 You need more of an explanation of what the gastos comune include (or not).In *SOME* buildings it included the HEAT. Sometimes it is higher in the winter, sometimes the winter heating costs are amoritzed over the year. In *SOME* buildings it includes a doorman and/or security guard. That may be a few hours a day to 24/7. It always includes the general building costs, elevators, cleaning the common area, often water. You (we've) always gotten a detailed accounting every month and the total building costs (whatever they include) are divided porportionally across all the apartments in the build. That means if you have a building of 1 apartment per floor you'll generally have the total cost divided by 7 to 10. If you have 4 apartments per floor it would be the total divided by between 28 and 40. We lived in an apartment on the Rambla and the gastos comune started at 2, 000 something and went up to about 3, 000 and included heat! So before you say yikes, see what that cost includes... I think the 12, 000 pesos per month tend to be the 1 apartment per floor type buildings. Some building have swimming pools, gyms and other common areas that maybe costly. I would watch out for the places with radient electric heat. Unless someone shows you actual electric bills that heated the place to a comfortable temperature I would not believe that it is the same or cheaper than gas or disel based heat. I have never seen gastos comunes listed for any period other than monthly, except when they have two figures, one for the summer and one for the winter. I would read "$(US)150, 000 apartemento has gastos comunes of $12, 000!" As US150K for the apartment and 12, 000 pesos (US)$578 PER MONTH! | 
