Arequipa

Urbania listings on 29 September 2026. Yanahuara: 19 listings of apartments for rent, of which 14 are three-bedroom; 13 of these cost from 2100 to 3200 soles a month, median 2500, and one more, a luxury 293 m² unit, is asking 9500. The cheapest of them, at 2100, is by the text of the listing already near Cerro Colorado. Cayma: 47 listings in total; on the first page there are 28 rental offers, of which 18 are three- or four-bedroom, from 2000 to 4420 soles, median 2925. The site converts 2500 soles to roughly 700–735 dollars and 3000 to 880–890. Many apartments are rented furnished. The building maintenance fee (mantenimiento) is usually listed separately; in these listings it is from 50 to 450 soles. Conditions that repeat in the texts: a deposit of two months and one month in advance, a contract of at least a year, and a good credit history in Peruvian risk centres (one listing names Infocorp directly); a newly arrived family has no such history, and this should be discussed with the owner in advance. These are asking prices, and some listings are promoted; we found no official rent statistics by district of Arequipa.

Urbania on 29 September 2026: 72 listings of apartments for sale in Cayma. On the first page there are 20 offers of ready three-bedroom apartments from 157,000 to 490,000 dollars, median 225,000. A typical family apartment of 106–160 m² costs 157,000–240,000 dollars; above 380,000 go penthouses and duplexes of 185–352 m². Sellers write the price in dollars; the amount in soles on the site is for reference. Projects with a price “from” are not included in the count: in the same district the Punku project sells apartments of 41–133 m² from 87,950 dollars, with handover in the first quarter of 2028. One 106 m² apartment in the Engineers' Cooperative is listed twice, so the median may be slightly skewed. These are asking prices, not deals; we found no official median of transactions for Arequipa.

INEI, national household survey, in the 2025 Arequipa compendium: average nominal spending per person per month in the department of Arequipa in 2024 was 876 soles (783 nationally), and average nominal income 1311 soles (1055 nationally). Multiplying by four is ours: about 3504 soles per family per month. This is an average for the whole department, including rural areas and families living in their own housing, not the budget of a newly arrived family renting: rent alone for a three-bedroom apartment in Cayma or Yanahuara by Urbania listings is 2500–3000 soles. The poverty rate in the department in 2024 was 15.8% against 27.6% nationally. Note: this is the average spending of residents of the department, not a poverty line for a family of four, so in comparison with other cities the figure is only indicative.

We found no direct official figure for food spending in Arequipa, so this is a calculation from two tables of the INEI compendium. In the consumer price index of the city of Arequipa (base year 2021), food and non-alcoholic beverages account for 23.70% of spending, and restaurants and hotels another 14.37%. Average nominal spending per person in the department in 2024 was 876 soles a month. 876 × 23.7% × 4 people ≈ 830 soles a month on food for a family of four; this is our arithmetic, and it is rough: the basket weights are calculated for the city, while spending is for the whole department, including rural areas. Prices in the city rise slowly: inflation in Arequipa in 2025 was 1.12% (December to December).

Tariff schedule of the distribution company SEAL No. 003-2026 for the Arequipa system, in force from 4 February 2026, published 3 February 2026 under the procedure of the regulator Osinergmin. Residential tariff BT5B: at consumption up to 30 kWh a month, 45.05 centimos per kWh and a fixed charge of 3.51 soles; from 30 to 140 kWh, 13.51 soles for the first 30 kWh and 64.35 centimos for each following one; above 140 kWh, 66.02 centimos per kWh and 3.60 soles a month. The schedule states explicitly that the amounts are given without IGV and that they already include the FOSE social compensation. For 200 kWh this gives 135.64 soles before tax; this is our arithmetic from the tariff, not a SEAL bill. SEAL issues new schedules several times a year, so the current rates should be checked against the latest one. We did not check water and gas separately; rental listings often mention a solar or electric water heater (terma).

SEDAPAR tariff for household consumers (doméstico category) in the Arequipa Metropolitana zone, which includes the city districts. The structure was approved by the regulator Sunass in resolution 00146-2025, published in El Peruano on 23 December 2025 and in force from the nearest billing cycle after publication; the regulation period is called 2021–2026, so a new structure can be expected soon. Water plus sewerage per m³: first 10 m³: 1.21 + 0.44 = 1.65 soles; from 10 to 25 m³: 2.14 + 0.82 = 2.96; above 25 m³: 4.36 + 1.64 = 6.00. In addition, a fixed charge of 3.71 soles a month, indexed to inflation. All rates in the resolution are given without IGV and without the IPM tax. The resolution does not give the billing formula by tiers; it refers to a separate Sunass report, which we did not open. Our arithmetic, not a SEDAPAR bill: we count the tiers cumulatively (each only on its own cubic metres), by analogy with the Sedapal example in Lima, because the regulator is the same for both companies and the structure is the same; but we did not find an example bill from SEDAPAR itself, so the method is not fully confirmed, and we take the tax as 18% on one line, as in the Sedapal example. At 15 m³: water 22.80, sewerage 8.50, fixed part 3.71, total 35.01 soles without tax and about 41.31 with tax. At 20 m³: about 58.78 with tax. For homes without a meter, the document sets a normative consumption of 15 m³ a month; for those who refuse a meter it is doubled. Households from poor neighbourhoods or with the class “pobre” in the MIDIS register get a coefficient of 0.84 on water for the first 10 m³. For other localities of the department (El Pedregal, La Joya, Camaná, Mollendo and others), the same resolution sets its own, lower rates.

