Martin, my immigration lawyer in Argentina and Max my realtor in Buenos Airesare both very familiar with foreigners moving to Argentina. They see all the ups and downs that their clients go through.
In this video we discuss culture, the difference between Europeans and North Americans moving to Argentina, birth tourism, doing business in Argentina, taxation, citizenship, healthcare and international schools among other topics.
Elections are taking place this weekend in Argentina. It’ll be a good indicator of the pace of reforms that one can expect going forward.
As always, Argentina remains volatile.
Here is how you can obtain residency in Argentina
And here is a full analysis of the real estate market in Buenos Aires.
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We will be meeting with key decision makers and policy makers. We as a groupwill be hosted at the headquarters of a few of the largest publicly listed companies of Argentina. We’ll get to see first-hand how their businesses are doing, what their projections are, and what their operational challenges are in such a fast-changing economy. We’re talking about direct access to companies with market caps in the dozens of billions of dollars. Some of them are easily investable, as they have ARDs in New York.
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Articles on Argentina:
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- Removal of capital controls in Argentina – impact on Buenos Aires real estate market
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Transcript of “The Pros and Cons of Living in Argentina as an Expat”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor. Today, we’re going to have a very interesting conversation on the pros and cons of living in Argentina, together with Martin, who’s my immigration lawyer here, and as well as with Max, who is a realtor here specializing in Buenos Aires real estate. Martin has a lot of exposure to foreigners who come here, move, stay, some leave disappointed. You’re well versed in the pros and cons, you hear it all, right?
MARTIN: And many stay, of course.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yes, and many stay. And you, Max, you are half American, half Argentinian, and you’ve lived between the two countries.
MAX: I’ve lived between the two cultures, yes, I spent a few months out of the year during vacation time. My family, yes, is from the United States. I was born and raised here, but with a history of both cultures. And same as Martin, we see quite a few people who are interested in the culture and in what the country and the city have to offer, and just generally speaking, what pulls them to Argentina.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, fantastic. Look, personally, I’ve only ever come to Argentina on business trips or for tourism a few weeks at a time, so I cannot claim to have lived here, so I’ll be mostly interviewing the two of you. I really want to hear the cons, because, actually, one of the cons I hear is that it’s difficult to hear the cons of Argentina from Argentines themselves.
MARTIN: That’s true. That’s true. We’re going to do our best.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s start with some of the pros.
Argentine culture and nightlife
MARTIN: People, sometimes, they come, like you, for tourism. I have so many clients that they call me and, “You know what, I’ve been staying here for 89 days. My tourist visa is about to expire. I want to stay for good.” And I’m like, “Really?” “Yeah.” “But you need this and this other paper.” “No, but we love it here.” There’s a misconception, maybe, with Argentina. People think it’s just another Latin American country, but then they come here and see a city full of nightlife, full of life, a walkable city, a safe city, pretty much like Madrid or Paris, its own unique energy and people. I think that’s why people fall in love the most. It’s like this vibe that we have, this energy. I think that’s the icing on the cake of Buenos Aires and Argentina. Yeah, definitely.
MAX: Yeah, I would agree with Martin, probably, word for word. What we’ve done, actually, is we’ve charted reasons why people come here. We’ve done a pie chart. And there’s a substantial number in that pie chart with people saying, “Okay, why do you want to buy something in Argentina, in Buenos Aires?” “It’s because I love it here,” for any number of reasons. I think mainly, yes, the culture. I think they become pleasantly surprised with the city in particular, in that it’s got, as he says, a European flair, but with a Latin mindset.
It’s especially true with people we find from Canada, the US, and pockets of Europe, where everything in Argentina is more loose, as opposed to the structure and the black and white aspect of US, Canada, Europe. Here, there’s shades of gray to things, and people seem to love that. And it’s a recurring theme in people that reach out to us, absolutely.
MARTIN: If you want your train to arrive on time, this is not the right place.
MAX: [laughs]
Meeting locals in Argentina as an expat
MARTIN: But we make friends. You cannot imagine the number of clients US, Canadian, that they tell me, “We’ve made true connections, true friends here.” And that’s because, like, you are from Africa, here, dulce de leche, you are from the US, here, try asado. We want you to be a part of us. And I think it’s something of our culture, we want to represent our country. It’s not that we don’t care who you are. No, come over, come to the party, come to the asado. And that generates connections. You go take Spanish classes, you make friends. Go watch a football game, you make friends. We even have a Friends Day. We celebrate friendship with a special day. That’s not something you see in a lot of countries.
