valley / South Bay Area
- Red Debted Stepchild: Bergen County, NJ
- Eyes on the Dollar: Cortez, CO
New Zealand
- Esther from NZ Muse
Guatemala, as I have mentioned before, is a strange market. The country is small and the places you would want to live as an expat are few. Sure, there are foreign people living in a hut with a thatch roof and dirt on the floor, like a Spanish girl in my village, who bought a one bed hut for $5,000, and lives on $300 a month. But most expats are here to enjoy a better life than they would at home on a similar budget. That last sentence pretty much describes what you find in Guatemalan properties: similar, or even higher prices than in Low Cost Of Living areas of the U.S. or Europe, but for sturdier constructions (everything post big earthquake of 1976 is quake-proof) and more amenities. A 2,000 sqft house is considered small, and most houses come with private bath and walk-in closets, maid quarters, laundry room, a study, family room, etc.
What does $250,000 buy in Guatemala?
As a matter of fact, in the good neighborhoods of Guatemala City or expat darling UNESCO World Heritage town of Antigua, not much. You can get a small 2 bed apartment, about 1,500 sqft (that is small by Guatemalan standards as it includes parking square footage and maids quarters). Like this one for example. Nothing fancy, 1,600 sqft and two parking spots in a nice and safe area.
You can also get my house. We just put it on the market with plans to build another house on the other beach we bought in front of the 90 acres land development. It has three units
two of them brand new with their own room and private bathroom
and another thatch unit with two more smaller bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen.
and of course, 30 meters of private beach on the shores of lake Petén Itzá
ok, enough with the shameless self promotion, let’s move on to the next price range, shall we?
What does $500,000 buy in Guatemala?
Half a million in Guatemala City buys you a decent house in a gated community, with 3-4 bedrooms, or a state of the art penthouse in a fancy building with gym, swimming pool, social area to host your parties, and stunning views over the city.
This apartment is priced at $480,000 for 2,300 sqft, there is a swimming pool on the roof, a gym, and gardens for the building. Expect to pay around $400 a month in maintenance fees though.
$475,000 will get you a colonial looking home in Antigua Guatemala, but not the real thing though. Real colonial homes sell in the multi million dollar range.
Another expat favorite is lake Atitlán, where $495,000 gets you your own private cove and a 3 bed house built in 2011.
The views are gorgeous but you can only get there by boat.
What does $750,000 buy in Guatemala?
For $750,000 you can live in a 7,000 sqft house in one of Guatemala City’s most exclusive gated community, La Cañada, near all embassies and fancy stores. You will be paying more for the location than the house itself.
Same thing in Antigua, you can now afford to live in the very center of this lovely colonial town, but still in a bijou house.
This one has 3 bedrooms and about 2,000 sqft, while it is not big is it well located and you can walk everywhere.
What does $1,000,000 buy in Guatemala?
$1m buys you a nice modern house with 4 bedrooms, around 6,000 sqft (again, including the 6 garage spaces) and breath-taking views of the city. Here is the listing
Or a decadent 10,000 sqft beach house with a water slide on the Pacific coast.
Or a colonial style house near Antigua in a gated community
Note that if you have that kind of money, you may prefer building your own place, and so will potential buyers who have $1m cash. The place may be hard to sell. I have seen $1m+ properties rent for $2,000 and less, so don’t expect a big rental yield, although that could be your opportunity to test the house as a renter for much less than the price of a mortgage.
I had a whole section about the particulars of Guatemalan real estate, but this post being already long enough as it is, I will keep that for another post next week, so stay put!
I think everyone assumes that you can get cheaper real estate in Central and South America, but this is a great look at what it’s really like- at least in Guatemala.
You can get dirt cheap places, like the $5,000 hut, but that means dirt floors and no plumbing. Shower and WC outside.
Then there is a middle ground of $30-50,000 houses of debatable taste, that will also not have the features western customers would expect. Like some will have virtually no windows or the window will face a wall instead of the beach (like a lake house near my house). You have to reach 6 figures to get something nice, at least for my taste, or build yourself.
You’re going to sell and build again? I think you secretly love having workers around all the time!!
This was very interesting. The small nuances of real estate, like including the square footage of parking spaces and including or not including basements, are always interesting to me.
