Country Life In Argentina: What's It Really Like?

I didn't know BB was far enpugh North to grow and harvest citrus??????

In the nearby towns and cities there is a plethora of orange, grapefruit, lemon and tangerine trees, especially in back yards which are sheltered from the wind. My location has proven to be a bit more challenging as it's a bit colder and windy here. Nonetheless, the citrus trees had lots of blossoms this spring, but have yet to yield a significant harvest. As previously noted, the plum tree is doing well at the start of it's fifth year in the ground. I took several photos about an hour ago. I'll add one of them to this thread soon. I'm seriously considering planting more plum trees, but I don't plan to increase the number of any of the other varieties.
 
I didn't know BB was far enpugh North to grow and harvest citrus??????

In the nearby towns and cities there is a plethora of orange, grapefruit, lemon and tangerine trees, especially in back yards which are sheltered from the wind. My location has proven to be a bit more challenging as it's a bit colder and windy here. Nonetheless, the citrus trees had lots of blossoms this spring, but have yet to yield a significant harvest. As previously noted, the plum tree is doing well at the start of it's fifth year in the ground. I took several photos about an hour ago. I'll add one of them to this thread soon. I'm seriously considering planting more plum trees, but I don't plan to increase the number of any of the other varieties.
 
On Saturday one of my neighbors came to my house and told me that he wanted to sell his property (which I can walk to faster than I can get in my car and drive to).

He has two (adjacent) hectares (20,000 m2) for sale (about five acres total) and there are separate deeds for each hectare. There is a "decent" house with a quincho on one lot and there is a not so nice (and very small) house on the second lot. Except for the area around the "decent" house, the land is covered with brush but it is completely surrounded by tamarisco trees, creating total privacy. There is also an above ground cement pool (4m x 8m) behind the house and a garage/galpon next to the pool.

The house is inhabitable "as is" and would be OK to live in during construction of a new home (if desired).

There are also several buildings/structures that once housed a lot of hogs but they all need to be demolished. The hogs and their odor are long gone.

The price is $1,000,000 pesos. That's less than $4.25 dollars per square meter for the land (using an exchange rate of 12 to 1) without adding the value of the existing buildings (which would cost at least $50,000 USD to "duplicate").

Here are several photos of the house and quincho:

Casa%2BCarlos%2Bfront.jpg


Casa%2BCarlos%2Bside.jpg


Casa%2BCarlos%2Bquincho.jpg
 
On Saturday one of my neighbors came to my house and told me that he wanted to sell his property (which I can walk to faster than I can get in my car and drive to).

He has two (adjacent) hectares (20,000 m2) for sale (about five acres total) and there are separate deeds for each hectare. There is a "decent" house with a quincho on one lot and there is a not so nice (and very small) house on the second lot. Except for the area around the "decent" house, the land is covered with brush but it is completely surrounded by tamarisco trees, creating total privacy. There is also an above ground cement pool (4m x 8m) behind the house and a garage/galpon next to the pool.

The house is inhabitable "as is" and would be OK to live in during construction of a new home (if desired).

There are also several buildings/structures that once housed a lot of hogs but they all need to be demolished. The hogs and their odor are long gone.

The price is $1,000,000 pesos. That's less than $4.25 dollars per square meter for the land (using an exchange rate of 12 to 1) without adding the value of the existing buildings (which would cost at least $50,000 USD to "duplicate").

Here are several photos of the house and quincho:

Casa%2BCarlos%2Bfront.jpg


Casa%2BCarlos%2Bside.jpg


Casa%2BCarlos%2Bquincho.jpg
Whmm, 20.000m2 terreno. Less than US$85k for the two lots and containing an "inhabitable" house and a Quincho
is very super affordable.)reality too cheap(.. How large is that yellow main house and how much investment necessary to make it "habitable" any idea?.
Any reason as to why is your vecino wanting to sell this property mentioned and pictured above? Are you in the know, steve..?
 
Whmm, 20.000m2 terreno. Less than US$85k for the two lots and containing an "inhabitable" house and a Quincho
is very super affordable.)reality too cheap(.. How large is that yellow main house and how much investment necessary to make it "habitable" any idea?.
Any reason as to why is your vecino wanting to sell this property mentioned and pictured above? Are you in the know, steve..?

My neighbor is about 75 years old and the house is probably about 100 m2. The quincho (smaller brick building) has a bathroom and a parilla.

The house is habitable now. It just needs cosmetic work and you'd probably want to redo the bathroom and kitchen...easily done for $10K USD (or even less). I haven't asked to see the interior of the house, but I can if you are serious. A complete "remodel" should cost less than $20K USD if you get good workers and pay the local rates (the "foreigner" price can be much higher).

The house is in the front corner of the first hectare as you drive up to it. The next door neighbors have hogs but not so many that the odor is strong. They are also my neighbors...directly behind my property...and I rarely can smell the hogs when I am cutting the grass in the back half of my property.

There have been two other properties (one hectare each) with houses and outbuildings that have sold here in the past four years. They sold for about $60 and $70K (USD) but were also "in" the nearby village (one and two blocks from the plaza).

Nonetheless, in all of the web searches I've made in the past few years, I haven't seen anything like this property at this price...anywhere in Argentina.

