Delightful, User-Friendly, And Not So Cher As You Might Think
July 11, 2010, Paris, France: One week into our month-long family holiday in Paris we're remembering how delightful, how easy, and, as well, how affordable life in this city can be.Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
One week into our month-long family holiday in Paris we're remembering how delightful, how easy, and, as well, how affordable life in this city can be.
Kaitlin and Jackson have been to four museums already and to the Fete (that is, Carnival) des Tuileries twice. Jack met up with old school friends at the park one evening and was invited to spend the following day with them at Luxembourg Gardens. Kaitlin has reconnected with her old friends in this city, as well, and has been out three nights until nearly 4 a.m. (while I lay in bed listening for the front door and reminding myself that Paris is a very safe place).
After we've finished our work each day, Lief and I have taken off for long walks to our favorite places--across the river and down rue de Rivoli...to l'Isle de la Cite...to Sacre Coeur...
Our body clocks have yet to adjust, so we're up until 2 a.m. or later, one night until 3 a.m. with friends who live here and who we're therefore able to see only a couple of times a year. The next morning, dragging ourselves out of bed after we-couldn't-remember-how-many bottles of wine and not nearly enough sleep, we felt like 20-somethings ourselves (in a good way).
Our first agenda in Paris this month is to reconnect with our lives here. Our second is to give our apartment a face-lift. It's been two years since we left it for Panama. Since then, it has been the temporary home of a Japanese banker and his wife, a family of Brazilians, and an American couple and their daughter. The place is a little worse for the wear. Some furniture must be replaced, and the living room and dining room need new coats of paint.
We'll spend tomorrow morning at BHV, the Paris department store that, in its sous-sol, is home to the biggest hardware story in the city. We'll shop for paint, brushes, spackle, putty knives, and wood glue, all in one spot, with the help of friendly, knowledgeable staff. Then we'll have everything bundled for delivery in the afternoon, so Lief can get to work.
We won't have time to go grocery shopping today, but that's not a problem in this city, where nearly every grocery store, big and small, also delivers, often free, depending on the size of your order.
We shopped yesterday for a new kitchen table and chairs, which were delivered within four hours of our purchase, just as the clerk had indicated they would be.
After five hours of walking from shop to shop, errand to errand yesterday, our legs were giving out. When we were ready to return to the apartment, we had to travel but one block to a Metro stop, where we boarded the train for a quick ride that took us within two blocks of home.
Paris is delightful and easy, we're being reminded...and, as well, not necessarily expensive.
This visit, of course, we're enjoying an exchange rate advantage. Our U.S. dollars have more than 20% more buying power in this city today than they did two years ago when we left. That makes all these apartment improvements easier for Lief to stomach.
But it's more than that. The price of a Metro ticket has increased, about 10%. That means a carnet of 10 tickets is 12 euro today, versus 10.80 euro when we left...and that each Metro ride, therefore, costs you but 1.20 euro. About half the cost of a Subway ticket in New York...and that to get from one end of the city all the way to the other if you're interested.
Other things are the same cost as when we left or even slightly less. The poulet roti from the butcher on our street (which we all agree is the best roast chicken anywhere in the world)...a bottle of water or a fresh-made crepe from a street vendor...a head of lettuce from the grocery store...bathroom mats...kitchen towels...these things are all as affordable as we remember. Some things we shop for are more affordable than in Panama City.
Today our plan isn't shopping but picnicking, on the little point that juts out into the Seine from l'Isle de la Cite. It's a perfect day for it.
Kathleen Peddicord
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- In the past few months, since my "How To Retire Overseas" book was published, I've been interviewed by at least two dozen members of the media...and every one of them has wondered:
"You moved from Paris to Panama two years ago? Why would you do that?"
Here's the truth. If we had no children, no business, and no agenda beyond pursuing the best possible quality of life, we'd have stayed put in Paris. For us, the City of Light (from which I write you today...we're here for the month of July) is the best place in the world to call home.