According to a press release of the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru (MINEM) of November 2024, Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna have no natural gas distribution concessionaire, and the construction of networks in 2024 and 2025 is paid for by the state fund FISE under the Bonogas programme (Sur Oeste concession). In Arequipa the networks are going into the districts of Cercado, Cerro Colorado, José Luis Bustamante y Rivero, Socabaya and Paucarpata. By November 2024 the first contractor had built 150 km of networks covering more than 12 thousand users, and the second had begun building another 150 km for about 7 thousand families. Bonogas, according to the same press releases, pays for connecting homes for vulnerable families. The first connection in Socabaya took place in February 2024, when the regional administration estimated that a home that stops spending one 10 kg liquefied gas cylinder a month on the shower and stove saves 51.38 soles a month; this is its calculation, not the price of a cylinder. We found no coverage data newer than November 2024, so we do not know how many homes are connected now and whether the network has reached districts like Yanahuara and Cayma. We did not confirm the piped gas tariff for Arequipa or the price of a 10 kg cylinder: the website of the regulator Osinergmin and the Facilito app did not open for us. So there are no figures per m³ or per cylinder here. Before renting, ask the owner and the neighbours whether gas is supplied to the house, and what water heater is installed (electric, solar or cylinder-fed).

Encuentro, July 2025, citing the Ministry of Education app Identicole, monthly fee (pensión) in 2024: Maple Bear 1775 soles, Lord Byron 1730, Angloamericano Prescott 1690, the Peruvian-German Max Uhle 1590, San José 1440, Nuestra Señora del Pilar 1410, Sagrados Corazones 1250, the Peruvian-French Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1175, De La Salle 1150, Domingo Savio 1090, Peruano Británico 1000, Juan de la Cruz Calienes 935, San Jerónimo 900, Nuestra Señora de la Merced 750. According to the head of the Arequipa private schools association, 80% of private schools charge less than 400 soles a month, and large schools with fees above 400 raise them every year by 20–200 soles. These are 2024 figures from the press; the fee for 2026 should be checked in Identicole for the specific school.

INEI compendium based on the 2024 education census. In basic regular education (kindergarten, primary and secondary school), in the zone of the local education authority UGEL Arequipa Norte there are 139,739 children, of whom 75,606 are in private schools; in the zone of UGEL Arequipa Sur, 111,714, of whom 43,480 are in private ones. Together that is 119,086 out of 251,453, about 47%; in Norte about 54% are in private schools, in Sur about 39%; the percentages are ours. In kindergartens of the Norte zone, 12,135 of 23,190 children attend private ones. Which city districts belong to Norte and which to Sur is not stated in the table.

According to INEI, the capital of the Arequipa department stands at an altitude of 2335 metres above sea level. The CDC Yellow Book, a reference for doctors, says that any unacclimatised traveller who sleeps at an altitude of 2450 m or more, and sometimes lower, is at risk of altitude sickness; children are as susceptible as adults. Symptoms usually appear 2–12 hours after arrival, the main one being headache, often with loss of appetite, dizziness, fatigue or nausea; with a descent of 300 m or more the mild form passes quickly. In the CDC risk table, children and adolescents, as well as controlled asthma, are placed in the group “most likely no additional risk”; infants under 6 weeks, moderate COPD, compensated heart failure and mild pulmonary hypertension are in the group “caution required”; unstable asthma is among the contraindications. A flight from Lima raises you to this altitude in one day, without gradual acclimatisation. How exactly children tolerate Arequipa, the reference does not assess separately.

The website of Hospital Regional III Honorio Delgado, a hospital of the regional government, lists among its services paediatrics, neonatology, paediatric pulmonology and neurology, paediatric dentistry, UCI and UCIN units, emergency care, cardiology, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, traumatology and oncology. According to the INEI compendium (data of the regional health directorate as of June 2025), in the province of Arequipa there are 113 public facilities: 2 hospitals, the IREN institute, 45 centres and 57 health posts in 23 micro-networks. The social insurer EsSalud in 2024 had 29 facilities in the region, including one national hospital, one level III hospital and one level II hospital, 13 medical posts and 9 primary care centres. Private clinics are not part of this fact; we found no comparison with Lima on waiting times or narrow specialists.