MAX: And it’s a big deal, too. Día del Amigo is a big deal, too. The pubs, the bars, the restaurants, they’re jam packed. We make a whole to do about it. I absolutely agree.
LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s very different from some countries where people go because they’re left in peace and they don’t have to really interact with other people, and where people don’t really care about them. An example is Hungary. I lived in Hungary for a while. When you live in Hungary, you realize soon enough that the locals just don’t care about you. I’ve had friends who’ve been living in Hungary for many years. They’ve learned Hungarian, which is really hard. They still struggle to make local friends. But for many people, that is appealing, the fact that you’re just left on your own and people don’t care about you.
But here, when you come to Argentina, people care for the good and for the bad. Because, I mean, neighbors can be a bit much sometimes, no? Isn’t that one of the cons of Argentina?
MARTIN: It depends. Like, if you decide to live here in the heart of the city, you can have noisy neighbors, or that they come knocking at your door wanting attention from you. But that also gives you the opportunity to care if you’re a person who wants to give back to society. We have a common client, this Shari woman. She wants to give back to society. She asked me about creating an NGO, so there’s space for that, too. People will embrace that cooperation or collaborative spirit. I think that’s something, too.
MAX: I think, yeah, to your point, it can be a double-edged sword to where our mix of Italian and Spanish heritage can, sometimes, create this, especially Italian, I would hazard to say–
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
MAX: can create this thing where neighbors can, sometimes, be a little bit much. And this is not me trying to obfuscate the bad against the good, but certainly, to Martin’s point, I think the good of this welcoming, in contrast to what you were saying about Hungary earlier on, if you are on the street and you don’t speak a lick of Spanish, most people will stop and take their time to indicate, “Okay, you want to go there, you want to turn left over here.”
And these are the kinds of things, just by virtue of example, that it seems to me that foreigners kind of warm to, because of the sense of, yes, possibly, community. Which isn’t to say it’s not without its problems. I mean, like any major city, and this is something that we always tell our guests who rent with us, we say, “Look, don’t forget, this is a major city. This is a large city. There are pockets where you want to look over your shoulder like you would New York, like you would London. There are areas which, quite frankly, are like Mordor at night–
MARTIN: [laughs] Yeah.
MAX: and there are areas which nothing is ever going to happen. Don’t go walking around at certain hours with a Rolex on your wrist, and don’t have three cameras hanging, or gold chains.” But it’s all part and parcel with what anybody with some degree of international traveler or common sense even knows about.
LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s more appropriate for people that are extroverted, I would say, here, or people that are introverted, or wish they were a bit more extroverted?
MARTIN: Yeah.
MAX: I would say yes, but the people who are introverted, for lack of a better way of saying it, there is a place for them, too. It isn’t that this is necessarily only for the 40 and below crowd, or the 40 and above crowd, or that the Palermo area is for this crowd, or the Recoleta is for that crowd. I think that all are welcome and all find footing.
I’ll give you a silly example from just this morning. A couple who are 77 years old renting an apartment in Recoleta. They’ve been renting since 2009, and the apartment is being sold. They reached out to us to see if we could broker some kind of a deal to where the next buyer would continue renting to them. Why? Because, at 77, these are from the United States, by the way, they have decided that they want to spend the remainder of their years in Buenos Aires. This is by way of saying that you find all sorts of people from all sorts of culture. This is not unlike New York last century, is a melting pot, I would say. You’re in immigration–
MARTIN: Yeah.
MAX: so, you know better than I, it’s a melting pot of people that, over the years, have come and continue to come. And it should be noted that we are riding the wave of the year before last presidential win, and this whole sort of libertarian pro market pro let’s get back on track thought process of President Milei.
MARTIN: Just like he said, there’s a place for everyone. A lot of people retiring, coming over with a pension, or they’re selling one of their homes back in the States or in Canada and buying something here.
Geographic diversity of Argentina
MARTIN: And if you don’t like noisy cities, there are many beautiful natural landscapes with beautiful cities in Patagonia, Bariloche, Mendoza, with wine. You can get yourself a beautiful farm with a little wine yard, with a view to the mountains. It’s beautiful. If you want to be more isolated from the noise, or you don’t want to be in the center with the nightlife, yeah.
MAX: You don’t even have to leave the city. You’ve got places within the city, areas such as Villa Crespo, Villa Urquiza, Barrio Parque, which you need not just walk around two, three blocks, and it feels like you’re in a suburb of the city.
MARTIN: Definitely. But, let’s say, for the sake of example, because I had experience that they tell me, “I don’t want to live in the city.” All right. There are opportunities. There’s excellent credit healthcare in Bariloche, Córdoba, Mendoza, in the north, in Salta. There are provinces with real estate developments, and hospitals, and airports that, yeah, were perfectly fine. And in fact, there’s lots of investment opportunity in those areas, too, so I think that’s something to keep in mind.
