i need your help people

[BackInTheUSA]

How old are you, and what level of discomfort are you willing to put up with?

I rented a studio in Zona UASD for $5000 pesos/month all included. It had a separate kitchen and entryway, and a door that you could close between that and the bedroom. It was furnished, and all utilities included... Safe because the family lived in front and they kept an eye on their home (and there was the cutest little guard dog ever)... What wasn't great = lack of electricity... There was a power outage every morning for a month for several hours. Then the next month the power outage would be every afternoon. There was no generator and I didn't have an inversor.

My friends lived on the other side of the river in a nice area (close to Mega Centro). It was a safe area as well. They paid 4500 pesos/month and 5000 pesos/month + utilities. They were beautiful apts - 2 bedrooms (the 2nd bedroom was small but made a great office)...

Both of these places are under $200 U.S.

The thing is, after a year I was ready to get back to the US because in a way it is fun to live in these apts, and in another way it is only so much fun to not have electricity for hours on end, and for the water to go out every Saturday morning.

However, I couldn't justify paying more (even though my monetary situation could have allowed it) because I worked in communities where people had much much less...renting out places for 500 pesos/month... but these people made maybe 1000 pesos/month if they were lucky and could find work....

I was 22 at that time, though. I would imagine that if I were much older, I would have wanted to live in a more "luxurious" place.

 

[drliving]

remember it's all in what you want or can afford. You can get an apt for 300 a month is that in a good area??? not really.. Do you lose power a lot? yes you will in those areas. Don't be fooled by this country it's not like living in Thailand where things are cheap. things here are expensive and getting more expensive everyday. Gas is $3.84 a gallon electricity is the highest in the world.Price of cars and insurance is not cheap either. please check everything out before you come. The job market here is not good at all. The pay here is very very low and things are very high. so unless you have a good amount of savings or a company that you own back home. It will be very tough for you here, unless you are willing to live with alot less.

 

[macocael]

Hold on, hold on. I pay 300 a month and I live in a big place, on an upper floor, I get plenty of breezes so there is no need for AC, which I hate anyway, I am close to the center of town so there is no need for a car to do most of the things I need to do (unlike most of the particpants on DR1.com, I do use the conchos, or public taxis -- more on this later), my electric bill at its highest has never gone over 1500 pesos (about 50 bucks, usually it is closer to 30), and my biggest living expense is the damned DSL connection via Verizon, without which unfortunately I cannot live, as I work a lot on the computer when I am not out shooting (film, not animals). My maintenance is 600 pesos monthly (right now, less than 20 bucks). Oh, and I rarely suffer from outages -- apagones -- because I am on the same circuit as the Palace.

I live in Gazcue. I will admit thatmost, though not all, the people I know who live near me are paying a bit more, but there are still reasonable deals here. Our neighbor has a slightly smaller place, but with more bathrooms, and she pays 14000 pesos a month (slightly less than 500 bucks), and that includes all services, even a DSL connection! If you need a whole house, you will also pay more, particularly in Gazcue-- the houses are at a premium now. I fyou are willing to live just outside the city , I can find you a lovely house with small yard for about 6000 to 8000 pesos monthly. But you would have to have a car to drive in to the city or you would have to ride the OMSA bus line -- the Express with AC, not the local!! and that costs ten pesos. And that particular development is quite nice, has a nice mix of middle class people, and you can see the ocean. You would need an inverter, but you need one in most areas.

I guarantee you I can find you a place for this kind of money. I fyou must live in the "suburbs" like El Millon or Cazicazgos, which are expensive areas, I am sure you will pay more, but if you keep an open mind you are bound to find a reasonable deal here.

 

[macocael]

Yes, and let me second drliving on a couple points, though I disagree with his rental scheme. This country is not like Thailand or any other "third world" country I have been to: it was once very cheap but no longer. Life is definitely more costly here, and more costly still after the damage done by the Mejia adminstration was fixed. IN order to stablize things, the peso in the process lost more value, and the prices continued to climb. Plus, truth be told, theinflux of foreigners during Leonel's first administration, whcih attracted alot of outside people to come in and invest, drove real estate prices up, at least around where I live.

wages suck. Plain suck. You dont want to be employed by someone, you want to be an employer, or have some kind of independent gig. You might get something wiht one of the big hotel chains, maybe they pay better for the managerial class, i dont really know. But my impression is that most foreigners who live here and live relatively well have some kind of gig of their own, or work for foreign concerns that pay them a wage ona different scale. also, three months is not a lot of breathing space. You may not get anything decent in that space of time. Things move slowly here. YOu need to give yourself at least a year to get set up.

 

[drliving]

First of all if anyone pays 1500.00 RD they must not have much in their apt.



