I live half a block from Plaza San Martin. I often see gay men or lesbian women sitting together on benches or in the sun on the grass holding hands, kissing, etc. I've seen men walking down the streets holding hands and kissing every once in awhile. I have to admit that I know nothing about the "gay scene" here, but having seen those examples, my assumption has been that the people here are very tolerant.
As far as the (I assume) tongue-in-cheek comment about not dressing up in women's clothes - Argentina seems to me to be quite tolerant of exactly that, and I have seen so many commercials on TV and billboards and the movie theaters showing exactly that. BTW - I understand the difference between gay and cross-dresser - just making a comment related to the previous comment about cross dressing
As far as getting money into Argentina - I would not recommend trying to do so through regular means like bank transfers until you've been here for awhile and have managed to get residency. It is very difficult, if not virtually impossible, to open a bank account here unless you have, or are in the process of getting, residency. Even then, there are various things you need to do to get a bank account "habilitado" to accept foreign transfers, which means a lot of bureaucratic red tape. If you are starting a business, that will both help your residency issues and possibly your money transfer issues into a bank account because you will be tied into AFIP and the taxing system, and just need to comply with the regulations required to get money in. But you will also be taxed on money that comes in, I believe (not expert at that).
You can find someone here to introduce you to a casa de cambio where they do gray money transfers for 1-2% of the transaction costs, and get the money in cash (in your local currency or usually with a good conversion rate to pesos - the place I'm doing business with now gives 4.75 to a dollar! Way above the official rate.). It's not always easy to get set up in one of those - I've done business with two different places here in the last 6 years and at both I needed introductions from Argentine friends who have already been doing business. The government here is trying desperately to control the flow of dollars and other reasonably-valued currencies so there have been times when these casas de cambio have failed me depending on how closely AFIP was controlling things.
The easiest way to get money from rental income back in your home country would be to have a bank account there, let the renters deposit there, and take the money out via ATMs, and when you find a casa de cambio with whom you can do business, you can wire the money to them cheaper than extracting from ATMs, in my opinion.
As far as buying your own building/property - it may be that you need to do just that anyway. I don't know if you're familiar with the way leasing works here, but it is extremely difficult to find people who are willing to lease on a long term basis without a guarantee in property to back up the lease. The laws here favor tenants so much that you can move into an apartment and not pay a dime and it could take the owner years to get you out. With a guarantee the property that provides the guarantee could be forfeit, providing a strong incentive to the lessee to pay and take care fo the proeprty.
A friend and I looked into opening up a coffee shop near Suipacha and Marcelo T and the one issue we had was providing a property for guarantee on the lease. We managed to get that together, but moving forward failed for other reasons.
The same reason you may have problems finding a place to lease for your business also holds for finding a place to live. I know a few friends who have managed to find people who are willing to lease to them without a guarantee. Often being a foreigner helps in that regard. There are ways to get around a guarantee sometimes - some people will accept a huge advance payment of a year or the whole lease, for example, in lieu of a guarantee. Leasing in older neighborhoods, but that often also limits the quality fo the place you'd live, etc. But usually, leasing without a guarantee takes time and getting to know people.
I'm about at the end of a two year lease on my apartment, which was guaranteed by a friend who owns property here, and I think I'm going to be able to continue leasing without a guarantee for a new contract (I'm an ideal tenant), but I'm not sure yet, and to tell the truth it worries me because it's so much cheaper to lease on a long-term contract than it is temporary, not to mention the usual issues of moving every so often with short term apartments, because the owners have a block of time in the future already leased out, usually. Also not to mention the amount of furniture and things I've managed to accumulate over the last 4 years since I've been able to lease long term! Technically, according to the laws as I understand it, you can't sign a temporary lease for longer than six months anyway.
There are good things about living here, but beware of the things that can make your life difficult until you figure out how everything works. Being gay, I don't believe, is one of those things
As far as the (I assume) tongue-in-cheek comment about not dressing up in women's clothes - Argentina seems to me to be quite tolerant of exactly that, and I have seen so many commercials on TV and billboards and the movie theaters showing exactly that. BTW - I understand the difference between gay and cross-dresser - just making a comment related to the previous comment about cross dressing
As far as getting money into Argentina - I would not recommend trying to do so through regular means like bank transfers until you've been here for awhile and have managed to get residency. It is very difficult, if not virtually impossible, to open a bank account here unless you have, or are in the process of getting, residency. Even then, there are various things you need to do to get a bank account "habilitado" to accept foreign transfers, which means a lot of bureaucratic red tape. If you are starting a business, that will both help your residency issues and possibly your money transfer issues into a bank account because you will be tied into AFIP and the taxing system, and just need to comply with the regulations required to get money in. But you will also be taxed on money that comes in, I believe (not expert at that).
You can find someone here to introduce you to a casa de cambio where they do gray money transfers for 1-2% of the transaction costs, and get the money in cash (in your local currency or usually with a good conversion rate to pesos - the place I'm doing business with now gives 4.75 to a dollar! Way above the official rate.). It's not always easy to get set up in one of those - I've done business with two different places here in the last 6 years and at both I needed introductions from Argentine friends who have already been doing business. The government here is trying desperately to control the flow of dollars and other reasonably-valued currencies so there have been times when these casas de cambio have failed me depending on how closely AFIP was controlling things.
The easiest way to get money from rental income back in your home country would be to have a bank account there, let the renters deposit there, and take the money out via ATMs, and when you find a casa de cambio with whom you can do business, you can wire the money to them cheaper than extracting from ATMs, in my opinion.
As far as buying your own building/property - it may be that you need to do just that anyway. I don't know if you're familiar with the way leasing works here, but it is extremely difficult to find people who are willing to lease on a long term basis without a guarantee in property to back up the lease. The laws here favor tenants so much that you can move into an apartment and not pay a dime and it could take the owner years to get you out. With a guarantee the property that provides the guarantee could be forfeit, providing a strong incentive to the lessee to pay and take care fo the proeprty.
A friend and I looked into opening up a coffee shop near Suipacha and Marcelo T and the one issue we had was providing a property for guarantee on the lease. We managed to get that together, but moving forward failed for other reasons.
The same reason you may have problems finding a place to lease for your business also holds for finding a place to live. I know a few friends who have managed to find people who are willing to lease to them without a guarantee. Often being a foreigner helps in that regard. There are ways to get around a guarantee sometimes - some people will accept a huge advance payment of a year or the whole lease, for example, in lieu of a guarantee. Leasing in older neighborhoods, but that often also limits the quality fo the place you'd live, etc. But usually, leasing without a guarantee takes time and getting to know people.
I'm about at the end of a two year lease on my apartment, which was guaranteed by a friend who owns property here, and I think I'm going to be able to continue leasing without a guarantee for a new contract (I'm an ideal tenant), but I'm not sure yet, and to tell the truth it worries me because it's so much cheaper to lease on a long-term contract than it is temporary, not to mention the usual issues of moving every so often with short term apartments, because the owners have a block of time in the future already leased out, usually. Also not to mention the amount of furniture and things I've managed to accumulate over the last 4 years since I've been able to lease long term! Technically, according to the laws as I understand it, you can't sign a temporary lease for longer than six months anyway.
There are good things about living here, but beware of the things that can make your life difficult until you figure out how everything works. Being gay, I don't believe, is one of those things
