Will the expat invasion end?

[tangobob]

I am surprised there is not more British people here with the pound at over 6.50!! This place would be a bargain for the British...

The reason there are not more British tourists is the airfare. I am comming December. I searched high and low for a reasonably priced flight. In the end I paid £2300 for myself and my wife, that is more or less $4600. and just for the record when we arrive we still find it very cheap compared to Europe ( I don't know about the US)

 

[bigbadwolf]

As far as the dollar goes...well with most currencies, it will rebound eventually. Unfortunately the current dictatorship in the U.S. refuses to acknowledge the problem and does nothing to stop it. Basically, the U.S. is pulling an "Argentina" in the sense that it is good for exports and makes American items cheaper around the world. Hopefully after the current regime is desposed of in a year or so, the dollar will rebound.

On what basis do you make these assertions? I've been betting against the dollar for over nine years now -- serious current account deficits go back to the mid-'90s. GWB inherited this, and in a sense has exacerbated this with his fiscal deficits, which necessitate either printing currency and/or issuing more treasury debt. The world is awash in dollars and dollar-denominated debt instruments. This is why people have been moving towards more secure instruments for maintaining real value -- gold is well over $800 today (up 2.5% just today), silver nudging $16 (went up 5% just today), oil nudging. There are serious structural problems for the US economy which didn't start with GWB. On the bright side, as you say, American exporters had a bumper year last year (thanks to a weak dollar), and by all indications, will have an even better one this year.
As an aside, Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen now refuses to accept dollars:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/11/05/bcngisele105.xml

 

[bigbadwolf]

I think most will find the soaring prices a reason to pick up and leave (i just got back from the usa and im in shock about how much more i pay here than back in usa just 2 months ago). Also, the streets choked with black pollution pouring from the never inspected trucks, buses, taxis, etc. with tailpipes pointed at the sidewalk, at us!
In short, the quality of life is so much lower than back home. We dont live well here.

I agree with you, but I don't think these expatriates and other hopeful visitors will necessarily move back to the US. What usually brings them to Argentina in the first place is a dissatisfaction with the stagnant cultural, political, and economic landscape of the US today. Or they feel their modest retirement money could be made to stretch a bit further outside the US -- and with soaring health care costs in the US, they're probably right. So if they find Argentina increasingly unsatisfactory and expensive, they'll simply set their sights elsewhere. I expect the number of Americans looking to foreign shores to steadily increase.

 

[rmartinbuenosaires]

BigBadWolf-Well I guess my comment(s) about the U.S. dollar were not thought out as well as you described. Yeah, the U.S. economy is in poor shape...Funny point about Bundchen. Thanks.Thing is, despite all the price increases, in reality, there are some things to be said about living here. Maybe foreigners will continue to come to Argentina but just not Buenos Aires., like Mendoza, Cordoba, etc. Less hassles and cheaper still, real estate wise, than here.Remember in Argentina you don't have to worry about terrorist threats, bombs in subways, mudslides, earthquakes, forest fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and being shot randomly at a school. Some of those things could happen here, but not likely. The biggest problems are the pollution, corruption, petty theft, inflation and greedy people trying to cash in on Foreigners and each other. I guess we just trade one set of problems for different ones.

 

[jedard]

Like the history, the Roman empire and so on, the mighty USA is now facing its greatest test, financial ruin.
The dollar will continue to fall and faster than the economists can even vision. The money mongers will make a fortune shorting the greenback.
Gold is headed for 1000.00 + and oil will break a 100 per barrel. Where does that leave Argentina? I have my idea but I will keep it to myself.
As for the expats who thnk its better elsewhere. Go and find out. the grass is always greener the other side of the fence.
Yes pollution is bad and getting worse here. They just do not give a damn. And the biggest polluters are themselves, Turning this beautiful country into a mega garbage dump.

 

[Bairesgirl]

I think I´ve mentioned it before but there is a special report by the BBC on Britons Abroad that can be accessed through the following link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/brits_abroad/html/

BRITS ABROAD: THE TOP COUNTRIES


Country name
Resident Britons


Australia
1,300,000


Spain
761,000


United States
678,000


Canada
603,000


Ireland
291,000


New Zealand
215,000


South Africa
212,000


France
200,000




Comparing to the amount of expats going to Australia or to Spain, expats from the UK in Argentina are relatuvely few, and anyhow the exchange rate is such that it is still very afordable. (for 600 dollars or around 300 pounds, you cannot rent a furnished studio appartment ANYWHERE in London, let alone in a neighbourhood equivalent to Recoleta)
I disagree with the lifestyle issue. A lot of expats mention they have a higher quality of life here, as they have rented/bought for example houses with pools and gardens in the suburbs for children to play with (pools in homes is not a very common thing in the uk due to weather and such) that they may not have had at home, 6 months a year of spring/summer, affordable Sports clubs and activities for the children and themselves, comprably accesible bilingual schools for the kids, an active cultural life which need not be that expensive. Just yesterday I met a european couple who were here for those reasons...

 

[sergio]

"Remember in Argentina you don't have to worry about terrorist threats,
bombs in subways...and being shot randomly at a school..."We had terrorism here long before "9/11". Don't you know about the AMIA and Israeli embassy bombings - terrible terrorist crimes that after a decade have not been solved! As for school crime, there have been incidents involving guns. Sadly just about everywhere in the world seems to be suffering this problem. Most recently Finland had a school massacre.

 

[Granadaiscool]

I disagree with the lifestyle issue. A lot of expats mention they have a higher quality of life here, as they have rented/bought for example houses with pools and gardens in the suburbs for children to play with (pools in homes is not a very common thing in the uk due to weather and such) that they may not have had at home, 6 months a year of spring/summer, affordable Sports clubs and activities for the children and themselves, comprably accesible bilingual schools for the kids, an active cultural life which need not be that expensive. Just yesterday I met a european couple who were here for those reasons...

I would like to know how they earn the 200.000-300.000 peso a year they probally need in Argentina. That won´t be easy.
And even if they do they have to deal with
1: Insecurity
2: Little future
3: Extremly dangerous roads
4: Risk of hyperinflation
5: Risk of devaluation
6: Risk of kidnapping
7: Sucky Argentine products
8: Lousy services
Etc, etc.
I would never want kids in Argentina, but that does not make it a bad country to live in, just a bad country to raise kids in.

 

[Marc]

Granadaiscool, why are you always so negative about this country? Where are you from anyway? Do you live here? Are you Argentine?

 

[Marc]

I'm not sure that the expat invasion will end, even if it is an invasion, which i think it may not be. Most visitors are tourists.British Expats? Personally, I'm glad I'm not falling over British expats at every turn. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be British, but when i lived in Spain, I might just as well have been living in Torquay or Barnet, except it was sunny most of the time.I now consider it a luxury to mingle with Expats of any nationality and consider living here as a much freer existence to living in the UK, where freedom of speech (yes that one again!) is not what it used to be.What I love about this country is the quirky way it is.Yes, the roads are generally crap, pollution is awful and the villas miserias are an unacceptable feature that the government has been trying to solve for years. But with all that, I just can't help but love this place. The people are generous to a fault, they are generally charming and very polite (although I am still trying to get used to kissing other blokes), the meat is wonderful as is the wine. The transport service works, most of the time and now I am fluent in castellano after 2 years, which had been my aim when I originally moved to Spain.This is my personal view of course and may differ from other views expressed on this forum.