MAX: It’s worth noting, to your point, especially to people from Europe who are used to walking three blocks and being in another country, that Argentina is the eighth largest geography in the world. Over the years, when we’ve had, again, especially European clients who have come on a vacation, they’ve said, “I’m here for a week. I’d like to see the falls, I’d like to see the desert, I’d like to see the icebergs, I’d like to see the beach.” Yeah, a week is not going to cut it. This is the eighth largest country in the world. You can live by a seaside town, you can live down in Patagonia, you can live in the desert, you can live an hour away from the city, where there’s farmland.
And we, too, have had those kinds of inquiries about people saying, “I don’t want to be in the city. I want to be out in a farm away from it all.” There’s all sorts.
LADISLAS MAURICE: For North Americans, Argentina makes a lot of sense, because of the time zone, especially for people that work remotely.
Why do Europeans move to Argentina?
LADISLAS MAURICE: What about for Europeans, do you see a difference in profile between the North Americans that move to Argentina and the Europeans that move here?
MAX: I would say that predominantly the European clients are in it mostly for the dollars and cents of it, for the long-term return or for the long-term appreciation. Basically, for the business side of it. I can buy something for $1 and maybe, in 10 years, I can sell it for $2. That kind of thing.
I would surmise that given the fact that, architecturally and culturally, a lot of Europe is very similar to at least Buenos Aires, there’s more of a majority of a reason for buying purely from an investment standpoint, while for Americans, what they see here, from an architectural and cultural standpoint, is very far removed from what they would see in any city in the United States or any city in Canada, which point, in fact, is one of the reasons why, for example, Puerto Madero is not very high on the list of places where our clients, at least, look for to buy, because Puerto Madero, for those who don’t know, you walk around it, and it’s really no different than any North American city skyline. It’s modern, and it’s sleek, and it’s just a project that was completely overhauled. Mind you, it’s beautiful, but it, to a point, to a degree, is devoid of the soul that Buenos Aires as an old city has.
MARTIN: I feel that what he was saying is very interesting, because of this European, American way of seeing property. But not all of my clients come here to buy. Some of them just, they want to feel the value of Argentina. They want to hop from one Airbnb to the other first. It’s understandable. And what I noticed is this age range thing, it’s hard to be young. It’s hard to be young these days. And I notice couples from twenty-something, thirty-something, they want to have their first kid, maybe, and they choose Argentina. We have excellent healthcare. There’s some degree of birth tourism, too. People want to stay. People want to have access to permanent residency, to the passport. And this is something very interesting.
And then it kind of hops to the fifty-something range. When you’re done with obligations and when you’re ready to retire or enjoy your time more, this is a perfect place to enjoy free time. What I hear from clients my age, say, 35, 36, thirty-something, it’s this is a place where being young is easier. It’s cheaper, there’s infrastructure, and people are not looking at you for what you’ve done or what you haven’t done.
Birth tourism in Argentina
LADISLAS MAURICE: Interesting. Yeah, I see Argentina as a complete no-brainer for North Americans, because I mean, time zone, complementary seasons when it’s cold in North America, here, the weather is glorious. And like you say, you’ve got that European flair.
MAX: Sure.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I spend a lot of time in Europe, so when I come here, sure, there’s a European flair, but what a lot of Europeans find is that, why would I travel 13 hours from Europe to here to get a European flair when I can just go to Colombia and Mexico, and get a Latin vibe that’s very different. I feel a lot of Europeans prefer to go into the other parts of Latin America, where everything is very, very different.
Moving to Argentina from North America
LADISLAS MAURICE: But here, the Europeans that come here, in my experience, the ones I’ve interacted with, are Europeans that are more practical in their approach, in the sense that they want the better infrastructure. They want something that’s not too, too different from Europe. They don’t want to deal with Colombia, is just too much for them.
Argentina as a Plan B for Europeans
LADISLAS MAURICE: And three, and I think this is really important, we’re seeing increasingly young Europeans immigrate from Europe. It’s a sad phenomenon, and Argentina is attracting a lot of such Europeans. I mean, you have a lot of European clients. They come here, they give birth in Argentina so that the baby is immediately a citizen of Argentina from Day One, and then they can go through the naturalization process. And roughly, in two years, they get the citizenship as well. I kind of see this as the difference. North Americans, it’s more of a playground. And Europeans, they come here for practical reasons. They come here for investment. They come here because, historically, when things are bad in Europe, there’s a wave of immigration to places like Argentina. So, history just repeats itself.
