A typical furnished apartment living room
A typical furnished apartment living room in Medellín
Editors note: this article was updated in January 2019 with new prices.
Last month we covered the costs of renting unfurnished apartments in Medellín and this is a follow-up report that looks at Medellín furnished apartment rental costs.
To more accurately answer the question about what are the actual costs for furnished apartment rentals in Medellín, with the help of my Colombian girlfriend, we surveyed rental costs of 300 available furnished apartments in several neighborhoods in Medellín.
We only included apartments that have hot water and Wi-Fi available. Several hundred apartments in Medellín are listed on the Airbnb site. We did not include apartments from the Airbnb site in our survey if they did not have ratings as they are more risky to rent.
Without a surprise most of the furnished apartments we found in Medellín are located in El Poblado – almost 85 percent.
There are three main websites to find furnished apartments in Medellín:
Some apartments are listed on one of the company websites as well as the Airbnb site. If an apartment is listed on more than one website we tried to only include it once in our survey.
We also looked for furnished apartments on some Spanish language websites that cater to Colombians for our survey. However, be careful of apartments on Spanish language sites, some do not have much furniture, some do not have hot water and some do not have Wi-Fi.
Most furnished apartment rentals in Medellín are priced in dollars. For apartment rentals priced in pesos we used the exchange rate of 2,155 pesos to the dollar.
Pricing for some furnished apartments in Medellín increases during the popular times of the year such as Christmas, New Years and Feria de las Flores (the Medellín flower festival). We used the low season rental prices in our survey.
Most furnished apartment rentals in Medellín have a minimum rental period of at least two to three days. But many furnished apartments we looked at in Medellín have a minimum rental period of 30 days (35 percent of the apartments surveyed).
For apartments with both daily and monthly rates, the longer-term monthly rate usually reflects a discount to the daily rate.
Most furnished apartment rentals in Medellín require a security deposit – 87 percent of the apartments we surveyed required a security deposit. The security deposit charges ranged from $46 to $1,163 and averages $296.
Many furnished apartment rentals also require a cleaning fee – 50 percent of the apartments we surveyed had a cleaning fee listed. The cleaning fee ranged from $10 to $50 and averaged $30.
We didn’t include security deposits or cleaning fees in our below rental cost survey results.
El Poblado is the most popular neighborhood for foreigners living in or visiting Medellín. It is the most upscale neighborhood in the city and is where the most hotels and furnished apartments catering to foreigners are located.
In my first few visits to Medellín, I rented furnished apartments in El Poblado.
El Poblado is primarily an Estrato 6 neighborhood with 74 percent of the households rated at Estrato 6. It is also where the most expensive real estate and most expensive apartment rentals in the city are located.
El Poblado survey of 253 furnished apartment rentals results:
Laureles-Estadio is perhaps the second-most popular neighborhood for foreigners living in Medellín. It is primarily a residential neighborhood with many areas with tree-lined streets and fewer high-rise apartments than are found in El Poblado.
Laureles-Estadio is primarily an Estrato 4/5 neighborhood with 99 percent of the households rated at Estrato 4 or 5.
Laureles-Estadio survey of 23 furnished apartment rentals results:
Our survey also found several furnished apartments in Envigado, Belén and La Candelaria (El Centro) with a summary of these results as follows:
Envigado is another popular neighborhood for foreigners living in Medellín. It is less commercial than El Poblado and like Laureles-Estadio has many areas with tree-lined streets and fewer high-rise apartments than are found in El Poblado.
Envigado survey of 10 furnished apartment rentals results:
Belén is a neighborhood that is increasing in popularity for foreigners living in Medellín. Belén is where I have lived for over two years in three different barrios (Fatima, Loma de Los Bernal and Los Alpes)
Belén is more of a working-class community with 98 percent of housing in Estrado 2 to 5 and only 2 percent in Estrato 1. I rented an apartment in the Fatima barrio of Belén for three months several years ago as a trial of living in Medellín.
Belén survey of five furnished apartment rentals results:
The center of Medellin, known formally as La Candelaria, or informally as El Centro, has a rough reputation but also some hidden gems that make this neighborhood one that should not be overlooked when visiting the city.
La Candelaria survey of nine furnished apartment rentals results:
There is a wide range of furnished apartments available for rent in Medellín ranging from economical to luxury. El Poblado is where most of the furnished apartments in Medellín are available but El Poblado is also where the most expensive real estate in the city is found.
Medellín furnished apartment rental costs are more expensive in El Poblado than in the other areas of Medellín. You can save substantially by renting a furnished apartment in an area outside of El Poblado, such as Laureles-Estadio, Envigado or Belén.
