Retiring in Buenos Aires, Argentina

The top two insurance companies are OSDE (accepted all over Argentina, so handy if you will spend a lot of time out of BA) and Swiss Medical.

MichRee: Thanks for your reply.
Do you know if they accept member over 60?

How much it takes to live on depends on too many lifestyle variables to be easily answered.

As to purchasing versus renting, real estate prices are already going down and I believe in the next few months they will decrease dramatically.  Couple this with the idea that paying rent is about the same thing as putting investing equity in the garbage........ I think a few months to a year from now, buying property would be a great option.  But don't quote me, LOL, things can turn in an instant here.

Real estate sales in Buenos Aires city dropped 38.4 percent year-on-year in April, while the volume of operations was 35.9 percent lower compared to the same period of the previous year, a private report said. 
source:  http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/2923

Sorry!  I don't know their age restrictions with insurance, but I would be surprised if they had any. 

Regarding rent vs. buy, I agree that prices are probably going to come down.  Whether to buy or rent is really up to you.  This is a country that seems to undergo some sort of economic crisis every ten years, so you want to try at the down part of the cycle.

Cost of living here, I generally say this:  It is similar to a mid-sized American city.  The days of Argentina being a raving bargain are long since gone.  It is still cheaper than say San Francisco or New York, but about the same price as a city like Portland, Oregon.  Rent is about the same.  Food/restaurants/entertainment/classes cost about 1/2 to 1/3 as the US.  Electronics and anything imported costs about 1.5 to 2 times what you would pay in the US.

To an extent, I disagree.  Argentina is still a raving bargain in many way.  The problem is most Americans here live as expatriates and therefore the rent ends up being the same as the noted mid-sized American city.  Rent is a fraction of the cost of the USA if one acts as a local and rents an unfurnished apartment for the statutory 2 years.  You can find a 2 bedroom apartment here for 1200 pesos a month, which is rapidly approaching only 300 dollars as the exchange continues favoring the dollar over the peso.  And the days of a guarantia are gone here as well.  If you are willing to either pay a few months advance or to pay a couple hundred dollars, most landlords here do not require one.

On the other hand, electronics are fixing to go through the roof.  Cristina is talking about doubling the existing taxes on any products not manufactured in Tierra del Fuego, which means all imports (and aside from a couple of random companies, electronics are not manufactured here at all).  Therefore, the days of them being only double that of the USA are about to be long gone.  So bring whatever you think you might want/need with you. 

When it comes to purchasing a home, prices are already coming down.  It is not a question of whether they are probably coming down or not.  They are down.  http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/2923http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= … in_americahttp://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-200 … 08699.html
However, that is not exactly as telling as one might think. 

The real question when it comes to the price of real estate here has more to do with the true value of the dollar, which is not always directly linked to Argentina's well known cycle of boom or bust. 

For instance, the value of the dollar has been artificially set by the Argentine government here since early in Nestor's administration.  The central bank has recently begun the process of devaluing the peso in order to boost fiscal income.  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= … in_america

Now here is where it gets relevant.  The value of property here was rising for several years until recently.  However, property here is pegged to the dollar.  While the dollar has devalued substantially the last ten years globally, here in Argentina it has almost quadrupled.  Therefore, although the real estate salemen like to boast of long term increases in the value of property, if you look to their true global value, they have been steadily decreasing for years.  My Argentine friends, without exception, tell me the value of their real estate holdings is still less than that of pre-crisis 1999.  And that is accounting for true value. 

So, the point is one should really research what is truly happening here with real estate before deciding to purchase here.  And please, do your own research all the resources are out there and easy to find.  Do not rely exclusively on talking to expats or reading online forums.  The so-called expert expats are not always completely in the know.

The point I was trying to make in my earlier post, which was confirmed by MichRee, is to try to purchase on the downward spike of the real estate cycle.  And there is every indication to believe that is coming soon.