[matthewphiong]

Hi Andrew,

As someone who is going to Santiago as part of the program, I've done some research based on previous participants' experiences.

Find apartments using Home Chile (http://www.homechile.cl/) and all are furnished. Many recommended Providencia area.

Since you are based there, hope you don't mind if I ping you for questions.

matt

[plamb]

(startupchile participant) I highly, highly recommend homechile. Fernando, the manager, speaks good English, was a big help in finding an appropriate place and has helped us multiple times with translation when issues like having our internet randomly go out have come up. Providencia is a nice centralized location and near the office. If I could do it over I probably would have tried to pick a place in Manuel Montt (Providencia) as it is walking distance from the office and also near most of the nightlife.

[andrewcooke]

sure - email in profile. most appts here are unfurnished, i think (makes sense for local long-term use) which probably explains why homechile (which i didn't know about, thanks) exists. providencia is a nice place to live (i live there and i imagine it's similar standards to what people from the usa would be used to), but it's certainly not the lowest price area.

ps wasn't going to post this as a separate answer because it's 10 years old and i had a local job offer, but i found getting permanent residence to be very easy (i had arrived on a tourist visa, which can be renewed for up to 6 months). i can't remember if having the job offer was critical (i think it was the other way round - i needed the residency because employment would have been illegal on a tourist visa), but what surprised me was the need to show evidence of education level, so bring some kind of certificate!

[matthewphiong]

Thanks!

From the Startup Chile FAQ, participants are entitled up to $600,000 CLP monthly spending on rental. Many had fully furnished apartments around Providencia with facilities like pool and gym (from HomeChile listings, apartments with such facilities are around 400k-600k). Providencia are also recommended because it is said to be safer.

PS: Another website similar to HomeChile is ContactChile (http://www.contactchile.cl)

[andrewcooke]

ok, so now i'm curious - if they paid less for somewhere to live, would they have more money for their startup? i'm sure you can imagine that the programmers that they are hiring for $1m a month don't spend 60% of their wages on pads with gyms and pools...

[capken]

Yes. As a single founder in the program I can claim up to 400 000 CLP, I currently pay 300 000. The difference is now available for me to use for any other purpose that is reimbursable.

[matthewphiong]

From what I know, yes. But the total reimbursement is capped at $40k USD which includes salaries and rental expenses.