Relocating to Puerto Rico

Where to live

You have decided relocating to Puerto Rico and now, it's time to find the family house. There are a few interesting options for choosing your place in PR and your choice will depend mostly on your family composition and interests, as well as on your labor place.

One aspect you should consider in all cases is the daily ocurrence of traffic jams ("tapon" as locally known). Traffic in Puerto Rico is a major issue specially in the rush hours, what for PR means from 7:00 to 9:30 AM and from 4:30 to 7:00 PM.

You will have to search for housing within gated communities or buildings with private security 24 hours a day. Puerto Rico is not a specially dangerous place, but housing must be in a safe place for security reasons and for appropriate social environment.

If you have children, you may find it interesting to rent a house, rather than an appartment. Swimming pool is particularly convenient, as hot weather is present all year long.

Should you be a couple without children or even a single person, you may find an appartment site very convenient. This will ease your travel plans and will save you money in maintenance services. Labor force is quite expensive in the island, specially considering its productivity, thus gardening and cleanning services will have chances to be a source of headaches.

Housing in the San Juan Area

If you are interested in living by the sea, you have two main options:

a) An appartment in Isla Verde: there are several buildings by the sea in Isla Verde. The beach is really wonderful, a bit noisy and crowded, but definitively nice. On the opposite side, the area is very noisy, full of turists, not that elegant and you will deal with traffic jams on a daily basis, day and night.

b) A house in Dorado: you will find very nice gated communities in Dorado by the sea. "Dorado Beach East" is one of them, very recommendable specially if you are a golf player. This is a high end community with excellent properties, many of them at a reasonable rent price. On the bad side you will deal with mosquitoes (beware of "dengue"), and will have to drive around 50 minutes to San Juan each way in the rush hour.

If you can accept not living on the beach, you will enjoy some advantages:

a) A property in Guaynabo City: Guaynabo is the most modern and fast growing city in the island. Very close to the most interesting places in the Metropolitan area, it is the less traffic jammed area. You will enjoy a fluent traffic along the Martinez Nadal highway, even in the rush hour. It is 10 minutes far to Plaza Las Americas (the biggest Shopping Mall in the Caribbean), 20 minutes from Isla Verde beach (40 minutes in the rush hour), 1 minute from Guaynabo Medical Mall (modern health institution), restaurants, cinemas, supermarkets, etc.. Guaynabo hosts several important gated communities, and apartment buildings, with security and luxury services at very reasonable rent rates (much lower than on the beach). If your work place is located in Hato Rey or other parts of San Juan, Bayamon or Guaynabo itself, you will find this location extremely convenient. On the bad side, you will not be by the sea. Due to municipal sistematic fumigation services, there are no mosquitoes or other kind of insects.

b) A house in Montehiedra: there are a couple of gated communities in Montehiedra, where you can enjoy a less urban environment, yet very close to shopping stores and cinemas (Montehiedra Shopping Mall). You will be a bit far from main attractions of the Metropolitan area, adding around 15 minutes to the distances from Guaynabo.

c) An appartment in Condado: this is a high end neighbourhood with very expensive rent rates. In exchange you will be close to the best restaurants in the island (many of them!!), as well as to the historic Old San Juan, and you can even find a beach or lagoon sight property (mainly a sight seeing advantage, as the beach here is not the best one to swim). You will be able to walk along Ashford Ave., where the best fashion brands have their stores (Dior, Luis Vuitton, Cartier, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, etc.).

This summarizes all the valuable places you can choose from within the Metropolitan area, as far as I can tell. My apologies to the local folks that may feel excluded from the list.

Housing outside the Metropolitan area ("en la isla")

If your working place is far from the Metro area, you will have to find a house within a gated community, there are many of them, in almost any city in the island. In the southern coast you will find Ponce as the main city, probably the best place to live in that area. In the west coast you will be able to choose between Mayaguez and Aguadilla. While Mayaguez is a more important city, Aguadilla is more charming and has the best beaches, including the famous "Crash Boats Beach". The east coast does not host many companies, but if it happens to be your working place, then you will have to choose one of the generally expensive and luxury gated communities available. The east coast is the best place for boating and sailing, excellent opportunities to enjoy the best of the Caribbean.