Colonia, Uruguay: Colonial Living at a Bargain Price

Colonia is one of Uruguay’s real treasures. In fact, I would rank Colonia at the top of Uruguay’s list for a year-round, quality lifestyle at an affordable price. Located on the banks of Rio de la Plata (just across from Buenos Aires), it’s a friendly riverside town that draws people from the world over.

What’s always attracted me (and most visitors) to Colonia has been its historic center, known as Barrio Histórico. Founded by the Portuguese in the 1680s, Colonia’s Barrio Histórico is one of the best examples of restored and preserved Portuguese colonial architecture that you’ll ever see.

Antique, period homes surround the central plaza, with interiors that are still graced with rustic stone floors and heavy grey-stone walls. The rooms are small and sometimes cell-like, as was the style of that time. In many cases, you can see where the Portuguese used one style of stonework on the house—up to a level of about seven feet—and then the Spanish used another style, many years later, order to make the houses taller.

Unlike most resort areas of Uruguay, Colonia “never closes”. Even in the dead of winter—in July—you’ll see good number of visitors strolling its cobblestoned streets, enjoying the high-end restaurants, classy boutiques, sidewalk cafes and shady parks. It’s a good place to operate a rental property, a tourism-related business, or a B&B.

Colonia is a place where you’ll still see antique cars along the streets, going back to the 1930s…as you will in much of Uruguay’s interior. And I was surprised to find that most of them have current license plates, and are used by people as their primary vehicle, rather than a Sunday showpiece.

I try to get here at least once per year, and find the four-hour drive from my home in Punta del Este to be well worth it. I liked Colonia since the first time I saw it.

But while researching the Uruguay Discovery Kit, I found something this time that I haven’t seen in years: A property in Barrio Histórico selling for around $100,000…in a neighborhood where prices can run up to five times that much for a colonial-period home. Prices here have gone up about 300% since 2004.

This was an 1,100-square-foot house which has never been remodeled from its original structure and finishings. It has three bedrooms, two baths and is located close to the center of Barrio Histórico. But although it’s in the historical center, it's not a true colonial-period home. It’s too new…but it’s an affordable foot in the door to this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The asking price is $105,000.

An even-better opportunity in Barrio Histórico is a 1,500-square-foot gem located right next to the yacht basin. It has two bedrooms, a single bath and a large, lazy front porch covered with bougainvillea, for the asking price of $150,000. This one costs a bit more than the first, but I like the location better, in the heart of Barrio Histórico.

I found these properties exciting, having watched prices climb rapidly over the last few years. This year may indeed be the last chance to get that second home in this historic setting without spending a fortune.

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