MAX: I would say, also, for what it’s worth, and this has been a recurring conversation over 2023 and 2024, to where, if, for whatever reason, there was some kind of important war-related fallout, Argentina, and especially the southern cone of Argentina, is the best place to be. The first time somebody mentioned this to me, I was a little bit taken aback. A guy from the United States, a retired dentist, who said that he has studied up on the fact that if there is nuclear fallout, southern tip of Argentina is the safest place to be. I said, “Okay. You want to buy real estate, I’ll help you.”
But when I had that conversation a couple of more times, not to the extent that we’re going to have a nuclear winter, but to the extent that I don’t like the direction my country is going in, and this is also something that gets repeated a lot, and doesn’t matter who wins the election in the US, or who becomes the next prime minister in Canada, or what Europe is even doing, but there is this thing about, “I don’t like the direction my country is going in.” That is also very heavily addressed in conversations as a go-to reason.
Now, I would say as a con, a little bit based on what you said earlier, yes, you said Colombia can be a little bit too much for those who are kind of German, and if it’s 12:01, it has to be a 12:01, not a 12:03, Argentina is–
LADISLAS MAURICE: In Colombia’s case, it’s at, like, 4:00. [laughs]
Doing business in Argentina
MAX: Okay, yeah, that’s true. That’s true. I was being conservative for our German friends. A lot of our conversations with people looking to do business in Argentina’s real estate or otherwise is, look, temper your expectations, because when the guy who’s supposed to go to your house at 2:00 pm says 2:00 pm, it’s going to be closer to 3:00 pm, so don’t get upset, or don’t expect things to happen quite the same way as they would in Europe, in the US, or in other places. That certainly is something that requires getting used to.
That cultural aspect, we have the good about being gregarious, and being friendly, and all these wonderful things, but for those who are very accustomed to a very specific way of doing things, you could be in your 70s, you could be in your 20s, doesn’t really matter, but if you’re very accustomed to a way of doing things, then Latin America, one of the things that immediately comes to mind when you think of Latin America, for better or for worse, but as a Latin American it’s the truth, so it’s okay for me to say it, is that we’re pliable with time, you know what I mean? Punctuality kind of goes out the window, and bureaucracy must be served, so there is those items to consider.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And I think it’s a really important point that you raise. And again, you see it in the immigration profile, North Americans, mostly lifestyle. Europeans, a lot of Europeans come here and actually start businesses. You don’t see too many Americans come here and starting businesses.
MAX: No.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Many Europeans are a bit more flexible, or the type of Europeans that move to Latin America and to start businesses, even if they’re German, are more flexible and more adaptable. And they say, from what I’ve heard, and this is one of the cons, it’s mixing one of the pros and cons, the cons is people are very flexible with time. I mean, they’re just late. Let’s just say what it is, people are just late. It’s hard to find rigorous workers in this market. If you come here and do business and you have Swiss-like expectations, you will lose all your hair. You need to come here and just understand that the timelines you have in your mind are not going to work out. But if you do come here, and you understand this, and you aim to do better, then it’s actually not too hard to beat the competition.
And this is what I’m seeing with a lot of, actually, Russians moving here. They’re starting businesses here. They’re starting coffee places. I’ll give you an example, the meetup that I’m hosting in two days. I contacted countless places saying, “Hey, we’re going to be 20 to 25 people.” With a US number, sending the little info thing, saying it’s, like, “The Wandering Investor”. So, US number, investor, 20, 25 people, want to buy a bunch of bottles. People just didn’t respond. And I contacted in Spanish, so it wasn’t in English. And then I post on a Russian Telegram group, and immediately, people are hitting me up. They’re inviting me over, “Hey, come.” Everything got done.
If you want to come here and you want to do business, yes, it’s hard from a bureaucratic point of view as well. It’s still nightmarish. It’s getting better, but it’s still nightmarish. But if you can deal with this, and you improve the standards, there’s actually very decent business to do here.
MAX: Sure.
Human capital in Argentina
MARTIN: Yeah. And I mean, you’re true, and it pains me because it’s true. We are not the type that will show up on time, definitely. But I think, in Argentina, we have a lot of talent in programming, in medicine, in tech, in crypto. I mean, there are development opportunities, education, scholars, research. I’m getting more and more because it is changing. And yeah, bureaucracy is a nightmare. I do corporate law. I can help people start a company, but when I walk them through the details, sometimes, they go away, like, “Okay, no. Thank you, but no. I’ll leave it” “But I can do it for you.” “No, no, thank you.” But we are progressively changing for the better. And the opportunities that we are seeing, I think, in some aspects, we touched rock bottom, and now we’re starting to go up and up and up. It’s our only alternative.
