'retiring in Uruguay' Real Estate

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retiring in Uruguay

And, I think before making a purchase you want to spend Winter and Summer time in a place... to know the climate both weather wise and population / activity wise.

What part of Montevideo did your husband live in when he was here? and what age was he when he left? I have a friend who was born and lived in Montevideo until her late teens, but because she lived out in Carrasco with her family she was a lot more "sheltered" and doesn't really know much about Uruguay. If you add a 40 year absence to that mix I suggest you may want to be sure you know the country you are moving to before you invest in any expensive real estate. This also doubles up with the point above about knowing the weather - I would also recommend spending time here during both seasons so that you don't have any misconceptions about the climate. Being close to the ocean is wonderful, but it is also very windy all the time and VERY damp in winter.

You're right about Punta del Este, its still quite a grey ghost town during the winter months, but it is still one of the largest urban centres in Uruguay so I wouldn't say "desolate" like beach towns such as La Pedrera, La Paloma or Punta del Diablo in the off seasons.

Uruguay still isn't really an "online" marketplace. Most real estate agents (inmobiliarias) don't have websites, and those that do are usually the most upmarket ones aimed at foreigners. You will no doubt get lots of recommendations from people here if you come down and then you can meet realtors face to face and view properties.

There are many beautiful areas along Uruguay's coast...starting as far west as Colonia (but thats on the river), suburbs of Montevideo such as Carrasco (but its a very expensive area). The just outside of town there is Atlantida and Piriapolis where quite a number of expats have settled in the past few years. Then further up the coast there is Punta del Este, La Barra, Jose Ignacio etc.

I wouldn't recommend building something from scratch unless its a dream of yours. Its not an easy job - it can be stressful and expensive so I would only recommend it to those that really have something they want to create.

There are many people involved in real estate on this forum that could probably point you in the right direction. I think Steve Bowman is involved in selling coastal properties and he has a blog/website here:

• Punta del Este Expats

I have just returned from Uruguay. I have a construction backround and I have looked at properties from Punta del Este to Atlantida. Montevideo does not interest me at all. I have found that many houses for sale with a view are generally used in the summer months and not in their winter. Insulation in a preowned house is virtually non existant although thatched roof homes seem to be cooler that tile roof homes. I do not know exactly how the waste water systems work if city sewer is not available, but as it was described to me, if they are only used in the summer months, they are not really as stressed as they would be in a year round occupancy. Pumping the tank seems to be a normal thing to do. I personally don't like that system so I would upgrade it to an American standard.

Dampness and humidity also seem to take a toll on woodwork. Also, they don't seem to mind if rain water runs toward the house instead of away from it. Again dampness and mold become a problem to fix.

Houses down there are concrete, stone or masonary. You will find few wood structures as you know them back home.

Based on what I have found down there, if you don't want someone old problems, you are better off building. Building costs are very high in Maldonado, but as you get out of there the costs get better. There are some beautiful lands north of San Carlos but without an ocean or river view.

Hope this helps

Terry

I can't fault your survey work Terry :-)

When it comes to having a sea view its wise to remember that you'll have it all the year round and in winter, you can get very horrible cold humidity rolling in off the sea or the Rio Plata when the wind is in the south.

Having experienced riverside living in a rented house, I decided to chicken out and now live 9 kms inland :-)

It is true that in most Uruguayan seaside towns (though these days not ALL) the houses are designed and built to a standard that will be sufficient just for the summer months. They cut down as many costs as possible by keeping it a very simple structure (and culturally the first corner to cut seems to be insulation!).

This is the general case but there are a growing number of exceptions in the more upscale areas such as Punta del Este, La Barra and Jose Ignacio (and even in La Pedrera, but the people who built those are unlikely to sell them). The houses I have visited in those areas were all pre-owned by Uruguayans and later bought by foreigners and they had everything you could want/need - well finished, underfloor heating, solar panels etc etc etc. It depends on the area. I know for sure you won't find houses like this further up the coast in the Rocha region, but there is a growing number of them in Maldonaldo.

Definitely take note of what Patrick says about dampness! Being Irish we are a little bit more waterproof than most, but the winters here in Uruguay are VERY damp. I don't think I've ever experienced dampness like it. In Ireland it is pure wet, but here there is a heavy moisture in the air through the winter months and the moisture that blows off the ocean is immense! That combined with very strong winds can put your home up against some pretty fierce elements.

I wrote a big section in our free expat guide all about construction - including building techniques, construction workers, materials used, insulation, septic tanks and more. I hope you find it helpful.

Terry I'm interested to know what you mean when you say you would upgrade the septic tank system to an American standard, what is that exactly?

• Expat Guide: See Construction Section

The vast majority of ROU homes which handle their own sewage have "pozo negros" (cess pits) rather than septic ranks or even aerobic digesters.

The poso negro simply stores sewage and thus requires frequent emptying.

A properly maintained septic tank does a pretty good job of allowing anaerobic bacteria to treat the sewage enough to allow the householder to run a liquid outflow into a soakaway. Depending on capacity, septic tanks only need emptying every 3 to 7 years.

Aerobic digesters are the way to go if you want your sewage discharge to be sparkly clear and fresh :-) They usually come in the form of pre-made tanks which digest the sewage using aerobic bacteria but usually require a power supply to rotate paddles or bubble air to encourage the aerobic bacteria. These usually need emptying every 6 to 9 months but the residue comes out as sterile granules ideal for garden use.

