What’s the cost to rent a home in Mexico?

The cost to rent a house in Mexico differs from one neighborhood to another.
 
In Oaxaca, where I live, it’s quite expensive to rent a house for local people. If you rent an apartment with two bedrooms in the city center, which is a good neighborhood, it will be between 6,000 pesos and 11,000 pesos (about from US $350 and $650). With a budget of $350, you could find a nice basic place to stay, but if you want something with a garden and more living space, then it would cost...

The cost to rent a house in Mexico differs from one neighborhood to another.
 
In Oaxaca, where I live, it’s quite expensive to rent a house for local people. If you rent an apartment with two bedrooms in the city center, which is a good neighborhood, it will be between 6,000 pesos and 11,000 pesos (about from US $350 and $650). With a budget of $350, you could find a nice basic place to stay, but if you want something with a garden and more living space, then it would cost around $590 to $650 per month. Where I live now, which is a bit outside the city center, the rent is much cheaper at around $230 per month, but the houses are bigger and with 2 stories. However, in this area, you are outside the city center, so you need a car to go to the city center. 
 
In Mexico City salaries are higher and thus the cost to rent an apartment in a decent neighborhood is also much higher than for example in Oaxaca.

 

(Colorful house with balconies in Oaxaca, Mexico, pictured.)

The cost to rent a home is different in different parts of Mexico.  Some places like San Miguel are quite expensive. Playa del Carmen is very expensive. 
 
Here in Mazatlan, it really depends on what you want. My friend rented this nice little 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment.  It’s on the water, on top of a condominium building.   They’ve got underground parking, a little tiny swimming pool, and a gorgeous view of the ocean. They pay US $850, plus...

The cost to rent a home is different in different parts of Mexico.  Some places like San Miguel are quite expensive. Playa del Carmen is very expensive. 
 
Here in Mazatlan, it really depends on what you want. My friend rented this nice little 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment.  It’s on the water, on top of a condominium building.   They’ve got underground parking, a little tiny swimming pool, and a gorgeous view of the ocean. They pay US $850, plus utilities, so it’s costing them pretty close to more than a thousand dollars a month.
 
You have to pay utilities no matter where you live. I would say that the average rent for a 2-bedroom, 2-bath would depend on whether you’re in the fancier, more touristy area uptown, or you get a little more bang for your buck when you’re in one of the outlying colonias. If you want to live up there and you speak good Spanish, you can probably rent something for less than $300 a month and have 3-bedrooms and 2-baths and a backyard. If you want to live in a historic district, where I live, your average rent for a 2-bedroom and probably 1-bath is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 a month.

 

The monthly rent for an apartment and a house is the same, because, every single house here in center of historic has shared walls, so it feels more like a townhouse.  They are narrow, long houses. I share a wall with one neighbor on one side and a vacant lot at the other side, but if there were somebody living over there we’d also be sharing a wall.

 

 
Most people here rent apartments. A lot of people come here and they either rent a house or they buy a little house, they fix it up and when they leave in the summer they close it up and come back in the winter. It’s getting difficult to find a house in the center historic district. 
 
Rents have gone up.  Most Mexican landlords want gringos to rent to and they want US dollars. They almost won’t accept pesos as rent, because the peso is just too volatile right now.

 

(House with one shared wall, Mazatlan, Mexico, pictured.)