And I am starting to see this with clients that they want to start a sports bar, or they want to buy a wine yard and export it back to the States. And it’s, like, I know that Argentina will be the right place for business in the next 10 years. It’s a 10-year bet, like your European clients buying you for 10 years from now plans, I’m starting to see lots of people, young people, 36, 38, 40 bring money because it’s a 10-year thing. They come here, they get their passports, they have their kids, they have a strong B plan, and then maybe they will fly away. But they will always be able to come back here. I mean, they will have to suffer through the bureaucracy, but they know the end goal at the end it’s more rewarding.
Getting citizenship in Argentina
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And this is really, one of the advantages, again, one of the pros of living in Argentina is when you move here, and you go through the proper immigration process with Martin, for example, then you become a citizen. It will happen. And then you’re not just some foreigner doing business, you are a citizen, you have the same rights as citizens, your children will be citizens, your grandchildren will be citizens. And it’s really a place of opportunity, and if you want to create a new life for yourself.
You don’t have this in Asia. In Asia, you go to Asia, sure, it’s more dynamic, it’s easier to do business, things just work a lot better, but you will never be able to be fully integrated into the culture, or get citizenship, etc. It’s extremely hard. But here, you can really build a new life and really consolidate your position by becoming a citizen.
MAX: I would agree. And I guess further to the point of living here, doing business here, Martin said something which I thought was kind of interesting, and it struck a chord, that when they start to, foreigners, whether to invest, or live, or whatever, start to see certain aspects of certain processes, they kind of it gives them pause. They think, “Oh, do I really want to do this?” And as the case with his line of work, a lot of what we do is handholding. In fact, I would argue most of what we do is handholding, because, to the point of people not responding to emails or not responding in a timely fashion, I always half-joke with my clients that, it isn’t that I’m that good at my work, but rather the people around me, a lot of them are kind of not great. And so, a quick response immediately gets your foot through the door. And more so when it’s in a language they understand, and with everything be clear.
Pertaining to real estate, as with any place in the world, there is a process which is followed. And the process, as anybody with some semblance of international travel knows, is different in Argentina, as it is in Croatia, as it is in the United States. And so, we explain that process, and we explain what it is that people need to do in very comprehensive fashion. It’s not that we’re just going to help find the real estate. We’re going to help you understand why they’re asking for that amount, why they won’t accept below that amount, why you may or may not offend them if you lowball with an offer. I think it’s really, to that point, no different than any other place in the world, there’s a price, there’s a negotiation of that price. Sometimes, there isn’t. And if you don’t get the price you want, you can negotiate other conditions that may or may not work for you as an investor.
But there is a process, and depending on what you do, and what you want it for, and your timeline, that process can vary a little bit. It’s important that people go in understanding. That’s why we bombard them with information so they know exactly what to expect, and, obviously, open to any questions they have after that.
Taxation in Argentina for foreigners
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And related to business, or just living here, one of the cons is taxes. I mean, the taxes are quite high. That’s a con, but then the enforcement is quite weak. I don’t want to go into a whole conversation on taxes, but, yeah, high taxes but very weak enforcement.
Food in Argentina
LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s talk about something a little more pleasant. Let’s talk about food.
MAX: Let’s, please.
MARTIN: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Is it a pro, or is it a con?
MAX: Food is never a con, and I’ll welcome anyone who says otherwise to come to my office and discuss that. Prove me wrong. It’s well-known that we are renowned for our beef and all that kind of wonderful stuff, but Argentina is a worldwide producer of produce, vegetables, and fruits. I think that if you’re not a meat-eater, you still have a lot of choice. I can’t speak to the quality when you compare it to other places in the world, but there’s an ample variety of Oriental food, of Western cuisine, European cuisine. I don’t know, Martin?
MARTIN: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] Because I see it as a–
MARTIN: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: May I jump, and then you can counter what I’m saying, because you’re more experienced?
MAX: Sure.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Look, the meat is delicious, the ice cream is amazing, the wine is sublime. Anything else I find very disappointing. And that’s coming from Europe. Coming from America, I think it’s good. It’s much better than America. But coming from Europe, I feel that, generally speaking, food, apart from these three categories, is a massive downgrade. My interpretation of the situation is that, after 50 years of socialism and having your industry being run by oligarchs, they had to do two things. One, cost-cutting, and so just the quality of products just gradually went down. And then, two, also in terms of lack of competition in the market. All the big food producers, etc., they didn’t really need to innovate and to compete on quality, so when you go to the supermarket, a lot of what you eat is really, really poor quality, apart from these elements.
