Recent publications from the real estate agency Vista Habana have sparked a wave of comments among Cubans, who react with astonishment at the prices of some rentals in Havana, where certain properties are listed for amounts close to 3,000 a month.
One of the ads promotes the rental of the upper part of a two-story house located near Línea and E, in Vedado.
The property features four bedrooms, four bathrooms, an entryway, a living room, a family room, an interior staircase, and a spacious terrace with a kitchen, as well as a guest bathroom, a garage, street gas, cleaning service, and an inverter system. The listed price is $2,900 per month.
Another one of the promotions offers a two-story independent house located near Tercera and 60, in Miramar.
The property features four bedrooms, two bathrooms plus a guest bathroom, a living room, dining room, L-shaped patio, kitchen, service area, garage, carport, and garden. In this case, the rent is set at 3,000 monthly.
Reactions on social media quickly appeared, many of which reflected disbelief at the figures. "2,900 what? USD?" asked one user.
Other comments directly questioned the logic of the pricing in a country marked by economic hardship. "I don't know what people in Cuba take or eat with these prices. No electricity, broken streets, violence, scarcity, and prices higher than in Miami," wrote another user.
Several comments compared rental prices to those in cities across Europe or the United States.
"The rent is more expensive than in Europe," noted one internet user, while another questioned, "3,000 a month? Not even in developed countries where everything exists does rent cost that much."
The disbelief is echoed even among Cubans living abroad. "$2,900 a month... they're going crazy," wrote a user who claimed to live in Las Vegas. Another comment sarcastically asked if the price was stated in Cuban pesos.
The contrast between these prices and the economic reality of the island also emerges in testimonies from those seeking housing.
A young Cuban identified as Zol Arias recently shared her experience trying to rent in Havana, where, according to her testimony, most of the options she found exceeded 100 dollars a month.
The creator explained that she finally managed to rent an apartment for 140 dollars a month, a price she now considers high, given that state salaries in the country remain very low.
In her video, she shows the moving process and describes the difficulty of finding available options.
The situation occurs amid a deep housing deficit that the Cuban authorities themselves have acknowledged to be around 900,000 housing units.
The deterioration of the real estate sector, the scarcity of new constructions, and the structural restrictions of the economic model have led to a distorted market where the prices of some rentals appear to be completely disconnected from the salary reality of most citizens.
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