Real cost

I wish I could help you but I dont know Cuenca's rentals. There is a fellow here whose posts are genuinely helpful, I dont know him but I read the way he portrays things and I can tell he does live in Cuenca and have nothing to do with rental business. He goes by the name Vinny66.
If you are there Vinny66 can you help this fellow? your views are always so appreciated.

Ohh thanks Loving Ecuador,

I'm so flattered for your comment !!!!

Yes, my first intention is help people but also do some business, I quit long time ago with the real state because is a complicated, time waste work, but still help few people to look around.

My main work is relocation and movings, mostly local movings but this is another history.

About rentals, first is very difficult righ now to find a rental apartment in Cuenca, they finish like five, six buildings this year and all is sold, there's more projects on the way but apartments get sold quick. Usually, the people who buy them use them for living not for renting.

Not only expats look for apartments, many locals are swiching from houses to apartments.

About price range, it goes from $300 to $800 depending the number of rooms, if is a first floor or a 12 floor, is a new or older building and so on.
Also you have to pay a building fee, named "alicuota" that range between $30 to $100 depending on the size of the apartment.

If you want it furnished, it will be like $150 more.   

Where to get the right place for you? that the one million question.  Mostly, is a matter of luck. Most of the Real State pages in English have inflated prices. Good place to look is in Craiglist, local web pages in Spanish and the newspapers.

About how many money you need to live here, the goverment ask for $800 a month in order to get the Visa, for a couple I think is enough but and extra is always welcome, mostly if you like to eat out or you have medical needs.

Vinny

Vinny, to follow up on your comments, I am seeing in Quito:
•Higher end apartment sales are $1,700/sq. meter for new units and $1,000/sq. meter for resales. The smaller the unit, the higher the cost/sq. meter. I estimate mid-tier buildings at 20-30% less.
•There is a trend from single family residences to apartments/condos. I believe this is due to security and traffic congestion.
•I have not seen a shortage of available units as you mention for Cuenca.

A challenge looking for homes in Ecuador is lack of a central listing of available units. You really have to find an area you like and then go “door-to-door” asking if anything is for sale.

Hello,
My wife and I are seriously considering moving to Ecuador for our retirement and I've been living and breathing all the blogs on this site until in my dream sleep, I'm  going through the site and still wake up not sure what is right. Though I know that different areas will have different costs of living and even, due to the four different environments, different weather patterns, the must be some rule of thumb to go by.

We are coming from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada and would want to live on our pensions totalling approximately $2000 a month. We are considering renting a house so hope that any estimates of monthly cost of living you give would include a rental of about $400-$500 a month. As everyone, we would want to enjoy our retirement and not worry about the pennies.

We are not high on the hog type of people just a couple wanting to enjoy life, friends and our surroundings.

Hope you can advise Betty and I.

Doug

Doug and Betty,
I think when this question is frequently asked, an important part of the equation is left out. Do you intend to purchase a home? That really changes the whole answer. If, after checking out the neighborhoods, and you decide to buy, that will greatly affect your living costs. Just as it does anywhere of course.
That being said, IF you are in a position to buy, you should be able to live a very nice lifestyle in the $2000.00 per month range.
If one has to rent, that takes a large percentage of your monthly operating expenses.
There are rental deals to be had, and as was mentioned, you have to knock on doors, and do extensive net working to find them. If you can find a sweet rental in the 400/500 range you should be able to live a decent lifestyle with 1500 left. Usually, those good deals require a lease of a year, and many won't be furnished at that price point. It is possible to rent furnishings in Cuenca, and there are always expats returning to their country of origin after a short stay that sell everything at some reasonable rates.
In closing, I wish you both the best in your qwest.
Stay Well,
Neil