And when it comes to agriculture, from knowing people that work in big food, one of the insights is that, though Argentina has a lot of regulations, it doesn’t when it comes to GMO. So, a lot of the vegetables, fruit, etc., from a taste point of view, though better than America, I find inferior to Europe. I would say that if you’re a North American and you come here, you’ll love it. You’ll see the food is amazing. If you’re European or spend a lot of time in Europe, and come here, you will find these three categories I mentioned as delicious, but the rest being disappointing.
MARTIN: Yeah, I have to give you that. Supermarket food is definitely worse than in Europe. I mean, you go to supermarket in Spain, in France, cheese is better over there. This mass-produced, industrialized food may be better in Europe, but when it comes to variety, I mean, I think, in our mind, we are speaking of going out for dinner, going to restaurant, and tasting the variety. Because you can go to the north and eat a certain type of empanada. You can go to the south and eat lamb produced with its own way of grilling. And in Buenos Aires, you have so many restaurants. But yeah, day-to-day food, you may find a bit of a downgrade, yeah, if you go to supermarket.
LADISLAS MAURICE: From what I hear talking to expats that live here, the way they approach it is there’s, like, a spot for cheese. There’s this one little shop where you go for your cheese, and one little place for your sausage, and you might have to take a cab in-between, so it’s a little logistically complicated. But if you really search, you will find. It won’t necessarily be cheap. But the good food is here, it’s just not easily available.
MAX: It’s true, yeah, there are those. I can’t speak to Europe. I haven’t lived in Europe or spent a considerable amount of time. I would have no reason to believe that that’s not the case. Certainly, the United States, I think that that holds true. And yes, there are places which have specialty foods or boutique places for foods. And you see that all the time in the social groups, “Hey, where can I buy coffee?” Or, “Hey, where can I buy Gouda cheese,” or whatever? There certainly is that. And I think also, there’s a little bit of a romance to it. Like, “I went to this one hidden place in San Telmo. They had this wonderful cheese, the likes of which I’ve never had.” I think there is that.
I did want to harken back to one thing pertaining to maybe restaurants, but also maybe food in general, insofar as variety. We have found that, yes, a lot of people say, for instance, “I’m not terribly fond of pizza here,” or, “I’m not terribly fond of produce here,” or, “I’m not terribly fond of certain oriental cuisine,” that you might more readily find in, say, Europe or the United States. And we talked about competition or lack thereof, and we talked about communist governance for 50 years. I think there’s another factor which you may agree, as an Argentine, which has to do with cultural point. Which is there’s a degree to which Argentines were very conservative, and so, just a stupid example, most Argentines, I do not count myself among them, most Argentines do not do spicy food.
Spicy sauces are not something you’ll see in any restaurant, nor would you see mostly in supermarkets, unless you’re in the international section aisle. Pad Thai, or Thai food in general, or Korean food, which is the characteristic is it’s very spicy. I don’t know what degree it would be popular among locals, I haven’t seen too much of it, and I love to go out and eat. I think there’s a cultural aspect there to where spice, for example, or taking us out of a specific bracket of food isn’t something, again, we as Argentines, and as a result, restaurateurs maybe don’t do it massively, because they’re only aiming for the bigger market, which is locals. But that’s just my two cents.
Are Argentines arrogant?
MARTIN: Yeah. It’s because you are the best of the world, our food is the best of the world.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
MARTIN: That’s something you may encounter when talking to an average Argentinian out.
MAX: It’s true. It’s true
MARTIN: Yeah. We have facturas, milanesas.
MAX: Yeah. I always remember this, there was, about 10 or 15 years ago, one of the big newspapers did this whole exposé on statistics they had run over a period of months, where they had gone, door-to-door, several different cities, asking a series of questions. One of the questions was, do you consider Argentines to think the world of themselves? Like, to be pedantic? Seven out of 10 people said yes. The following question was, do you, yourself, consider yourself to be pedantic and just, like, you’re full of yourself? Seven out of 10 said no.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
MAX: I’m not a statistics guy, but something there was just not adding up. There is that, we do absolutely think that we are the best at everything, and we boast having the widest Avenue, the widest river, which is technically an estuary, not a river. But don’t get me started. The Pope is Argentine, the greatest football player to ever be alive is Argentine. And then the other football– [laughs] I don’t know. We do have that. We’re all too happy, as Argentines, to make jokes about Argentines, but if you, as a foreigner, dare make a joke about Argentine, no, no, no.