Sad to say I couldn't get one in the ROU three years ago and wasn't keen on relying on my constructors to build me one so I settled for a septic tank instead. Even that seemed over-radical to my constructors and neighbours :-)

Patrick I think you're right, the treatment of sewage (although not rocket science up north these days) require some degree of skill and accuracy in setting up so that it actually works. If it took so much effort just to convince your workers to put in a tank rather than just a cess pit than anything more than that might be pushing it!

• Building septic tank in rural Uruguay

During the construction of the septic tank and soakaways I had several visits from other constructors in the area to look at the strange foreign device which we were building.

The general consensus was that it'll never work :-)

Again, your question is a little too vague to specify an answer. The price of real estate anywhere in the world can vary greatly depending on its characteristics, even houses within a few kilometres of each other can vary!

- Do you want a house in Montevideo or are you looking along the coast? Punta del Este and Piriapolis and Montevideo suburbs all have different prices.

- What is a "nice house"? How many bedrooms do you want? As was said before, the houses in most coastal towns are designed for use only in the summer months so may be much cheaper but are not suitable for all year round living.

Did you try to make contract with Margarita on Punta del Este Expats or Steve Bowman on Uruguay Coastal Properties on the links I gave you above?

For an idea of the general real estate market I found the Buscando Casa (link below) to give a decent overview (although it was already posted out that a large majority of properties are not listed anywhere on the internet).

• Budacando Casa: Property Search in Uruguay

I recommend you to look at malvin. You can find something more accurate to your budget and still being next to the beach.

Other areas to consider could be: buceo, punta gorda and carrasco norte. 20 minutes from the beach are Prado and Atahualpa. Around "Rural del Prado" -your husband will know-.I think this are also a very good choices.

The web site Elaine recommends is very popular here and will give you a first idea.

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We also have the type of system you described as a mini treatment plant. In the Iowa the output is required to flow into some type of evaporation field; either a leach field or a sand filter, depending on the soil condition. They will only allow the effluant to run out onto the ground if it is run through a sand filter first. It double purifies the output. Usually the field is a scaled down version of approximately half the size of a conventional leach filed or sand filter. The key to this system is changing the filters on a quarterly or semi annual basis. I installed the second of these systems in the state of Iowa and over 10 in my years in business. I love them but there are some states that will not allow them because they advertise being able to eliminate the field requirements.

What I learned about Uruguay Sepic Systems is that the filtering is done in the tank and they do not use some sort of field. This makes it an absorption process due to the depth of the tank and using no field. My question is how do they clean the aggregate used in the filter process if this is an absorption process rather than an evaporation process. If a grease trap is not used, then I can see a problem in the tank and more frequent pumping as it eventually becomes a holding tank. I have lived in my house for 23 years and have only pumped the tank once. That was about 18 years ago.

I use a bio chamber type of field that requires no aggregate in the filter but I have the soil conditions to use that type. It uses absorption and evaporation. The sun drawing the moisture to the top and the shallow depth of the field allows this to work similar to a leach field.

North of San Carlos, the area is very rocky and I can't see a septic tank being much more than a holding tank. In rocky conditions there can be a danger of effluant seeping into the water system without an evaporation method. In most of the properties I viewed, the well was only about 30 meter deep and the septic tank only about 10 to 15 meters away from the well casing. In several cases the well was downhill from the septic tank. Most of the people said they only drink bottled water and have not tested the water for bacteria. This is not acceptable in the US or I assume Canada. Positioning of the well to the tank is important in the US. This is why I have a problem with Uruguayan Systems. Maybe as I get to know more about them I'll change my mind. My comment are based on a 3 week visit, knowledge of US standards and 24 years of excavating and installation experience. Granted I am not living there but what I saw, I didn't like.

Terry

I live in the campo where there aren't any building regulations at all... a major culture shock after 40 years of suffering the ultra severe building laws in force in the UK :-)

I haven't been impressed with ROU sewer systems either. None of the local "cities" here in east Colonia have mains sewer systems... each house has its own (often leaky) pozo negro (cess pit.) The old shallow well here is positioned between the old pozo negro and a dairy. The water from the well actually smells of sulfur dioxide and I make sure that NOBODY drinks it, washes their teeth in it or cooks with it.

I had to wait a couple of years and spend 2k U$S on bottled water before a well driller finally turned up to do me a new 30 meter bore hole 100 meters away from the old pozo negro. The water from the new well tests OK for drinking... though the testing fee of 830 pesos surprised me.

I opted for an old fashioned 3 chamber brick and render septic tank where each chamber is linked by an inverted U shaped sewer pipe. Solids settle in the base of the first chamber and a floating crust forms on the surface with the inverted U pipes allowing clearer water to flow into the second chamber and so on. I keep a long pole handy to check the level of the solids in the first chamber and will pump it out when they come to within 25cm (1 foot) of the U pipe. After two years of operation, we're about a fifth of the way there :-)

Some people reckon that its necessary to add bacterial cultures to the tanks but with minimal use of bleach in the house, it seems to be working well using natural bacteria from the environment.

As for the outflow, I have a large gently sloping garden and have laid a shallow spreading system of perforated sewer pipes on gravel beds to act as a soakaway system with a number of thirsty trees strategically planted to draw up any excess. The subsoil is a heavy clay so the distribution system covers a large area.

I did consider using a reed bed or willow bed system but my Espanol was still very poor back then so I chickened out :-)

I'd prefer to have some sort of aerobic digester but the somewhat 1950s style system I have seems to do the trick.

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