331–340 of 557 posts
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But why couldn't the renter use the deposit to buy a house instead?
It makes zero sense to me that you would have 80% or even 50% of a property’s market value and not just buy the place as opposed to letting someone else. Do they not do home mortgages in South Korea? Are properties expected to go down in price?
I live in Korea. Some months my total expenses are as low as $400 while living comfortably. If I spent $1000 in a month, I spent a lot of money. I'd say my average monthly living expenses are $600-$800. My main expenses are food/entertainment, and I eat out a lot (50% of meals). Housing is probably the biggest living expense. I take advantage of Korea's interesting rental system called Cheonsae: Basically, if you put…
Just for the record, I don't think that South Korea is particularly cheap. As OP demonstrates, one can live there for USD 1000/month, but that really holds for most countries. While the US is in the top 5% in terms of nominal GDP per capita, South Korea is in the top 15%. For cheap, yet comfortable and safe, I'd aim around the median, eg Indonesia or Georgia. ETA: Nomadlist suggests €1,925/mo for Seoul, €1,530/mo for…
Poland is doable if you stay out of major cities. You can rent a studio for $300 (incl. all utilities). Food, if you cook, will cost you $200-$250 ($300-$400 if you don't cook and want to eat out only). Wired Internet and cell phone will be around $20. State-provided health insurance is about $120 per month (this is "socialized medicine", so it provides everything with no deducible, up to treating cancer etc.), but c…
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> Basically, if you put down a huge deposit (like $90,000: 50% to 90% of the value of the property), you don't pay any monthly rent and get the entire deposit back when you move out. So you're giving them a usurious loan basically.
How is a zero interest loan usurious?
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It makes zero sense to me that you would have 80% or even 50% of a property’s market value and not just buy the place as opposed to letting someone else. Do they not do home mortgages in South Korea? Are properties expected to go down in price?
Whether properties are expected to go down in price or not doesn’t change the fact that their is always a risk that property drops in price.
Ukraine — almost in any city. I recommend Kharkiv and Lviv.
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I second this, I would add Croatia to the list if you stay out of Zagreb and Split and even seaside tourist towns are doable for $300 out of season (October to June). Also Croatia offers a digital nomad visa which means you don't pay most of the taxes there.
Which levels of security will you find in Croatia - including appropriate behaviour of public officers, such as the police? Also - how widespread is the understanding of the English language?
As for language, of course, your experience will depend on where you want to live in the country. North-east sees less tourists than the coast, and finding that sweet middle might take some trial and error.
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But why couldn't the renter use the deposit to buy a house instead?
Since you seem to get the whole deposit back, it seems like it'd be preferable to rent in many situations if the landlord still assumes liabilities (repairs, disasters, etc) and the costs associated with them. If it's "free" to live there either way, I'd rather someone else cough up 10k for a new AC, heater, etc.
You also get to avoid the risk of the landlord not giving you a large sum of money back.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just for the record, I don't think that South Korea is particularly cheap. As OP demonstrates, one can live there for USD 1000/month, but that really holds for most countries. While the US is in the top 5% in terms of nominal GDP per capita, South Korea is in the top 15%. For cheap, yet comfortable and safe, I'd aim around the median, eg Indonesia or Georgia. ETA: Nomadlist suggests €1,925/mo for Seoul, €1,530/mo for…
Since you seem to be informed here, how would one look for places like this that are explicitly not hot & humid, or nearly tropical locations? Effectively a climate and geography filter on this site with "has winters, mountains, summer highs typically < 90 degrees"