IGP in 2023: Misti is the volcano with the greatest hazard in the country because of its history of large explosive eruptions and because more than a million people live on its slopes and around it, with some houses standing closer than 9 km from the crater. IGP in 2020: over the last 50,000 years Misti has had at least 12 eruptions; the eruption about 2000 years ago had a volcanic explosivity index of 5 out of 8, and its products settled mainly to the south-west, where the city is now; the last eruption was in the fifteenth century, in the time of the Inca Pachacutec, with moderate explosive activity and ash emission. Every day there are 40–60 weak earthquakes on the volcano that people do not feel; IGP has monitored it in real time since 2005. The districts directly bordering the volcano are Alto Selva Alegre, Miraflores, Mariano Melgar, Paucarpata and Chiguata, with more than 340,000 residents. Yanahuara, Cayma, Sachaca and José Luis Bustamante y Rivero are not on this list, but IGP speaks of possible serious consequences of an eruption for the whole city. 70 km to the north-west, the Sabancaya volcano has been erupting continuously since 6 November 2016. IGP warnings come through the free app Volcanes Perú.

Column by IGP chairman Hernando Tavera, 23 June 2020: on 23 June 2001 at 15:33, 82 km north-west of Ocoña (Arequipa department), an earthquake of magnitude M8.2 occurred, with shaking of intensity VIII on the modified Mercalli scale in the regions of Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna. The energy went mostly to the south-east, and the greatest destruction was in Moquegua and Tacna, in houses made of weak materials on weak soils. By IGP's estimate, the 2001 earthquake released about 70% of the energy accumulated off the southern coast since 1868, and the remaining 30% or so lies off the coast of Moquegua and Tacna; in northern Chile there has been no large earthquake since 1877. The author separately writes that the cities of the south are growing through houses made of unsuitable materials on unstable soils and are becoming more vulnerable.

Alfredo Rodríguez Ballón Airport (concession Aeropuertos Andinos del Perú) is in the Cerro Colorado district, 8 km from the centre, and is open daily from 5:00 to 22:00. According to the operator, it is the third airport in the country by passenger traffic after Lima and Cusco, and over 12 years it has received more than 18 million passengers. On the departures board on 29 September 2026 there were 22 flights: 20 to Lima and 2 to Cusco, the first at 6:50 and the last at 21:35; by flight codes these are LATAM (LA), Sky (H2) and JetSMART (JA). There were no international flights on the board that day, that is, long-haul destinations require a connection. The board shows one day and does not replace the timetable.

Climate normals of Arequipa in the WMO handbook, data supplied by the Peruvian weather service SENAMHI. June, July and August: average minimum 5.5 degrees, average maximum 21.3–21.9. The average maximum in any month of the year is from 21.0 to 22.6 degrees; the warmest nights are in January–February, 8.6–8.8. That is, by daytime temperature there are almost no seasons, but winter nights are cold. The normals were submitted to the WMO in 2001, and the averaging period is not stated. Recent annual SENAMHI averages in the INEI compendium are warmer than the normal: in 2022–2024 the average maximum was 24.7–25.4 and the average minimum 9.8–11.8 degrees.

By WMO norms (SENAMHI data), monthly precipitation in Arequipa: January 28.0 mm, February 35.6, March 21.3, December 4.3, and from April to November 0.0 to 1.8 mm a month; in June and July the norm is zero. Adding up the twelve monthly norms gives 94.6 mm a year, of which 84.9 mm, about 90%, falls in January–March; this is our arithmetic, as the source has no annual total. Relative humidity by SENAMHI annual data in the INEI compendium is from 24% to 58% depending on the year. The annual precipitation totals in the same INEI table for 2021–2025 are partly empty, so we do not give them.

SENAMHI forecast for 4–6 July 2026, that is, for the local winter, as retold by Infobae: Apurímac, Cusco, Arequipa, Moquegua and Puno will get a UV index from 8 to 12; on the international scale 8–10 is “very high” and 11 and above is “extremely high”. In November 2025 SENAMHI reported that in the country's mountain regions, because of altitude, levels from “very high” to “extremely high” predominate, and recommended wide-brimmed hats, glasses with a UV filter, long-sleeved clothing, regular sunscreen and avoiding direct sun from 9:00 to 16:00. There is no long-term series of the UV index for the city itself in these sources.

Movistar Perú “Solo internet” plans page on 29 September 2026: fibre at 400 Mbit/s, with the speed raised to 1000 Mbit/s for the first year as a promotion; the price is 79.90 soles a month for two months, then 89.90. The bundle with a mobile line is 109.90 soles a month, with television 154.90 for the first two months and then 174.90. Installation is free, but only after a credit history check. Movistar states a symmetric speed of up to 1000 Mbit/s and names Arequipa among the departments with fibre coverage; connection of a specific house is checked by address. The prices on the page are nationwide; there is no separate price list for Arequipa. We did not compare other providers.