Country Article / Postcards

$50,000 Apartments on Embassy Row

Date: 12/27/2006

Quito Tenis is an upscale neighborhood in Quito. But although you’ll be neighbors with the Japanese and Cuban ambassadors, real estate prices here are typically Ecuadorian (i.e. cheap). By way of full disclosure, I should point out that I live here, too…but I’ll try to be impartial.

Much of this area was formerly the golf course belonging to the Buena Vista Club (now simply a tennis club, hence the name of the neighborhood), and a great deal of the housing is of recent construction.

We have three small parks, ideal for short walks or children at play (the many families take advantage of the excellent preschools here). While two mini-marts and one hair salon help meet basic needs, the limited number of businesses in the neighborhood means that there is little non-resident car and foot traffic, especially at night, keeping the streets safer than many other popular expat areas. Quito’s traffic can be heavy at times, but is light to non-existent at night, so you can easily head to another part of town for dinner or a show.

A major shopping mall, El Bosque, is two minutes away by car. You can walk, but it’s uphill (Quito Tenis and El Bosque are at the foot of the slope of the Pichincha volcano) all the way. Many apartments and a few houses offer spectacular views either of the city and the Cotopaxi volcano, or of Pichincha.

The neighborhood is but two minutes from the Occidental, the north-south highway on the western edge of town. This makes it a 10-minute drive to the major medical complex of Hospital Metropolitano. A shopping center with a movie theater is minutes away in the other direction.

Houses are disappearing in Quito Tenis as they are replaced with apartment buildings. But a recent zoning restriction limits buildings to five stories, so the neighborhood is avoiding the highrise effect.

A small 60-square-meter, one-bedroom apartment in a new building with a view of the Pichincha volcano recently sold for less than $50,000. The architect was Antonio Naranjo, a resident in the neighborhood. He’s usually working on something in the area, with prices, depending on view and amenities, ranging from $840 to $1,000 per square meter. If you want to know what Antonio is working on right now, his e-mail address is lee9540@hotmail.com. He speaks English.

Two current examples of what’s still for sale as I write (both listed with Lili Cornejo, e-mail: lilicornejo@yahoo.com):

* A 268-square-meter, two-story, four-bedroom apartment for $215,000. It has a 140-square-meter terrace.

* A 600-square-meter, four-bedroom house with great views, and a large yard is $450,000.

While new-build apartments typically go for $1,000 per square meter, older buildings and houses can sell for significantly less.

Amy E. Robertson
For International Living