Cartagena, Cartagena de Indias

Fincaraíz results on 6 October 2026, apartments with three bedrooms for rent in Cartagena, first page: 21 listings out of more than 400. Prices from 2.1 to 12 million pesos a month, median 5.5 million, half of the listings within 3.5-7.04 million, median area 113 m². By stratum: in stratum 6 (Bocagrande, Castillogrande, Manga, Bahía Kristal, part of Serena del Mar) 8 listings, median 6.78 million; in stratum 5 (Crespo, El Cabrero, Marbella, Serena del Mar) 9 listings, median 4.6 million; in strata 3-4 (Ternera, Santa Lucía, Barceloneta) 4 listings from 2.1 to 3.4 million. The site converts pesos at 3,348 per dollar, hence 1,640 dollars for the median. The building maintenance fee (administración) is included in the price in some listings and added on top in others, up to 1.3 million. These are asking prices: the first page is sorted by popularity and includes promoted listings. Cartagena is a tourist city with a lot of short-term rentals next to long-term ones; only long-term rental listings are counted here.

Fincaraíz results on 6 October 2026, three-bedroom apartments for sale in Cartagena, first page: 21 listings, 16 of them resale (we removed 5 developer projects with a "from" price). Resale: from 360 million (El Recreo, 85 m², stratum 4) to 3.2 billion pesos (Bocagrande, 245 m²), median 975 million, half within 750 million - 1.49 billion, median area 149 m², about 6.8 million pesos per m². 12 of the 16 listings are in stratum 6: Bocagrande, Castillogrande, El Laguito, that is, the tourist peninsula by the sea. At the site's rate of 3,348 pesos per dollar the median is about 291 thousand dollars. Where the building maintenance fee is stated, it is 0.7 to 2.6 million pesos a month. These are sellers' prices, not transactions; we found no official median of transactions for Cartagena.

DANE calculates the extreme poverty line as the cost of a food basket covering minimum calorie needs, per person per month, separately for each city. Cartagena, 2025: 238,308 pesos per person, up from 228,830 in 2024, a 4.1% increase. For a family of four that is 953,232 pesos, about 285 dollars; the multiplication by four is ours. This is the minimum below which a family counts as extremely poor, not an actual supermarket bill. The figure is the 2025 annual average, and prices are higher by autumn 2026. The share of Cartagena residents in extreme poverty in 2025 was 9.3%, the sixth highest among the 23 large cities in the DANE table.

DANE monetary poverty line for Cartagena, 2025: 524,805 pesos per person per month (501,919 in 2024, a 4.6% increase). For a family of four that is 2,099,220 pesos, about 627 dollars; the multiplication is ours. The line includes food and minimal non-food spending, but not renting an apartment by the sea, a private school or a car, so it is a lower bound rather than the budget of a newly arrived family. In 2025, 34.6% of Cartagena residents were poor, against 41.1% in 2024; in Medellín 16.7%, in Cali 19.7%. Average income per household member in Cartagena is 1,107,779 pesos a month (up 7.5% over the year), about 4.4 million for a family of four, also our arithmetic. For comparison with this guide: a three-bedroom in stratum 6 costs about 6.8 million a month by listings, electricity for 300 kWh about 310 thousand, water in stratum 6 about 289 thousand.

Aguas de Cartagena tariffs for the second half of 2026, city of Cartagena. Basic consumption is 0-16 m³, above that it is "complementary". Stratum 4: water - fixed charge 14,707 pesos and 3,373 per m³, sewerage - 10,072 and 4,021 per m³. Stratum 5: water 44,121 and 5,059.50 per m³, sewerage 30,216 and 6,031.50. Stratum 6: water 66,181.50 and 5,396.80, sewerage 45,324 and 6,433.60. Strata 1-3 pay less for the basic 16 m³ (stratum 3: 2,900.78 per m³ of water). Our arithmetic for 15 m³ a month, not a company bill: stratum 3 about 127 thousand pesos, stratum 4 about 136 thousand (41 dollars), stratum 5 about 241 thousand (72 dollars), stratum 6 about 289 thousand (86 dollars). The company has a separate table for the Turbaco suburban zone, where the fixed charge for strata 5-6 is half as high. Garbage collection is billed separately.

