Expert: Sandra - 5/30/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

I get selected for an internship in Brazil Brasilia, and it's paid 850$ per month so the equivalent of 1 544 R.  is it enough to live there ? what kind of living could I have with this money.

Thank you in advance.

ANSWER: Brasilia is one of the most expensive places to live in Brazil. The families and professional singles whom I know there have their own apartments, either rented or owned, in the planned city itself (plano piloto) or in the outlying town of Sobradinho. The prices for decent (by my own U.S. standards) housing are very high, especially compared to many other places in Brazil. From what I understand, the amount you mention would not allow a very nice life in the city of Brasilia at all. But perhaps you are used to another standard of living and you could find something that you would consider reasonable. For instance, in most other major Brazilian cities, like Salvador or Rio, this amount would mean dividing an apartment or living in a poorer neighborhood (of which Brasilia's plano piloto has none, just those further from city), but I really don't know as much about alternative living situations in Brasilia as I do about some other places in Brazil. Good luck.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your answer.

So, how much money do I need per month to live a normal life there, I mean to rent a studio (normal, not a luxury one) and to pay for grocery and transportation. Not necessary in downtown

Answer
"Not necessary in downtown" could mean well over an hour commute each way into the city. As I mentioned, there is the plano piloto, planned residential blocks with commercial and office space, and there are suburbs that grew up in response to the needs of the poor and those who wanted more acreage to live on. It is the first city in Brazil, a country where people usually pay cash for the purchase of housing, that has developed 20 year mortgages (as are common in some other countries) because of the high price of housing in the plano piloto. And as I said,'a normal life" is relative in a city made up mostly of bureaucrats and their servants. If I were to live there, I would think I'd need perhaps R$7000-9000 for my "normal" life. And I am unaware, as I also mentioned already, of costs for the poor who live in the suburbs of Brasilia, or how one would go about locating housing there. I would suggest asking more questions directly of the organization furnishing you the internship.