City guides Mexico
Mexico City
Twenty-one million people, the best museum in Latin America and food worth a decade of attention, at a price no comparable city comes close to. It is also 2,240 metres up, on a lakebed that shakes, in the middle of an argument about people exactly like you.
Every figure checked 30 Sep 2026
- MXN 21,751 a month Two-bed, 65 square metres, citywide median
- From MXN 3,459 Coworking, a month
- MXN 60 to 70 Comida corrida, Cuauhtemoc
- Country Mexico
- Time zone UTC-6 21:05 there now
- Language Spanish
- Currency Mexican peso (MXN)
- Plugs Type A and B, 127V
- eSIM Saily
How far English gets you English gets you through Roma, Condesa, Juarez and Polanco — a bubble about eight neighbourhoods wide — plus the coworking desk and most restaurants a foreigner is steered toward. It stops the moment you deal with an institution: immigration appointments, the SAT tax portal, a landlord contract, a hospital admissions desk, and the entire supply of tradespeople. It also stops with taxi drivers, market vendors and most people over fifty outside the central boroughs.
Honestly
Is this your kind of place?
It suits you if
You have functional Spanish or a real intention to get it, you earn in dollars or pounds, and you want a genuine city rather than a nomad compound. If you can show roughly 80,000 to 84,000 pesos a month on paper you get a four-year residency route with a five-year path to a passport, which is unusually generous. Live in Juarez or San Rafael rather than Condesa and you pay about a third of Condesa rent for the same commute. Buy a desk instead of pretending cafes work, and the infrastructure holds up fine.
It does not suit you if
You want a cheap, clean, easy city. The air was officially clean on 15 days out of 273 this year. You will live 2,240 metres up, which flattens people for a fortnight. The British government tells you not to hail taxis, not to use street ATMs and not to leave your drink, in a city where 59.8 per cent of adults already feel unsafe. Take the obvious flat in Roma or Condesa and you are on the soft lakebed where 2017 shook fifty times harder than firm ground, in the exact building height that fell, in the neighbourhoods where hundreds marched in July 2025 to tell foreigners to leave. Their complaint is arithmetically correct: Cuauhtemoc rents rose 13.7 per cent in a year against a 3.69 per cent cap that protects everyone except the newcomer.
Money
What everything else costs
| Coworking, a day | From MXN 500 | WeWork Reforma Latino. Other buildings from 732 |
|---|---|---|
| Hipodromo Condesa, two-bed | MXN 38,151 a month | The most expensive colonia in the city, against a citywide median of 21,751 |
| San Rafael or Juarez, two-bed | MXN 12,207 to 12,310 a month | Roughly a third of Condesa, on the same metro |
| Three tacos al pastor | MXN 75 | Up from 60. Eating out is inflating at 8.5 per cent a year against 3.8 per cent general |
| The 24-item canasta basica | MXN 910 | Capped by agreement with PROFECO for 2026. Participating supermarkets must label the items |
| Metro ride | MXN 5 | Metrobus 6, trolleybus 4, Cablebus 7. There is no monthly pass |
Paperwork
Can you legally stay?
| The visa | Residente Temporal por solvencia economica. Mexico has no dedicated nomad visa |
|---|---|
| Where that comes from | A multiple of the UMA, which is MXN 117.31 a day from February 2026. It moves every February |
| Where you apply | At a consulate abroad, never inside Mexico, then 30 days to exchange it at INM once you land |
| First permit | One to four years at INM discretion, renewable in Mexico up to four years total |
| Citizenship | Five years of legal residence, plus exams in Spanish, history and cultural integration |
Where to live
Where to base yourself
-
Hipodromo Condesa
MXN 38,151 for a two-bedArt-deco streets, Parque Mexico, and the densest concentration of cafes, gyms and English speakers in Mexico. You can land and function on day one
The catch It is the most expensive colonia in the city, it sits on the soft lakebed where 2017 shaking was worst, and it was the epicentre of the July 2025 anti-gentrification march. You would be living inside the thing people are angry about
-
Roma Sur
MXN 18,127 to 26,541Roma Norte amenities at a walk distance without Roma Norte prices, still inside the borough where everything is
The catch Cuauhtemoc rents rose 13.7 per cent in a year, nearly four times the 3.69 per cent cap that protects sitting tenants. New arrivals eat the whole increase
-
Juarez
MXN 12,207 for a two-bedBetween Reforma and Roma, metro on top of you, half the price of Condesa for the same commute
The catch Two portal reports four months apart contradict each other on Juarez, one calling it cheap and one calling it among the priciest. The market is moving fast enough that what you are quoted may bear no relation to any published figure. It is also lakebed
-
San Rafael
MXN 12,310 for a two-bedThe cheapest central option with genuine architecture and a real resident population rather than a serviced-apartment monoculture
The catch It is gentrifying in real time — the same June report already lists it climbing toward 38,400 — and it borders areas the FCDO street-crime warnings squarely apply to
Timing
The best time to come
- Jan Coolest nights, dry, calm
- Feb Ozone season, contingencias begin
- Mar Worst air of the year
- Apr Contingencia, Semana Santa crowds
- May Hottest, but air improving
- Jun Rains clear the air
- Jul Wet afternoons, cheapest month
- Aug Wet, quiet, reservoirs full
- Sep Green, patriotic season
- Oct Rains ending, clearest skies
- Nov Dia de Muertos, dry, expensive
- Dec Dry and dusty, holiday prices
Come now Fine Avoid
September to November is the window: the rains are ending, the skies are the clearest they get, and the city is green rather than dusty. February to April is the one to avoid, and the reason is air rather than weather — ozone season brings contingencias ambientales, on which a double driving restriction applies and outdoor exercise is officially discouraged.
