Colima, Mexico

It’s no exaggeration to claim that I’m a truly international citizen. I’m German. But I live in Mexico after living in the United States, South Africa and New Zealand. My stints in the United States and South Africa were rather short term oriented. Since then my stints seem to be rather long term oriented. When you get a little older and perhaps even more mature, your life stabilizes. There’s now another hint about that stabilization thing. I’m getting increasingly interested in real estate.

Because I feel rather disinclined to settle down in the developed world, my interest in real estate there may be summarized as “more than limited”. Because I feel a bunch more at ease in the less developed world, my growing interest in real estate zeroes in on the less developed world. As far as I can get a grip on the situation there, real estate prices in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines tend to be a lot lower than in the developed world. But my interest in Asia may be described as a little limited.

Because I currently reside in Mexico and feel very at ease there, the real estate market there manages to attract most of my attention. As usual, my entire system is opposed to following crowds. That’s the reason why property on the Pacific Coast and the Maya Riviera doesn’t make me jump for joy. Because of the property revival going on there, the thundering herd seems to have arrived already, which always affects prices.

Of course there’s a second – less personal – reason why I’m inclined to wait a little more with property, no matter whether it’s in Colima or somewhere else. Everybody with at least half a brain between his ears is aware of it. To quote The Economist: ”Measured  by the increase in asset values over the past five years, the global housing boom is the biggest financial bubble in history. The bigger the boom, the bigger the eventual bust”. In a nutshell, yours truly is rather inclined to wait for the bust. Again, let’s wait and see. When global property prices crater, it may be the right time to join the party.

You may be wondering why I’m starting to toy with the idea of acquiring property in Colima. The reason is quite simple.

On the other hand, I don’t tend to mince words. About eighty percent of Colima’s population are virtually aliens for me. However, that’s no reason for not considering acquiring property here. It’s just crucial to keep a healthy distance from the aliens. I’m quite good at it. All this means that yours truly can well imagine doing something about property in Colima, in due course, when the time is ripe.

In case you look at purchasing property in the less developed world, and your emphasis isn’t on riding into the sunset (settling down) there but on bargain hunting, there are a few interesting options available. But they entail a little risk. After trying to get a handle on the topic, I do have the impression that there are some marvelous property bargains available in some marvelous trouble spots.

A place a little closer to my current home turf Mexico worth sussing out for property bargains, in particular beachfront lots, is Haiti. But again, being a little brave in this respect does no harm.

I can’t be bothered to suss out property bargains in marvelous places like Haiti and Zimbabwe. Property manages to attract my interest only as a spot to ride into the sunset. My turbulent phase in life is hopefully over. That’s the reason why a place like Colima sounds more appealing to me. But who knows? There may be a few folks who feel like sussing out this sort of thing.