Well, I suppose you heard about our attempted “coup d’etat” this last week. At least I know some of you did as I spent most of my afternoon answering a stream of IM’s from concerned friends and family trying to get the lowdown at ground zero. Yes, Ecuador has been known to overthrow a leader or two, the last democratically elected leaders before Correa were forcefully removed from office by groups of rowdy rowdy protesters. Elections results are written in pencil here, should they have to rewrite the results midterm. And this time the protesters were the police, disgruntled by a congressional act, ushered in by Correa, to reduce bonuses and pension plans of police and military as a means Read more
Continuing on our series about retirement in Ecuador, this week we’ll be focusing on the nuts and bolts of obtaining visas. Previously we focused on why to retire here and where to retire. Now we’ll see just how to do it. The frustrating thing expats face coming to settle in Ecuador is the shifting visa laws–they seem to be written on a scratch pad with pencil. So any info that you seek should be double and triple checked and followed up with a visit to a a good lawyer here in Ecuador to reconfirm.
Fortunately there are a heap of foreigners residing over here and q myriad of blogs and forums have sprung organically documenting the lives of these Read more
When one thinks to retire in a foreign land they must think how to maintain a lifestyle that would par up or be better with the lifestyle left behind. Most importantly certain basics need be established if one is to think of permanent relocation. This is why Ecuador with it’s favorable climates, access to good and affordable healthcare, easily understood Spanish, and good Gringo landowning laws is a great destination. Cuenca is on the tips of tongues here and abroad as the most popular spot to settle here in Ecuador.
I’ve never been so strapped that I had to get an emergency wire, but as we all know travel and living abroad can be unpredictable so having a solid backup plan is advisable and not too hard. Fortunately for us there are many services that offer support for emergency cash while abroad taking some of the fret of life abroad. For North Americans, Ecuador is a convenient place to transfer money. The currency is in US dollars, so no conversion fees. And in major urban centers like Quito, Guyaquil, and Cuenca there are a palethora of banking facilities making for easy receiving of your cash. Money transfer can be expensive though with high transfer fees in some occasions, but with Read more
Travel in South America can be exciting frustrating all at the same time. There are amazing sites to see here in Ecuador: Galapagos islands, Cuencan colonial colossuses, snow-capped Cotopaxi. But unless you go on organized tours, you’re gonna have to know a little Spanish to get around. And if you plan on settling here in Ecuador, you better know a lot more than a little Spanish to survive the day-to-day living. Even a trip to the market for bread and butter will result in a lot of pointing and frantic hand gestures if you don’t know the most elementary of Spanish. Compared to places like Asia, where education is held in high esteem and, thus, you can always Read more
Every 3 months on my Weekly Ecuador Insider’s Newsletter I try to bring
you a market pricing report, instead of the normal investor news; here is a
rundown of the real estate pricing changes I have seen over the last year in
Ecuador:
BUILDING IN ECUADOR
As seen by me:
Building in Ecuador- $30-35 per square foot of construction for finished
house. ($50/ft for a luxury finishing)
As reported in a good article by the NY Times in 2010:
Building in Ecuador- $46 per square foot of construction for finished house.
($73/ft for a luxury finishing)
Dixie Davie, an Australian from Perth, and her husband have been in Cuenca for two years now – and loving every minute of it. Her site is Retire – in – Ecuador.
The Gringo and company had an opportunity to join her on her tour this past week – it was a very well spent $75. We learned a lot – both the positive and the negative about moving to Cuenca. It was mostly positive.
From her site, here is her description of her tour:
This tour is designed to show you a little of what it is like to live here and to find out where the best neighborhoods are, and where to do your grocery and other Read more
Now about Hotel Carvallo- it has a great location, right in the heart of downtown. It is a very nicely redone. Staff is great, very friendly and quite helpful. Price is ok at about $100 a night. The rooms are fine enough, but the beds are on the small side.
Here is the issue though – the building is like a big atrium with wooden floors, so be prepared to hear everything, and I mean everything! People roaming the hallway sound like they are right in the middle Read more
In Ecuador equal treatment is given to local and foreign investors, so across the board you receive the same rights of entry as Ecuadorian citizens. Almost all sectors are open to investors, and profits and capital can be repatriated without restriction.
Foreigners have the same legal rights to own property anywhere in Ecuador.
You do not need to have any special visa to purchase property in Ecuador; the Tourist Visa that you purchase upon entrance is all you need to invest in real estate. Make sure you know how long your tourist visa is valid for – click here for additional visa information.
Investing in real estate, be it a house, an apartment
Immigration authorities in Ecuador are getting stricter when it comes to the 90 day tourist visa. In the past, if you wished to extend your visa, all you had to do was leave the country for a day, and then upon reentry you were granted another 90 days, making for a total of 180 days in Ecuador on a tourist visa.
Recently, things have changed.
Many immigration authorities are now counting the number of days you have already spent in Ecuador and giving you the number of days needed to equal the alloted 90 days as a tourist.
So, if you would like to stay in Ecuador for more than just 90 days, what do you do? Read more
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