One correction worth making: the day-zero water panic is two years out of date. The Cutzamala system was at 81.5 per cent in September 2026 after peaking at 87 per cent in January. The structural fragility has not gone away; the immediate crisis has.
Connectivity
The internet, honestly
That is Mexico's national median on Ookla for May 2026, 64th in the world. A city-level figure does not exist — the telecoms regulator was restructured in 2025 and publishes nothing usable.
The number that matters more: Ookla measured a Mexico City connection running 260 Mbps in ideal conditions and 133 Mbps once distance and walls got involved, a 49 per cent drop inside one flat. About one in five fixed connections in the city still delivers under 50 Mbps. Cafe wifi is that problem plus thirty other people, so a cafe testing at 130 Mbps empty will not hold a video call at two in the afternoon. Fine for writing. Buy the desk if you take calls — WeWork at 3,459 pesos is cheap against the rent.
Somewhere to work
Coworking in Mexico City
Work
Remote roles open to someone in Mexico
A remote job is not in any one city. These are roles whose employer will hire someone living here, pulled from the board as you load the page.
Eating
What to eat, and what it costs
-
Comida corrida
MXN 60 to 70 in CuauhtemocThe weekday set lunch in a fonda: soup, rice, a main, agua fresca. Condesa 100 to 110, Polanco 120
-
Three tacos al pastor
MXN 75Spit-roasted pork from a street taqueria. The standing evening meal, and up from 60
-
Breakfast out
MXN 190Eggs and coffee in a neighbourhood cafe rather than a brunch place. Up 27 per cent
-
A meal for three
Close to MXN 900What a family actually spends eating out once
-
The canasta basica
MXN 910Twenty-four staples, capped by agreement for 2026. Your baseline for cooking at home
Days off
Worth a Saturday
-
Museo Nacional de Antropologia
MXN 210The best museum in the country and a full day, not an hour. Mexicans and residents pay 105
-
Teotihuacan
MXN 210Pyramids an hour out, best at opening. Same resident half-price. The platforms sell transport packages you do not need
-
Free Sunday at INAH sites
FreeEvery INAH museum and archaeological zone, including both of the above. Stated for Mexican nationals; whether residents qualify is unconfirmed
-
Xochimilco trajinera
MXN 750 an hourThe canals, in a boat holding fifteen, so trivial split between people. Quoting the official rate out loud is the whole defence against being overcharged
The rest
Things the other guides leave out
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You have thirty days, not thirty weeks
A consulate visa is an entry document. Once you land you have 30 days to convert it to a residence card at INM, in Mexico. No consulate can do it for you
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The CURP went biometric this year
The national identity number now carries fingerprints and a photograph, mandatory for government procedures since February 2026. Residents get theirs through INM, not the civil registry
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Your rent rise is capped, but only if you are already in
Mexico City law caps annual increases at the previous year inflation — 3.69 per cent for 2026. It does nothing for a new tenant signing a fresh contract, which is why asking rents rose 13.7 per cent
-
The rent law everyone cites does not exist
Promised after the 2025 protests, postponed indefinitely in April 2026, and the secondary legislation still had not been presented by the end of August
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Your Airbnb may be illegal
Short-term hosts must register as Estancias Turisticas Eventuales, with the window extended to December 2026. Anyone with more than three properties must incorporate. The underlying 50-per-cent-of-nights cap is under legal challenge
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Where you live changes how the earthquake feels
In 2017 the soft lakebed amplified shaking up to fifty times over firm ground, and the worst damage was in four-to-seven-storey buildings in Roma, Condesa, Centro and Doctores. That is exactly the housing stock the default advice puts you in. Ask the construction year before you sign
Work out whether you can actually afford to go
Every role on the board says which countries you can live in and still take it, so remote means remote.
Every figure on this page was checked on 30 Sep 2026. Prices move and rules change; tell us when something is wrong and we will fix it.