Chile Forum

My husband will be on sabbatical at PUC in engineering for the US academic year starting 8/11. We are just starting to plan and are, of course, overwhelmed! We are a family of five and are trying to decide if we can just show up in July and find a furnished apartment or if he or I need to go down early to get things in order. We plan to put our three children (ages 6, 9, and 11) in school mid-year at the Instituto Hebreo which is in Las Condes, I think. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Sarah

Easy, and expensive?
Use a service targeted at gringos to rent an apartment, about $US 1300+ per month for place with 4/5 beds, furnished, + Electric, + Internet + Gas + Building fees
try using the google search "housing in chile", i cant paste the link for the service as they offer services that conflict with the terms of this website, but they do have one service this site doent have, they act as rental managers for apartments! a bit on the expensive side, but you know when you get off the plane you are pretty much done, perhaps the best thing is to only contract 3 months with them, then extend, or change, or find alternatives if you are not happy


or hard, and cheap?

Come here, and spend up to 3 months in temporary accommodation (perhaps the above mentioned service) (at a higher price), looking for something cheaper! and getting annoyed with busses, taxis, metros etc!

I think it would be better to arrange short term accommodation and give yourselves time to check out the areas that are suitable for travel to work and schools and shops etc.. This website has furnished houses and apartments (you need to tick the arriendo box for rent and the amoblado box for furnished. Sorry if you knew that already, I just added it in case you didn't!).

http://www.portalinmobiliario.com/

edit: Also, if you do a search on here you will find info on aparthotels for short term rental and other people's experience of finding and renting furnished accommodation. Good luck.

Just a thought - find a place near enough to a metro station. Traffic can get quite hectic during the morning and afternoons for home time, and you can spend anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours on the road just getting to your destination. Good luck with the planning!

My son is going into his 6th year at PUC in engineering, I suggest you find an apartment in Providencia near the metro, your husband doesn’t want to cross the city by car twice a day (I assume he is going to be at the San Joaquin campus, you don’t want to live out there) and you will be able to find everything you need nearby. Travel from Providencia into Las Condes to school would be easy, easier still is arrange a van pick up and drop off for the children, the school will help you with this. My son lived up in La Reina near his high school when he went back to Chile but moved into Providencia when he started at PUC as it was easier to commute across the city from there.