Yes You get what you pay for Like I said before it all depends on how you want to live. I hear a lot from my friends in the states that have a home, two cars good savings and good jobs with combined income of about 100,000 that they would like to quit there jobs and retire early and move down here.

But when I show them what they can get for about 1,000 dollars a month they change their mind. I have come to the conclusion that there are two types of people that decide to move and or retire here in the Dominican republic. The ones that have made a good living in the U.S and the ones that just did O.K

The ones that have made a good living for themselves don't want to come down here and get something less then they are used to in the states. Why would you work so hard in the states to come down here and live a lesser lifestyle. Thats what a lot of peoples thinking is that I have talked to. I mean work hard save your money have a nice home with cars and toys to move here and have less or no toys smaller home not in the nicer area like they had back home.

Maybe someone can explain to me why someone would like to retire here when they did pretty well in the states or Europe to come here not having what they had before they moved here. People think that its a tropical Island Paradise had better come down here and take a second look. Yes the beaches are nice but are you going to live on the beach? If you are your going to spend a hell of a lot more than 300.00 for a nice place.

 

[smigg3011]

dont get me wrong i do have money and i was hoping to pay between 10000 and 15000 rd$ for an apartment . i am not naive about the job market but i have money from other sources in the uk which will give me an incom of around 30000 rd$ per month its only the areas i am not sure of and how much i will need to pay for a nice smart apartment or house . i had been told i could live comfortably with my income here . maybe i am being naive

 

[smigg3011]

oh yeah and just to add i have a very succesfull life in the uk but the things you are talking about drliving are just material things and the reason i am moving to the dr is its more about nice weather beautiful places to visit . there is far more to life than possesions which is the reason my girlfriend and i want to relocate . sick of the ratrace

 

[drliving]

now you have to tell yourself what is "comfortably", and what do you think "comfortably" is here. Car, gas, rental insurance, car insurance health insurance that will all cost you money, and its not cheap that not even including the food which runs around 10,000 for two people a month on the low side unless your eating rice and beans every day. it sounds to me like you are not the type to take Dominican transportation. I have tried it a couple of times, sorry I'll stick to my car.

 

[drliving]

listen you are going to have the same problems here, even worse the pay sucks here. the only difference is nice weather.

 

[smigg3011]

with the way you say things cost in the dominican it seem it would be impossible for anyone to live especially with wages so low

 

[drliving]

remember Dominican people are used to living with nothing. the economic class is exact. there are those who have and the those who have not. the ones who have not are the majority. but there are a lot of spanish speaking people who live here that have a lot a money, and live well. I'm not saying that you cant live nicely, just saying that things are not cheap and you should come here first look around for where you want to live. Also find out about shipping things over import tax which is also expensive.

 

[mountainfrog]

Big Money

.... an incom of around 30000 rd$ per

About 900 US$.
For two?
Nice try.

m'frog

 

[mountainfrog]

Rat Race in Nice Weather

... just material things and the reason i am moving to the dr is its more about nice weather beautiful places to visit . there is far more to life than possesions which is the reason my girlfriend and i want to relocate . sick of the ratrace

Good that you are familiar with rats, that may help a lot.
You'll be surprised how the race is done here.
Social-romantic dreamers do not even qualify to take part....

All the best.

m'frog

 

[smigg3011]

30000 rds per month

 

[smigg3011]

this is as well as over 42000 $ savings we have so believe me the money initially is not the problem i just expected to pay less than 1500 us dollars a month just for rent

 

[smigg3011]

thats 42000 us $

 

[mountainfrog]

rd$ ???

thats 42000 us $

That's plenty to play with in a month.

Sorry, I took "30,000 rd$" for "30,000 RD$".

m'frog

 

[HOWMAR]

Keep in mind alot of the numbers quoted have been for Santo Domingo. You can expect housing to be about a third less in Santiago or about half on the North Coast. Granted, us farmers here in Puerto Plata have only two movie theaters, a dozen nice restaurants, 2 department stores, etc. But $700/month will rent a nice 4 bedroom house in an upscale area with 24 hour electric. Oh, by the way you're 5 minutes from the beach.

 

[british bulldog]

smigg;st dmgo is not for the light hearted,please read as many threads on this site.There are alot better places on this island;and the people more friendly elsewere.I will post later some info i can give you,and do be aware its not cheap to live here anymore,and do not worry to much about bad areas,criminals can and do travel to the more affluent areas,flash the cash and you"ll be hit,comon sense.

 

[smigg3011]

have visited puerta plata before and did love it i was told the south of the island was nicer but econimically and because of the advice of this site i think i will look towards puerta plata or sosua so any advice where i can find some properties will be much appreciated