MARTIN: But we will, as a foreigner, we will invite you to be a part of it. If we see you enjoying one of our traditional dishes with a tear, because it reminds you of how, in Germany, the schnitzel was, Oh, my God, that’s, like, you became a part of us, where that’s Italian heritage in our veins. and I agree with you, sometimes, there’s no market. I mean, the Argentine, food-related, we’re not innovative. Innovation is always welcome. I mean, let’s bring people from all over the world, and let’s try food.
International schools in Argentina for expats
LADISLAS MAURICE: Great. Let’s talk families and education. I think one of the first points as a pro, which is quite obvious, I mean, Spanish, really easy to learn. You’re not moving to Serbia, you’re not moving to Brazil. It’s a lot easier. Spanish is very easy. And then in terms of education, tell us a little bit more about some of the schools, because this is a big plus here in Argentina. Not the normal government schools, obviously, but some of the private schools.
MARTIN: Well, first of all, you need to know that you can plan long-term here. You have good kindergartens, you have primary high schools, and then you have good universities. If you want to think really long-term and not think of a super expensive tuition fee for an American university, you can do it. There are excellent private universities and public universities here that cost nothing or almost nothing. There are very traditional, powerful with an excellent educational level bilingual schools. German, Portuguese, English, Spanish schools, they mix everything, and your kid grows up speaking four languages.
They are not only in Buenos Aires, but also in the outskirts. Bilingual schools are growing, and the offer is bigger, they’re more in number. And of course, the fees, there’s something for everyone. Some are more affordable, some are luxury, and your kid gets taken to Europe once a year.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And how much do those cost? These private high schools with campuses, bespoke education, trips to Europe in the summer, how much is tuition for those, roughly?
MAX: Those schools in the echelon of what Martin is describing, I would say, range anywhere between $800 a month to maybe up to $1,500, $1,600 a month, which, by local standards, you have to be sort of middle or higher end in terms of how much money your family rakes in every month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Essentially, $10,000 a year gets you a topnotch private high school for your kids, with small classes, amazing campuses, the whole deal?
MAX: Yes.
MARTIN: Also, bear in mind that almost all schools will give you a family plan. If you have three kids, you’re not going to pay $30k. You may end up paying, I don’t know, $20k or even less.
MAX: Yeah, they always have deals for if there’s a brother, two brothers, three brothers, siblings, that kind of thing. And I think Martin mentioned, I forget, but they prepare you for international exams, university overseas, if you wanted to do that. And they absolutely do have these trips where they go either to, I don’t know, England, or Scotland, or United States, or Canada, or Europe, or whatever.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, it’s one of the advantages of Argentina I see. Because I was looking at schools, etc. I have a family myself. For example, some of the private religious institutions, private Catholic schools, etc., very affordable, very high levels of education, much more affordable than in Europe. In many cases, the prices were quite similar to the prices you find in South Africa.
English language education in Buenos Aires
South Africa is generally one of the jurisdictions with the best value for money for private schools, but Argentina, when looking at, is objectively, not far behind. The only issue is that it’s more Spanish than English, but then again, these private schools have great options, have great English classes, etc.
MAX: Well, some of them are. I have a family myself, and we’ve decided for one that is entirely in English. You have that option. There are schools that have a level of immersion, is my point, that everything is done entirely in English.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. Tell us about the school. Tell us about how it works, price, etc. Take us through it.
MAX: Well, I mean, without going into too much detail, but it is entirely immersive in English, with books in English, with teachers who talk to you in English every day.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Are the teachers local, or are the teachers foreign?
MAX: The teachers are predominantly local, but they have exchange programs to where, every year, you have one, or two, or three professors or teachers who come either from, I think it’s been England, Scotland, pockets of the UK, maybe the United States as well. I really don’t know. The school that I went to, which is the international school in the northern suburbs, that one was, I would say, and to this day is a good 70% or 60% of the faculty is from the US or Canada. It’s always, historically, been that way.
MARTIN: Yeah. This has been going on for a long time, because you went to a predominantly American school, which sounds like something special, but I went to a bilingual school 20 years ago, and it was a thing and is still a thing. It’s not that we’ve just now doing this, it’s teachers, they speak perfect English, they have exchange programs. They get training paid by the school, so you can get very good value for your money.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Martin, did you ever live overseas? Your English, does it come from that school system? No?
MARTIN: No, my English comes from a lot of studying here. I lived a little while in Spain. I traveled for tourism, but I’ve never had the level of immersion Max had. And still, I can talk to clients from all over the world, no problem, because of excellent schools in Buenos Aires.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. So, case in point, very interesting.
