First off I apologise if I sounded mean before. I am local and married to an expat. WE had no problem finding a two year lease. You see, some landlords would rather have a larger sum of cash upfront to supply the garantia: there is no law that says that a rental lease must include a garantia or how payments are performed: it is a contract between privates so they can agree ojn anything. A real garantia can be perfect at teh time of contract signing, but then can be sold ( for whatever reason, then if anything happens the landlord wouldn´t be covered at all ). Most experienced landlords know this, so many will happily take 6 months upfront, with no garantia and renew your contract every six months, see in my case the contract says that the landlord commits to four consecutive renewals ( that is two years ) What I am trying to say is that there is always a way around if you have some cash handy. Now you really must have a good command of the language ( or engage a friend into helping you ) but I am sure that most expats could rent a 1 br apartment, unfurnished, for two years for +/- 450usd a month ( well to start you will have to tempt the landlord and pay a one month deposit plus six months rent, but it is perfectly doable if you have some savings ) I know of Argentines that rent using this modality as well.