Bonjour,
Good Afternoon
To lovemyhaitian at ExpatExchange. The continuing saga of living in Haiti....
Let me begin by qualifying that I live in an upper middle class style, I can afford to, so most of my knowledge is based upon my own personal costs to live and that of people I associate with. I live well, eat and drink very well, and pretty much demand a certain quailty of life for myself. I am not rich, but I take care of me...and a few others.
One of the first things I had to do once arriving some 30 months ago, was to locate and lease/purchase property for the company/project I was then associated with. I found rather quickly and surprisingly that land costs here are abnormally high, especially near/in the city. One can buy land very economically out in the Provinces (no mans land) but in this city....costs are ridiculous and expensive.
I belive (just my opinion) that the large influx of UN, US Embassy, Canadians, etc. have been the driver of this....I can tell you for a fact, that the US Embassy pays rents for thier expat staffs that are $2500 to $3500 per month. This may seem real high....but as executive housing goes in large business and politics...these are fairly normal prices. It is this influx of foriegners that has driven housing and property costs so high here...in my opinion. Remember, only 20% of Haitians are of middle/upper class....if not for the foriegners paying these costs....who would these land/home owners rent and sell to??? Only each other....and that is exactly what happens here, and why the wealthy stay wealthy and eveyone else is poor.
I am not "bashing" any of the local people...just stating a fact of reality as I see it.
There is less expensive housing here....depending upon your personal quailty of life expectations. I, for example will not live without a kitchen, bathroom, hot running water, air-con (at least a night when trying to sleep), reliable internet and communications, electricity, and telivision inside my home. All of these things are "normal" in the western world....they are all luxuries here! and all add to the cost of living.
A couple of additional examples during my house hunting;
A three bedroom two story home, fully furnished (with very nice furnishings), with batteries and inverter to supplement electricity. This was offered by a "broker" who is a local man that manages and rents serveral properties for Haitians that own these homes, but are now living in Canada, USA, France, etc. These are the Haitian people that managed to escape the civil strife here and have visas or dual citizenship for western contries. This property was offered for $1000.00 per month with a minimum one year contract (this is common in Haiti, it is difficult to find a month to month deal). The home was well maintianed, had a newly updated kitchen with all new appliances, a small but lovely lanscaped yard, completely walled property (as are all properties of any value). The issues....no washer/dryer for clothes, I would have to travel for laundry services, or hire the local to wash them by hand....which is very rough on your clothing (the way it is done here). Electricity and propane would be extra...city suppied electricty about 6 hours per day only, propane for stove and water heater (which is common here) water was on the city system...but you never know when you shall have it....and it is not clean water...you still have to cook and drink with bottled water. The other more major issue, it was I believe on Delmas 35...which is kind of central/western Port-au-Prince.....all stores for shopping, dining, banking, etc. are several miles away and I would have been somewhat isolated from any of my local friends and other expats. When you are alone in a foriegn land, it is important to stay close to necessities and other people who may help you if you need help.
Another home I viewed was in Petion-ville, in a nice neighborhood. The owners had built a nice new home on an adjacent lot and the old home was open for rent. This older home was single story, three bedroom, partially furnished (with very old beat up furniture). No kitchen appliances, water from a cistern that means you have to call a water truck for water delivery every couple of weeks (also very common here). The house had no air-con, no generator, no batteries and inverter. The house was on a hill, with a nice view overlooking the town below and had a very beautiful outside area/garden. Offered price for this home was $500. per month.
The other reason that housing (nice, decent housing) costs so much here are all the other things you have to have here, that you do not have in western worlds.
1. You can not depend on electricty from the government at any time. You are lucky if you get 4 to 6 hours per day of electricty. A generator sized to run a household, with air-con is $8000 to $10,000USD. Batteries/inverter, batteries are $120.00 each, and you need 18 to 24 batteries to maintian normal household. The inverter for a houshold is $3000. to $4000.USD. Without this type of gear, you sit in the dark, you burn up in the heat, no refridgeration for your food, no power to pumps to pressure your water...etc.
2. Water & waste water; There is no clean water anywhere in Haiti! period. All water for cooking and drinking, making ice, etc. must be from bottled water purchased from several plants that treat water through reverse osmosis to make it clean enough for consumption. This means that all homes have cisterns that must be filled by water tanker trucks every few weeks depending on the size of the cistern and household use. You of course must pay for the water and delivery of same. This water is not consumable, but okay to shower and wash/clean with. The waste water would generally go to septic tanks that require at least an annual pumping service to empty the tank of sewer build-up.....though many places...it just overflows into gutters or ditches (rude, but it happens here all the time).
3. Commuications and entertainment. There is a local phone company, but very little infrastructure (telephone wires). This is overcome by home telephones that are wireless units....they must be plugged into the wall for electricity, then they transmitt a wireless signal back to phone station allowing calls to be made/recieved....this is similar in cost to USA....in the range of $30 to $50usd for local phone service. Most people here rely on cell phones and only have fixed phones in offices/place of business. Allot of people use two cell phones (as do I) because service can be very intermitent....if you try to call on one and cant get through, you switch to the other...and hopefully it works....sometimes none of them work.
If you want television and internet you currently have to buy two seperate satillite dishes/gear...one for each. My personal internet dish/gear costs $1000.usd with installtion. Monthly service fees are from $50 to $200.usd pending what type of bandwidth/speed you require and how much you intend to use it. I have to pay the $200 plan as I am on the internet all the time with communications for work and personal. There are about 10 local tv channels and a host of radio stations you can get with a good simple anttena....but they are of course all in French and Creole languages. If you desire to keep up with the world around you, watch some US tv shows/movies in english...you must have satillite tv....another $50 to $100usd per month, after purchase of dish and gear. And as an example...right now as I sit here and type this, at 4:45 PM on a Thursday afternoon, my satillite tv is down....blue skys and sunshine...no weather around me...but tv is down just the same....happens all the time. Calling the company will do nothing....this is just the way it is....satillite signal will come back, maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours. What really strikes me as funny (irritates the hell out of me) is that my seperate satillite system for internet is trucking right along...no problemo....
Let me know if you need other/additional specifics. I have seen and experienced allot in my time here. Keep in mind, there is not allot of decent housing (for that matter, not allot of housing for anyone...reason 80% live in shanty towns) here in Haiti. There are a few apartment complexs being built currently and here and there some are remodling homes to rent out...but the pricing is determined by location and how good the basic services are...and owners have become accustomed to charging and getting $1000 to $3000 per month from all the foriegners.
WHV
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