Located less than 50 kilometers from the center of Montevideo, Parque del Plata has been transformed from a place to spend the summer to a city to live all year. From the Voilà real estate company, which operates in that city, they assured that in recent years inquiries for the high season have significantly decreased. However, interest in settling in Parque del Plata has increased throughout the year through rental contracts.
Despite the fact that “it is difficult to quantify exactly; Consultations and concretions in the area of ”annual rentals” have increased considerably, they pointed out from the real estate agency.
Operators in the area pointed out in dialogue with Coffee & Business that this coastal city has become a magnet for people seeking a better quality of life.
The profile of clients interested in living all year round is, above all, older people from both Montevideo and the interior. In the first case, they look for more spacious places to live and more tranquility, although without ceasing to be close to Montevideo. As for the people in the interior, “they seek to be closer to their children, who are actively in the capital, although without losing the tranquility of their towns of origin,” they added.
Story Illustrating a Trend
Although businesswoman Andrea Pezzutto made her life in the Pocitos neighborhood in Montevideo, in 2020 she decided to take a turn. As a result of the covid-19 pandemic, she decided to change her home in search of a “better quality of life.”
Pezzutto has a real estate agency that bears his name and that operates in Montevideo and also in various areas of Canelones and Maldonado.
After this personal determination in the midst of a health emergency, he took advantage of his experience in real estate to decide where to move and join a trend that he was observing through inquiries from his clients.
“When I decided to go live in Parque del Plata, my real estate agency had not been operating there for too long,” the businesswoman told Café & Negocios.
And he deepened: “Now I have a large house, with a patio, back, barbecue, I can have social gatherings and I am in Montevideo in a period of between 50 minutes and an hour.”
Asked about the profile of clients interested in settling in that city, Pezzutto explained that it is not a very defined profile, although she does perceive that they are middle and upper-middle class Uruguayans,” she pointed out.
The real estate business expert agreed with the other operators in the area that, although this phenomenon has been developing in recent times, “it was intensified by the pandemic.”
On the other hand, the businesswoman explained that many people who decide to leave Montevideo for nearby resorts opt for houses when, in the capital, they lived in apartments.
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), since November 2019 there has been a sustained increase in rental contracts in force per month in Parque del Plata, although with small retractions in some months. While in November 2019 this figure stood at 304 current contracts, by September of this year 363 were registered. In that period, the month with the highest current contacts in Parque del Plata was July 2022, with 373.
The monthly rental price has also been growing since November 2019. On that date, the average price in the Canarian city was $13,590 and in September 2022 it became $16,316. The INE report was based on the data from the records of the Rental Guarantee Service and ANDA.
Increased consumption in historical places of the place
The local restaurant Maruja has been operating in Parque del Plata for 33 years when its founder, María de Lourdes Rodríguez (82), arrived from the department of Rivera. “Parque del Plata has changed,” said the owner of the venue. “Many great people have come to live; It is no longer a spa, but a city”, added the businesswoman.
According to Rodríguez, many older people settled in the coastal city “following the pandemic.” For the businesswoman, it is notorious how many families come to the city on weekends to see their parents or grandparents, who live there year-round. “During the week it is common to see people with canes or walkers in places,” said the owner of the restaurant that has been in the coastal city for more than three decades, which in the 2011 census registered a population of almost eight thousand people.
Rodríguez also explained that many families pay for a weekly menu so that food can be delivered to their relatives living there every day.
The businesswoman indicated that consumption has grown exponentially. “On weekends this is a pilgrimage. We have even established a waiting list because on Sundays we have customers outside the premises, this did not happen before,” Rodríguez narrated.
The businesswoman also specified that another of the things that has changed is the management of money: “Until relatively recently we used cash and now payment with credit card predominates.”
In another order, Coffee & Business He also spoke with the local IKE pharmacy. From the trade they aligned themselves with the other actors in the Canary Islands town and, despite the fact that they preferred not to provide specific figures, they explained that the greatest movement in Parque del Plata is clear and that, although there was greater activity during 2021 due to the pandemic, Parque del Plata has already established itself as a city to reside all year round.
For their part, from UTE they pointed out that in this place an “increase in electricity consumption” has been detected in the area that supports the fact that more and more are choosing to reside there.
