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Dear Reader, We are as bullish as ever on Nicaragua’s Pacific-coast real estate. It’s one of the best investments you can make today. A lot overlooking the ocean sells for as little as $22,000. Compare that to prices in Costa Rica, just 100 miles south along the same coast: In the beachfront area of Tamarindo, you’ll typically pay $150,000 for a quarter-acre lot. Yet Nicaragua’s Pacific coast is fabulously beautiful, pristine, and available at a fraction the cost you’ll pay for comparable property elsewhere. You won’t have neighbors butting up against you; you won’t battle loud radios on the beach. The truth is, its pink-sand beaches are nearly deserted. It’s what California must have been like 100 years ago. You know, a year ago I never heard anyone but International Living’s editors talking about Nicaragua. But in the last month alone, I’ve run into two individuals who have investments there. The first is a renowned physician who owns a large property on a lake in central Nicaragua where he’s building homes he plans to sell to investors. (We’ll go take a look while we’re there this November.)The other is a well-respected investment advisor who owns several rental homes there and a vacation retreat for himself. My point is: word is getting out. Now is the time to invest. You can buy this property and sit on it … for a year, five years …until you’re ready to turn it over for many times what you paid. Or you can build a small colonial-style hacienda for your family or an unassuming beach house where you can escape for a week or a month at a time. In Nicaragua, you can count on more than simply rock-bottom beachfront prices. This country is peaceful, and progress is well under way. In Managua, the airport has been renovated, new hotels are under construction, and there are two new shopping malls. It’s a similar story outside the capital. Funding has recently been approved for a highway that will run south along the Pacific coast and cut significantly the driving time from Managua to beachfront areas. And Marriott is sniffing around the coast as well; should that company decide to bring a hotel into the area, property prices will increase very quickly. The colonial town of Granada is a charming community on the shores of Lake Nicaragua where wonderful old homes with their open-air courtyards—some with fountains and wonderful gardens—call to mind a time long gone. Here you can buy a fixer-upper with three bedrooms and two baths for a mere $55,000. This town is one of the best-preserved in Nicaragua and a tourist attraction. It would be an ideal place to open a small café or a bed-and-breakfast. Close by in Lake Nicaragua you’ll find a collection of small islands for sale. Here you’re never far from shore, but you can enjoy the breezes off the water and the quiet isolation of your own private retreat. You can own little La Perla for $27,000 (it’s about 500 square meters) or the larger Poponjoche Island, nearly 5,000 square meters, for $66,000. This Nov. 1-7, I hope you’ll join me and a small group of subscribers as we explore each of these areas—the Pacific coast, Granada, and Lake Nicaragua. We’ll start off with a day in Managua, where we’ll introduce you to our contacts on the ground: attorneys, real-estate agents, bankers, and local expatriates among others. It’s truly insider’s access. And once are meetings are over, we’re off for a week of exploration. In fact, we aren’t really planning to stop on November 7th. You see, we’re extending the trip to the 10th so we’ll have time to trek over to Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast for a look at uncharted territory. You see, in our view, this is the next Caribbean hot spot. Think about it. Development began on the southern coast of Florida and worked its way south—first to Belize, then to Honduras. And the developers moved south, the buyers followed them, and prices rose. Right now, nobody is paying much attention to the east coast of Nicaragua. But if you ask anyone in this country, he’ll tell you that this forgotten coast is the country’s greatest asset. This is where the next set of intrepid investors will stake their claim. And you could be among them. But bring along your bug repellant and your flashlight. Because right now … there’s nothing there. Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast is like Honduras was 20 years ago. There aren’t many roads, and electricity is scarce and unreliable … but opportunity abounds in the Corn Islands and the Pearl Islands off the coast. If you’re up for a few days of real adventure, we’ve got room for a handful of travel companions. For all the details, please call me at (800)926-6575, extension 104. I look forward to traveling with you! Sincerely,
Barbara Perriello
P.S. The Agora International Press Corps has generously extended to IL readers an invitation to join its 1999 Writers’ Conference and Cruise. It will be four days of accelerated work and immersion study with writers, editors, and industry experts aboard a luxurious Carnival cruise ship that sails from Miami, Florida, to Key West, and on to Cozumel, Mexico, Oct. 28 – Nov. 1. If you’re interested in learning about how you can become a successful free-lance writer, this is the best forum for it. Call me for details at (800)926-6575, extension 104. |