Surtigas tariffs for September 2026 under the CREG 137 de 2013 formula. Cartagena is part of the Surtigas distribution market (CREG resolution 129 de 2008); in the table this is the "Mercado Grande" row. The variable part for homes in municipalities without public funds is 2,539 pesos per m³ (of which 1,175 pesos for the gas itself, 1,061 for distribution, 266 for transport), with no volume steps. The fixed part for the market is 3,942 pesos per bill. Stratum 1 pays 1,463 pesos per m³ (49.1% subsidy), stratum 2 pays 1,831 (36.4%), strata 5 and 6 pay a 20% surcharge. Our arithmetic for 30 m³ a month (stove and water heating) in stratum 4: 3,942 + 30 × 2,539 = 80,112 pesos, about 24 dollars. This is a calculation from the tariff, not a bill; the tariff is recalculated every month.

Electricity in Cartagena is sold by Afinia (EPM group). According to El Universal of 11 September 2026, the cost per kWh (costo unitario) for Afinia users in the departments of Córdoba, Bolívar and Sucre rose from 950 to 1,033.32 pesos from September; the mayor of Cartagena attributes the increase to exchange prices and to demand driven by the heat. According to Valora Analitik (8 September 2026), the costo unitario is the stratum 4 tariff: strata 1-3 receive a subsidy and strata 5-6 pay a surcharge on top of it; as of June 2026 Afinia was among the companies with the most expensive energy in the country, above 973 pesos per kWh. Our arithmetic at the stratum 4 price: 300 kWh a month costs about 310 thousand pesos, roughly 93 dollars. This is not an Afinia bill: we did not calculate the strata 5-6 surcharge or the strata 1-3 discount because we did not see their exact rates for September 2026. The Afinia website with the tariff table did not open for us, so the figure comes from the press.

According to an El Universal article of 7 April 2026 (in the "Informe empresarial" section, with the hospital's participation): Hospital Serena del Mar in the north of Cartagena is run by Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá; in the World's Best Hospitals 2026 ranking by Newsweek and Statista it is among the 20 best hospitals in Colombia and the highest ranked in Cartagena and the Caribbean region. More than 60 specialties and subspecialties, including nuclear medicine, hemodynamics, oncology, an obstetric unit and intensive care at different levels. According to the hospital's own data, in 2025 it performed more than 12,000 medium and high complexity surgeries and received more than 58,000 patients in its emergency department. This is a commercial ranking and a promotional article; how to get into the hospital through an EPS or private insurance is a country question covered in the facts on Colombia. We did not compare other hospitals in the city.

The HOMICIDIO dataset of the Colombian Ministry of Defense on datos.gov.co (police data, counting victims), municipality of Cartagena de Indias, our sums from an API query on 6 October 2026: 2024 - 381, 2025 - 360, January-August 2026 - 191 against 244 for January-August 2025, that is, 22% fewer. For comparison, the same dataset gives 333 for Medellín in 2025. We did not calculate a rate per 100 thousand residents because we did not open the DANE population projection. We have not yet collected data on the city's natural hazards (flooding in the rainy season, Caribbean hurricanes).

Aerocivil open data "Transporte Aéreo Comercial - Tráfico Origen-Destino", our sums from an API query for airport code CTG for 2025 (departures and arrivals): 5,476,561 passengers on domestic routes and 1,684,384 on international ones, about 7.16 million in total. These are passengers by origin-destination pair, including trips with connections, so the list below is not the same as a list of direct flights. The largest international destinations from Cartagena on scheduled flights in 2025: Lima (111 thousand), New York (76 thousand), Mexico City (67 thousand), Madrid (66 thousand), Miami (60 thousand), Panama (57 thousand). For comparison, the same dataset gives 13.3 million for the Medellín airport in 2025, while Ladevi, citing the operator, gives 14.6 million, so the Aerocivil dataset may understate the total.

Climate normals of Cartagena for 1971-2000 in the WMO handbook, data from the Colombian weather service IDEAM. The average minimum ranges from 23.6 degrees in January to 25.7 in June, the average maximum from 30.5 in January to 31.6 in June and July. So it is hot all year round, with a difference of about 2 degrees between months. Air conditioning in an apartment is not a luxury here, and the electricity bill depends on it. The normals are old, and recent years may be warmer.

By WMO normals for 1971-2000 (IDEAM data), monthly precipitation in Cartagena: January 4 mm, February 1, March 2, April 24, May 115, June 100, July 108, August 127, September 135, October 235, November 131, December 35. The total is 1,017 mm and about 94 rainy days a year; this is our sum, as the source has no annual row. The dry season runs from December to April; in January-March there are 0-1 rainy days a month.