Unfortunately there aren’t that many furnished apartments to be found outside of El Poblado as El Poblado remains the most popular area for foreign visitors to Medellín.
To compare the costs of furnished apartment rentals with unfurnished apartments, see our report last month looking at unfurnished apartment rental costs in Medellín.
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Hello,
why do you put everything in USD? As we live in Colombia and as there are also Europeans and other nationality's living here?!
Good question, and there are a few reasons. While it's not evident in this post, normally when we mention local prices, we quote them in Colombian pesos with the US Dollar equivalent in parenthesis.
The majority of readers accessing this blog do so from outside of Colombia. From those other countries, the majority are reading from the USA. If we're going to choose another currency to help give readers a feel for what things cost locally, USD makes the most sense.
When it comes to large amounts in pesos, there are a lot of numbers. For clarity's sake, I think it helps to stick with USD in an article like this one. This article is the exception, almost all others on the blog will have both pesos and USD.
But what if currency exchange rates change as they do often and have by over 10% in the last few months, then these prices are completely non-relevant.
Over 70% of the apartments surveyed had rental prices listed only in USD (on four of the five listed apartment rental websites), so no impact of currency rate exchange on the price to rent for the majority of the apartments surveyed.
I suspect some apartment owners may increase their apartment rental prices when the USD is weak but with the USD strong recently their potential profit increases with expenses in pesos but collecting rent in dollars.
David, I am interested in staying longer than a month, possibly 2 yesrs; would the monthly rental cost be significantly lower. For instance the 4 bedroom you used as an example goes for $2,500 per month. What do you think it would go for for a year lease.
Also, what would be the most effective manner to inquire for long-term rental prices?
Thanks,
Leo
For a long terms of 2 years, furnished apartments will be quite expensive in comparison to unfurnished apartment rentals. For such a long-term, it will normally be cheaper to rent unfurnished that you furnish yourself. I was renting furnished for about $1,200 per month when I started living in Medellín. I moved to an unfurnished place that was much cheaper and rented for about $600 per month at the time (now it would be about $400 with the improved exchange rate). I spent about $6,000 to furnish the apartment so that made my break-even about 10 months so unfurnished was cheaper for me over two years, without factoring in the sale of furnishings as I still live in the city six year later.
Some of the furnished apartment owners have lower prices for longer terms. Check on Airbnb and you can find some. You can also check with the real estate firms that have many furnished apartments to see if you can negotiate a lower long-term rental price - Casacol and The Apartment Medellín have the most furnished rentals in the city.
I have lived here now for 2 years, and have never paid more than 300 dollars a month for rent. Than was my last place on a farm 3 bedrooms,3 baths with a large balcony on 4 acres. No deposit and people worked the farm. I have lived in 2 apartments for 250 a month. I paid deposit there which was one month rent. I live away from Americans because I Like the Colombian people. If You want to live like your in the states live in Poblado. You will pay 3 times more to live there. My fiance is Colombian and she negotiates everything. Have met many contacts in bar and restaurants. Just need to get out and walk around. I am sorry but your information is for people who have more money than the average. Do not deal with Americans here they will ríp you off. I learned the hard way.
That is so true. Everyone should read your post.... u have to walk around and look in Windows (Arrienda)
Four out of the five apartment rental websites listed (Airbnb, The Apartment Medellin, Poblado Rentals and Oasis Collections) price their Medellín apartment rentals only in USD. And Paradise Realty prices their apartment rentals in both USD and pesos.
Over 70% of the apartments we surveyed were priced only in USD, which is why I used USD. Only a few apartments found on Spanish language sites (less than 10%) were priced only in pesos, which were converted to USD at the exchange rate of 2,155 pesos to the dollar.
Hola! We are Dur and Luis, Ryan's friend! We are from Medellin! But as we left the country 3 years ago your blog is so usefull for us! :) thank you so much for this post and all the research it will help us a lot in the future when we go back!
We also looked for furnished apartments on some Spanish language websites that cater to Colombians for our survey."
Which Spanish language websites did you use? That would be helpful info for many travelers because most of the websites you did use have heavily inflated prices targeted at gringos. I would have liked to see some "non-gringo" websites included in this survey too, such as OLX.com or even CompartoApto (even though it is usually for shared apartments).
AirBnB is usually a rip-off as are most of those other realty websites. I'm happy you stayed away from Craigslist though. Thanks for writing this article!
tuapartamentomde.com and http://www.homeaway.com.co are two of the Spanish language sites we looked at during out survey. My Colombian girlfriend who is in Bogotá right now found some additional apartments on some other Spanish language sites.
I disagree that Airbnb is a ripoff. Many of the apartments we found on Airbnb have good prices and have many positive reviews and the owners are Colombian.
