One of our blog members has been kind enough to share this information and give me permission to publish it. For those of you who want to buy acreage, it is absolutely golden advice.
If you really want to buy land in Uruguay, please consider all of the following:
1) Indice CONEAT: Land in Uruguay is rated by a productivity index: “Indice CONEAT”. Average for the country is 100, good agricultural land starts at about 160, really prime land is about 260. This land is mostly located along the Western edge, near the Argentine border.
As a guide, the land I bought has a CONEAT rating of 98; it is mostly grazing land about 70% tillable – only good for fattening cattle.
The CONEAT index helps estimate land prices; a very low CONEAT (some properties near Punta del Este were rated 27) is no good to anyone intending to work it, and has only recreational value. In my experience, just mentioning the Indice CONEAT was enough to bring realtors down to earth. The government has detailed CONEAT plats for each individual parcel of land (padron) in Uruguay – buyers should insist on getting one before making any decisions. They can be downloaded from the Internet with the parcel’s “padron” number.
2) UTE: Something else to consider is whether the land has power or UTE. I bought an undeveloped parcel and it’s taken UTE since August 2005 to process my request, the poles are up but UTE has not yet supplied the wire, so I’m still waiting.
If the land has no power it would be good to go to the nearest UTE office with the “padron” number and find out how far is the nearest power line to hook on to. I ended up having to build a five mile line.
3) When looking for small parcels (under 150 hectares) it is a good idea to check with the local realtor first; they generally know who’s planning on selling, who’s in debt with the Banco Republica, and who’s inherited or will inherit a parcel they want to sell.
4) New fencing can be quite expensive, about US$5.00 per meter. Most fencing I’ve seen was at least twenty years old and falling down. In that case, it is a good bargaining point to bring up when prices are discussed.
5) Wells: Well drilling comes to about US$65 per meter. They have to be sunk at least twenty meters, although sixty meter wells are not uncommon. Domestic wells should provide a minimum 1000 liters per hour.
REMEMBER, both here and in Argentina many realtors are unreliable and unprofessional. Anyone can become a realtor, and it shows.
Thank you curru taca!!!
It would be interesting to some asking prices attached to the various CONEATs. Seems like $1000us +/- per acre is common, but for what?
Left by tucsontom on November 18th, 2006