The idea is to build before selling, or to sell with a 12 months occupation clause, so I can have a roof while they build on the other plot. That means aside from twice a day supervision, I wouldn’t see or hear the workers 🙂
How long have you lived in Guatemala? Why Guatemala over other S America or beach locations.
I’ve alway expected Guatemala to still be relatively inexpensive but it sound lik this is not the case.
In search of retirement location and had always thought Guatemala to be the place
I think it would also be interesting to see what you could rent given the residual income of each amount of money, such as a long-term rental on AirBnB, HomeAway, or VRBO. I know that we do not plan on purchasing where we go, since we only plan on staying under the tourist visa limits (usually 3 to 6 months). So, assume a 4% safe return rate, that would mean $833.33/month for $250k. I bet you could still find some pretty sweet places in Guatemala for that monthly rent.
You certainly can. I rented my place for $800 when I went to the U.S. earlier this year. You can find nice 1-2 bed furnished apartments in most tourist spots in that price range. Even better, some include utilities and wifi. The main real estate gain in Guatemala those days seems to be appreciation. Prices have almost doubled since I first was there 10 years ago. So rental yields may be low today, but you can break even and then a little, before you cash out for a profit. Being a cash market has made it pretty immune to the crisis. Still, with plans of relocating for less than 5+ years I would favor renting and investing the cash elsewhere.
I’m honestly surprised at how expensive the real estate is there. I got more and more excited as the dollar values increased, though, and the million dollar home didn’t disappoint! It’s weird to think that there are athletes, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and others who make well over a million a year and could easily afford that home as a vacation spot.
In good old Minneapolis-St. Paul it totally depends on location. The more “urban” neighborhood I lived in for a year in college is dirt cheap. Downtown living is expensive in both Minneapolis and St. Paul (but worse in MPLS). First-ring suburbs like the one we live in your money doesn’t go as far and if you’re a first-time homeowner you better be ready to put some sweat equity into your home to improve it’s value and just to be nicer. If you live in one of the far-flung suburbs your money can go a long way. An uncle and aunt-in-law of mine live in a suburb that is really far if you work anywhere in the vicinity of downtown or even a first-ring suburb. They have a (newer) large house with a pool. It wasn’t a whole lot more than our outdated rambler built 40 years ago. Again, it comes down to location.
At these prices, I assume I’d be better off buying a nice piece of land somewhere and building new. Good luck with the new building project! So curious what kind of place you’ll build this time.
That expansive glass on the $1,000,000…
So, for $250,000 you can actually get three houses? I don’t mind the shameless self promotion – as an added bonus, they have tons of build logs to check back on the construction of your units, haha.
Wow what a totally wide range of housing styles. That water slide is hilarious. Of the various listings, I like the quieter places right by the water. Wow how peaceful that looks and so lush. Now I want to go on vacation!
Hey, this is a great idea. We should do Cambridge, MA!
The $250k range seems like the sweet spot. Having spent time in Guatemala City, I don’t think I’d be excited to live there. But on a beach, with a view of the mountains… I could get used to that!
Thanks for the fun overview!
Like many others, I’m surprised at the prices in Guatemala too. I know that there are seriously dirt-cheap properties available (with no services) but I expected average property prices to be lower than where I am in Spain, for example.
Good luck with your new project: you’ll be keeping us posted, won’t you?
Sure! Well reasons why those prices are expensive are the lack of “decent” neighborhoods where you actually would want to live in, and the fact that you have to import good materials and finishes like door knobs, electric sockets, AC units… Also you have to build with extra iron in case there is an earthquake. The $1m properties are in gated communities where your neighbors are big company CEOs and politicians, like Beverly Hills, so it is actually about 1/4th or less of a comparable property in the U.S. Just that in the U.S. or Europe you would be fine living pretty much anywhere.
I will take the 1 million house 😉 Not but seriously Pauline keep writing article about real estate I love them. I’m looking for investing in real estate at this time. I was thinking about France but I’m now considering Guatemala.
I think anywhere the climate is nice and Westerners want to move is getting expensive. Although, if you bought a similar place in California, it would make Guatemala seem like a bargain.
I really enjoy your article. Thank you so much.
Wao, The picture is so beautiful, I like the scenery so much
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