PS:The small house on the adjacent lot is rented and it might be "necessary" to pay the renter to move, but it shouldn't cost much. It would be necessary to have someone you trust staying in the house when you aren't there, or at the least, staying in the smaller house (with a good alarm system to alert them to an intruder). The likelihood of being robbed wile you are there is not great, but the chance of someone moving in becomes greater if you are gone for any length of time.
 
OK 20k terreno is only 2 hectares and way there in close proximity to BB..And possibly facing the no-eviction of current squatter there
probably not a no-brainer but have to read this situation more up close.
Oh by the way steveinbsas, where is the frenchmen now days? Did he find the land to build his own house ? I don't see him not even
buying those antiques that you both enjoy so much..I hope he wasn't on that dreaded germanwing flight!
 
Recently, Hybrid-san made a number of posts and asked many questions as he considered the possibility of buying land and building a country home in Argentina. I promised to start a thread about "country living" in Argentina and here it is. I'll provide a few details of how I got where I am now and what it's like to live here. I will be happy to answer questions and I hope anyone else who is living in a rural or semi-rural setting will share their experiences in this thread. I am referring to life in the "open" country, not in a barrio cerrado or a ""gated" community.

When I arrived in 2006 I began searching for apartments in Capital Federal as well as houses in Tigre with a maximum price of $100K USD. At that time and at that price, it was possible to buy a 100 sq meter apartment near Jardin Botanico or a 75 sq meter apartment in Recoleta. A relatively small house in Tigre could also be found in that price range. As I searched on line I also found a very nice "casa quinta" in Tortuguitas for just under $100K, but I was strongly advised against buying there as it might be even more "dangerous" for a foreigner than an Argentine. I heeded the advice.

Within six months of my arrival in BA, I bought an apartment in Recoleta but I continued to check on line from time to time to see what was available in all provinces of the country. I also searched for country homes in all of the provinces of France, something I started doing even before coming to Argentina in 2006. By 2010 I had permanent residency in Argentina and I had enough of city life, especially Ciudad Buenos Aires. Moving to France was no longer a realistic possibility so I renewed my search for a casa quinta in Argenitna. Using google I found over two hundred listings in a number of websites. The ReMax site had dozens of properties in the casa quinta (residential farm) category and one in particular captured my attention.

Based on the photos, the house and the land were exactly what I was looking for and the price was right. Even if it meant selling my apartment quickly for a "lower" price than I might get if I held out longer, I decided to make an offer to buy the house. I had absolutely no idea what the area was like but I asked a lot of questions and did some on line research about the nearby towns and cities. The fact that it was not a destination for foreign tourists was something I considered to be a positive. Neither was the fact that I would be the only North American living on the outskirts of the "suburban" village of 1500 inhabitants, none of whom speak English.

To make a long story short, I offered the seller $2000 for a 60 day option to sell my apartment. It took just over 60 days to get the first offer for the sale of my apartment and I accepted. The boleto took place ten days later and the next day I flew to the closest city to the house that had direct flights from BA. The seller met me at the airport and drove me to the property. Thirty minutes later, in the kitchen of the house (where i am sitting at this moment) we signed a boleto. Six weeks later the escritura for my house took place in CF and I rode to my new home in the cab of a "shared mudanza" that was owned by a friend of mine in CF. We arrived at the house at nine AM and the seller's two sons unloaded my furniture from the truck.

I once posted that I did not move here to assimilate, but, to a great extent, that's exactly what has happened and I'm very happy to be able to say it. In the four years I have lived here my ability to speak and understand Spanish has improved a great deal and I have developed wonderful friendships with a number of Argentines, including the family I bought the house from. It's amazing how helpful and protective everyone has been, making sure I know the best (and most trustworthy) mechanics to take my car to, the best electricians and plumber, the best places to buy meat, bread, veggies, household goods, etc. One example of how nice the people are here is the mechanic who took my car to get the VTV inspection and would not accept payment for doing so, even though it meant leaving the shop (and work in progress) for over an hour (I "forced" him to accept two liters of beer).

I could share many stories like that. I do enjoy answering the one question asked by almost every Argentine I meet for the first time (often incredulously): "What are you doing here?" As I previously wrote, I am the only North American living near the village, but folks in the nearby towns are just as curious. I tell them the story of how I came to Argentina and how I found the property on line. They find it hard to believe anyone from the USA would want to live where I do, but when I explain that when I am at my property, it doesn't matter where in the world it is, they seem to understand. The fact that life is also very good here when I am not actually at my house is an unexpected but very welcome bonus.

house.jpg
Hi Steve, not sure if you still check this, but I was inspired by your post. I am originally from Argentina but haven't been there for many decades (left when I was a child). I am looking for information about that area (Villa de la Ventana) and would like to know your opinion now that times have changed.
 
Just seen this thread.

We have land in Provincia de Buenos Aires with a quinta and reared Hereford cattle until a couple of years ago. Although my Argentine wife would love to stay there permanently I flatly refuse to do so. Reason being it's only a 20 minute drive from our town house which is far more comfortable, has amenities close by, power cuts are rare and roads are paved unlike the last few kms in the countryside which are dirt which can quickly become impassable after a couple of days of heavy rain.
I personally think, as our countryside land is boringly flat and we also have a substantial garden in town I see no advantage living in the quinta.
 
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