I have rented apartments found on Airbnb in Cartagena and Bogotá in Colombia as well as several other cities in Latin America including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Mexico City and Santiago. My experience has been that all the apartments I rented were as advertised and were for good prices. I encountered no problems but it is important to look for apartments on Airbnb that have several positive reviews.
You can say Airbnb is a ripoff, but damn is it a convenient solution. They provide a service that makes it easier and more comfortable for people to rent rooms and properties, especially when traveling outside their home city or country.
I use Airbnb knowing that I'm paying a higher rate than someone who can afford to spend time doing research on the ground before renting. I do so because the website is well-designed, offers a uniform user experience (I don't have to research different local options in every city/country I go) and payment is handled electronically.
Unless you are on a high floor, air conditioning can be pretty important. It can get quite stifling at times. Yes, I am a whiny gringo. I hate heat and humidity.
I'm on the 20th floor of my building, but because it faces the west, I get some intense sunlight heating up the apartment in the afternoons. I bought a nice fan for my bedroom, and that suits me fine. I like not having to rely on air conditioning (or heating) here.
I'm on the 14th floor of an apartment building in Belén that faces east. I bought some curtains to block the sun as well as two fans - one for my office and one for the bedroom, which are enough to make it comfortable in the apartment. In the evenings I can sleep with the window open.
Similar to Dave, I also like not having to rely on air conditioning (or heating) here. My electric bill has averaged only $27 per month over the past year.
However, I am aware that some of the furnished rental apartments in El Poblado have air conditioning.
Since when Roy Lichtenstein's art is popular in Colombia?
Jeff, I've enjoyed reading this entire series. It's very good information, and I really appreciate the time and energy you put into doing the research. I noticed La America, which you covered in you Best Neighborhoods piece, isn't mentioned in the research on costs for furnished and unfurnished apartments. Any particular reason for that? Thanks, and keep up the great work.
For the unfurnished apartment cost article we looked at the five neighborhoods we thought were most popular for foreigners. For the furnished apartment cost article we only found furnished apartments in the neighborhoods mentioned in the article.
I may do another unfurnished apartment article next month that will look at some additional neighborhoods with potential, which have low costs.
Thanks, Jeff. I think I must have mentally included Ryan's piece on the best neighborhoods in Medellin as part of your series. They work well together.
Thank you so much for doing this research! This article, and the previous one on unfurnished apartments, are both so helpful as we are considering purchasing an apartment in Medellin and renting it out for a few years.
hello jeff,
excellent work that is invaluable for those of us planning to spend more time in medallo. i'm curious for the section on laureles-estadio, were the rental comps primarily in central laureles around primer and segundo parques or were they scattered throughout comuna 11?
as you know, there are significant differences between sectors close to the two main parks of laureles and other parts of the comuna.
thanks,
daniel
Hi Daniel,
Thanks. The apartments we found in Laureles-Estadio were fairly scattered. A few were located near primer and segundo parques. Plus some we found were not that clear on exact locations.
I bought the book. You guys did a good job. I am hunting around for a 1 bedroom or studio apartment for the 3 months i am going to spend in Medellin. (Spanish at EAFIT) Now i am used to airbnb and boy the prices in Medellin are skyrocketing. Any advise which areas I should look into close to EAFIT? How does one go about getting their deposit back as some of the apartments listed are asking for $1000+ for the deposit. Should I take an apartment for a month and then shop around or save time and go for 3 months…thanks
Many of the apartments in El Poblado are close to EAFIT. We found 90 one-bedroom or studio apartments in El Poblado during our survey.
Since EAFIT is located close to the Metro station Aguacatala you could also find apartments in other neighborhoods near a metro station and take the metro.
You should be able to find an apartment with a deposit less then $1000 - the average deposit was $296 for the furnished apartments we surveyed. If the deposit is for an apartment rented on Airbnb, my experience is the deposit is returned quickly within a couple days.
Hello. I loved the research you did for apartments in Medellin. I live in USA and I just purchased an apartment in Medellin. My plan is to furnish the apartment and have it ready to be rented in March this year (brand new apartment). The location is great, quiet, safe beautiful view (8th floor) and only 10-15 minutes away from el Poblado. I would like to rent it for at least 1 year. Do you know a good site or realtor company to advertise it??. Thank you in advance
Hi Adriana,
I am aware that The Apartment Medellin does manage rental apartments for property owners in Medellín. They also advertise rentals beyond just their website. They use a multi-channel approach and also list on several other sites. I also understand they do a pretty good job of keeping apartments at a high occupancy level.
Thank you Jeff, your answer really helped me a lot!.