MARTIN: Exhibit A, yeah.
Healthcare for expats in Argentina
LADISLAS MAURICE: For our American friends here and Canadian friends, tell us about healthcare.
MARTIN: A lot of complaints, or a lot of fear. It’s fear, like, what is this going to cost me? I have this small toothache, and they are fearful of bringing their credit card. And then they find out maybe it’s $200 to fix the tooth. We have very good private healthcare all throughout the country, excellent private healthcare, which covers giving birth, which covers actual emergencies. You don’t have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars if you have a severe illness. Hopefully, no one will have it, but you have insurance, you pay maybe $150 per month, and you have an excellent package covering pretty much all your needs, medicines, surgery, everything. That, it’s a huge, huge pro.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And you don’t have to wait months or years, like in the UK or Canada, to see a specialist.
MARTIN: Because you’re paying. There may be waiting times, but it could be 20 days, 30 days. It’s not a big deal.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I remember last time I was here, I took my daughter to the doctor, to the German hospital, and I paid $35 for a consult with the doctor. It’s pretty reasonable. I mean, it’s not Asia-level prices, but it’s pretty reasonable.
MAX: The German Hospital is a favorite, I would say, among probably both locals and foreigners alike. But foreigners, for sure. I’ve had an instance or two in which I, myself, have taken a client to a hospital. One instance, a public hospital, which is wholly 100% free of charge, public hospitals. And the level of the physicians there is fantastic. You might be a little bit frightened with the infrastructure, because a lot of these buildings are very old and, sadly, have not been kept to the extent that one would like.
But one guy, I think he had broken his toe. This is maybe 15 or 17 years ago, and I took him, and we were in and out within an hour, which actually surprised me. I thought, “Oh my God, I’m going to take this guy now to a public hospital,” because it was two blocks away from where he was staying. But it worked out really well. And for private hospitals, Alemán and such as well, yeah. And to your point of having a medical carrier, of which there are several, yes, you can do very well for $150, $200, $300 a month, and just basically go all out, just be completely covered.
How to contact Max and Martin
LADISLAS MAURICE: Again, Argentina is just such a good destination for North Americans, I find. If you’re looking to move to Argentina, get in touch with Martin. He’s an immigration lawyer who’s helped a lot of my clients here in Argentina. There’s a link below with a lot more information on the process, and you can get in touch with him. And if you’re interested in real estate, I wrote a whole article on the real estate market in Buenos Aires, the neighborhoods that are interesting, the neighborhoods to avoid, a lot of market statistics, etc. There’s a link below to this article. And then you can also get in touch with Max, who’s helped a number of my clients invest here in Buenos Aires real estate, either for lifestyle or as an investment. There’s a link below.
Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time today. It was an insightful discussion.
MAX: Thank you, our pleasure.
MARTIN: Thank you for having us.
The Wandering Investor Buenos Aires Live Event 2026
LADISLAS MAURICE: I’m really excited to be launching the first The Wandering Investor Live Event next year in March 2026, in Buenos Aires, in Argentina. This will not be your typical offshore conference. We’re not just going to be sitting in a room and having people present. It’s also not going to be the type of event where you just get pushed to a single developer for real estate sales. This is a boots-on-the-ground research event for people who want to learn about Argentina firsthand from local experts. Why Argentina, of all places? Well, simply because there’s just so much change going on with the current administration, but it’s also hard to really understand what is happening on the ground, both the positives and the negatives, and truly understanding the upside and the risks.
As a group, we’ll be hosted by some of the largest Argentinian companies that are publicly-listed. Some of them even have ADRs back at the New York Stock Exchange. We’ll meet up with local funds, with local economists, and even representatives of Milei’s party. Really, the idea is to get a clear picture of what’s happening on the ground in Argentina from the local big players and policymakers. We’ll also spend time looking at the real estate market. We’ll go into the intricacies of how the real estate market operates, and then we’ll see a curated array of properties ranging from newer properties to beautiful secondary market historical properties that are typical of Buenos Aires in Argentina. And this being of The Wandering Investor event, we’ll also have fun. Every night, really nice dinners, and then open bar afterwards.
Who is this event right for? One, people who just want to learn about Argentina. Two, people that are interested in Argentina to either move there or to have as a Plan B. Three, people who want to invest in Argentina, whether it be in equities, investment funds, or real estate. That could be as a retail investor, or also fund managers, or family office types. Number five, people who want to meet likeminded individuals, network with them, and have a good time. If you’re interested in this event, there’s a link in the description below, and you can find all of the information you need, as well as the application form. I look forward to seeing you in Buenos Aires.
