Traditional Mayan housing vs a beach mansion.

There are many different ways to live in Mexico, with homes to meet every budget. Above is an example of the extremes. In the Yucatan Peninsula many Mayan families live in traditional stick houses with palapa or tar paper roofs. While on the beach, you can find mega mansions.

We often get asked in the bookstore how much it costs to buy a house in Puerto Morelos. This is a bit of a loaded question. In our town you can buy an apartment for as little as $329,000 pesos (about $18,135 USD) or a beachfront villas in the millions of dollars. These prices are similar in other towns along the coast of Quintana Roo, such as Playa del Carmen, Puerto Adventures and Akumal. Here is an idea of what your money will get you.

The owners have added their own touch of colour to these homes in Villas Morelos Dos.

The first thing you should know about our town, is that it is divided into two areas, the port side and the colonia. The port side is next to the ocean, we are then divided by 2.5 kms of protected mangrove and the main highway. To give you a better idea take a look at our map. The closer you are to the beach, the more expensive the homes.

Appliances, tile, shelves and paint added by the owners.

Housing Prices in the Colonia

When you are buying “new construction”, you are basically buying a cement box. That means that there is no tile on the floors, no paint on the walls, no appliances, no kitchen cupboards, no window coverings, no light fixtures, etc. It is just a cement box with a toilet, plus utility sinks in the kitchen and bathroom. It is up to you to finish it the way you like. The cost of this is up to you and in addition to the prices listed.

This home has been turned into a business.

When you buy into an existing community, people have adapted their houses to meet their needs. This often means that a home is not just a house for a family to live in, but also a business. So you may have a great little taco stand or a convenience store or in this case, a vet, just a few doors down.

New apartments, waiting to be purchased in Villas la Playa.

The least expensive places available are in Villas la Playa, about 3 to 4km from the beach. They are 2 bedroom/1 bath apartments, 57m2 (meters squared) with a brochure price of $329,000 pesos (about $18,135 USD). Not sure why, but the web price is higher at $25,000USD.  Please note the pictures on the website are of finished apartments, which would be an additional cost.

Newly completed townhouses in Villas la Playa.

Next up is townhouse style homes in Villas la Playa called Coral Plus. The smallest and cheapest are advertised beginning at $390,000 pesos ( $21,500usd) and are new construction, 2 bedroom/1bath, 51m2. These two developments have an added bonus of having their own beach club on the main beach in Puerto Morelos.

Living room in Villas Morelos painted and tiled by the owner.

Villas Morelos and Villas Morelos Dos are older more established neighborhoods, so most of the homes have been lived in before. The advantage (or disadvantage) of this is that they are no longer new construction, so the floors are tiled, the kitchen completed and the walls painted.

Eating area in Villas Morelos home.

Some people have even added second levels to these houses or bought two side by side and combined them into one larger home.

Villas Morelos backyard with pool.

Some people have even put in pools. The price of these homes starts at about $750,000 pesos ($41,000USD) and go up from there. Most are 2 bedroom/1 bath town homes starting at 74m2.

Two homes in Palma Real.

Palma Real is new construction town homes that are two stories with 4 bedrooms/2 baths, 127m2 beginning at $1,199,000 pesos ($66,000 USD). This community has larger homes and is designed to be a little more upscale.

This is just a sampling of what is available. There are other communities in the colonia, as well as new developments along the highway, like Residencial Regatta or Puntavista, plus homes the Pescadores (fisherman’s village), but this will give you a good idea of some of the less expensive options for living in Mexico.

In Part Two of “Housing Prices in Mexico” will we explore what it costs to live closer to the beach.

Nothing like an afternoon filled with Sol.

What It Costs to Live in Mexico

Last week we explored what it costs to eat in Mexico with our grocery price comparison. Now here’s what you really want to know, what does it cost to drink in Mexico? No shock, booze is cheap!

Don Julio White has one of the larges cost spreads.

This is an very informal survey and not necessarily the cheapest prices (which can usually be found at Costco in Mexico). We chose the most common beverages, not the necessarily the ones we drink. For Rob’s favourite beers you can click here. We compared costs in Texas, using HEB and Specs, in Alberta, using Liquor Depot, and here in Puerto Morelos, we used our local Super Aki and Chedraui. Our research was done on February 8/9, 2016 using regular pricing, not sale prices. We used this currency converter.

Price comparison of 3 similar beers in their country of origin.

To give you a quick start comparison, we will use an average case of beer (that’s 12 beer for everyone in the world, except our friends in Ontario who think a case is 24), brewed in its home country, served in bottles, with tax and no deposit. We found that if you were from the USA you would be saving over $7 USD for every 12 beer you drink. And if you were from Canada, you would be saving over $10 CDN a case.

Liquor Price Comparison

The individual prices do not include tax or deposit in the USA and Canada. We have added the tax at the end. In Mexico all taxes are included in the prices.

We’re not just all about the tequila.

It doesn’t matter if you are spending dollars or pesos, when it comes to booze, Mexico is a bargain. In our area, it works out to be over a 48% savings in Texas and almost a 53% savings in Alberta.

Californian and French wines tend to be more expensive. For your best deals in Mexico, stick to Argentinean and Chilean wines.

We found that finding liquors and cervezas that were sold in all three countries was easy, but finding wine that is sold in all places proved to be more of a challenge. The wines we ended up using were not based on our taste, but on the fact that we could find pricing for them in all locations.

Two caguamas (1.2L each) and 1 can of beer for 54 pesos ($2.91USD/$4.05CDN) What a deal!

Again this is a very unscientific study, but it will give you a general idea. At these prices, we’ll drink to that.

Salud!

We started our day with 1L of fresh squeezed OJ and fruit. Cost 25 pesos ($1.38USD/$1.93 CDN).

What It Costs to Live in Mexico

Welcome to our new series on “What It Costs to Live in Mexico” beginning with a grocery price comparison. In the bookstore and at our rental suites we often get asked about what it is like to live here and what it the costs. Over the next few posts we will try to give you a snapshot of what the cost of living is like here compared to the US and Canada.

This is the dairy case in our local Chedraui.

We thought we would begin with a very informal grocery price comparison. We knew food costs were lower here and that the produce is much fresher, but we were really surprised by just how much cheaper groceries are in Mexico vs Canada or the USA. The other surprise was how close prices are in the USA vs. Canada. We always assumed that the pricing in the USA would be much cheaper. We found that when we did our survey, it is only about 7% cheaper in Texas vs. Alberta.

Apples used to be hard to get. Not anymore.

The following compares grocery prices between Calgary, AB Canada, Texas, USA and our own little grocery store here in Puerto Morelos during the month of January, 2016. It is just a snapshot of what prices are like. The comparisons are between similar grocery outlets (not necessarily the cheapest). We used Calgary Co-op, HEB and Chedraui.

Grocery Price Comparison

The data for Calgary Co-op was found here. The data for HEB comes from their website. And the data for Chedraui comes from our local store here in Puerto Morelos. Again this is a very unscientific study, but should give you some food for thought.

The bakery is getting a jump on Valentine’s Day. Sweet.