18-Hectare Estate on Camino Benito Nardone | Punta Ballena

La Pataia is one of those addresses that takes a few visits to understand properly. From the road it reads as Uruguayan countryside — rolling pasture, open sky, the particular quiet of a zone that has not been overdeveloped — but within a 25-minute drive you are at the private schools of Punta del Este, within fifteen minutes of Solanas and Portezuelo's beaches, and a few kilometres from the Ruta Interbalnearia that connects everything. It is the kind of location that buyers who know the region well tend to find first, and that others discover only once they have already looked everywhere else.

This estate covers 18 hectares on Camino Benito Nardone, in the heart of La Pataia's most established chacra zone. The land is flat to gently rolling, open and productive, with the natural horizon views that the area offers when it has not been built up around you.

The House

The principal residence is built in the classic estancia tradition of the Río de la Plata — warm terracotta brick, slate-grey pitched roofs, a covered gallery running along the north face that connects the house to the pool and outdoor dining area. It is the architectural language of a building meant to last, designed for a climate that demands both shade in summer and warmth in winter, and it reads as exactly what it is: a proper rural house, not a weekend retreat dressed up as one.

The interior is very spacious and organised with clarity. At the centre, a large living and dining room with a wood-burning stove and double-height glazing on both east and west facades fills with light from morning to evening — generous enough to seat a large family for dinner and still have room for a separate sitting area by the fire. The south wing holds the private quarters: a master suite with dressing room, full bathroom, built-in wardrobes, and a private sitting area with views over the property, plus additional bedrooms and bathrooms with the same level of finish. The north wing adds a further room that works equally well as a bedroom or office, with social bathroom and utility room — useful for whoever manages the property day to day.

The barbacoa attached to the north side is a full outdoor room: a covered gallery with dining table facing the heated pool, a closed winter dining room, pool storage, and laundry. The pool is oriented north and west, with an unobstructed view over the fields. The house has gas central heating, wood-burning stove, and air conditioning throughout — designed for year-round occupation rather than three months of summer.

The Working Estate

Beyond the main house, the property has everything a working rural operation requires. The caretaker's house — fully independent, with its own living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, bathroom, and a separate third room with independent access — provides permanent on-site management without any overlap with the main residence. A storage barn, stabling, and a machinery shed complete the picture. Eighteen hectares of productive land at this distance from Punta del Este, paired with a house of this quality and a fully independent caretaker setup, is a combination that the market rarely assembles cleanly.

The Location

La Pataia sits north of the Ruta Interbalnearia between Punta Ballena and Maldonado — in the rolling countryside that opens up once you leave the coastal strip but before the landscape becomes truly remote. The private schools of Punta del Este — Woodside School in Cantegril, St. JosephMary College — are 25 minutes by car. Solanas and Portezuelo beaches are approximately 15 minutes in the other direction. Casapueblo, the Arboretum Lussich, and the service infrastructure of the Punta Ballena corridor are closer still.

For a family that wants the daily reality of rural life — the land, the horses, the open sky, the distance from neighbours — alongside school logistics that actually work and beach access that remains practical rather than aspirational, this estate resolves a tension that most comparable properties in the region cannot. The land is real. The house is the genuine article. The drive to school is 25 minutes.