However, about 2 ½ years ago, I did have another agenda. Having sold out my participation in theInternational Living group, where I'd been publisher for more than 23 years, I decided I wasn't ready for retirement. What I wanted to do, I realized, was to start over...to build a new business from the ground up.
France, I knew from experience, was not the place for this. The French are not the nasty, rude people many Americans imagine them to be, but one French stereotype is real: They have little tolerance for the entrepreneurial imagination. The red tape, the bureaucracy, the taxes, and the labor law in this country make it one of the least appealing places on earth to start or operate a business.
Lief and I knew we'd have to relocate if I wanted to make a real go of a new business venture. But where?
We took stock of our previous entrepreneurial adventures. By that time, we'd run businesses in the United States, Ireland, France, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Panama.
When deciding where to base a business, you want to consider five things: the labor pool (how educated and at what cost); the infrastructure; relevant tax rates; the doing-business climate; and local labor law. Considering the world map and taking into account our own experiences, we concluded that, all things considered, Panama is the top choice worldwide if you're in the market for a place to launch the kind of business I was in the market to launch...
- One of my favorite places on earth will be getting a lot of positive attention starting later this month when "Survivor" begins filming its 21st season in and around San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Then, for 14 weeks this fall, some 13 million U.S. households will tune in to CBS every Wednesday night to watch 20 Survivorists tromp around the Nicaraguan jungles.
This is a big deal for a little country like Nicaragua. I've seen the effects of this kind of thing in the past. When "Temptation Island," for example, aired its Isla Bonita season filmed on Ambergris Caye, Belize, suddenly, overnight, this outpost of divers and fishermen was a household name.
The Temptation Island Effect created a new and higher-end (US$1 million-plus) market on this formerly unnoticed Caribbean island, the vestiges of which I viewed recently. All along Ambergris' white-sand coast today are condo developments built to supply the Temptation Island viewers who, having been introduced to this island paradise in prime time, wanted to claim a little piece of it for themselves. How cool it became to be able to say, "I'm going down to spend a week on the beach at my place on Ambergris Caye...you know, the island off Belize where 'Temptation Island' was filmed..."
Now it's Nicaragua's turn. I'd say it couldn't happen to a more deserving place. When it comes to Nicaragua today...
- The rental market in Paris has shifted. Last year, when the euro was strong, tourism was down. The short-term rental market suffered.
Today, the Greenback has about 20% more buying power in this part of the world than it did a year ago. Tourism is up sharply, and short-term rentals are back in demand.
Meantime, thanks to la crise, as the French refer to it, many apartment owners in this city have been struggling. With fewer tourists on the scene over the past 18 months or so, landlords did what they could to attract long-term tenants. Business people flow steadily through this city, often with their families in tow during their 3-, 6-, or 12-month placements. More apartment owners fighting to attract a piece of this executive rental pool has translated into falling pricing. Mid- and long-term rental rates are down and more competitive than they've been in a long time.
On the other hand, again, though, this season, with more travelers coming and going, tourist rentals are up, in terms of both occupancy and price.
This is the advantage of a diversified market like this one. While one market segment softens, another becomes more interesting.
Which is one big reason why I recommend an apartment in Paris as a solid long-term yield play...
ALSO From Global Real Estate Investing Guru Lief Simon:
In Belize last month, we made the drive south along the mainland coast to see what there was to see, but also, specifically, to meet with a developer in this part of the country I've been communicating with for the past six months and to scout his property.
Long and short of my report from that visit is thatSanctuary Belize blew us away.
This is a 14,000-acre property, of which fewer than 3,000 acres will be developed. The rest--jungle and rain forest--will be held aside as a preserve. The developed land will be consolidated along the ocean and river boundaries.
With that much land and diversity of water frontage, the variety of scenery, activities, and lifestyle on offer is tremendous. Sanctuary Belize, as the saying goes, has something for most everyone--oceanfront, riverfront, equestrian, dockside, marina, large and private estate lots, even airfield lots if you'd like to access your Belize beach getaway by private or chartered plane.
The focal point of the community will be a marina village with condos and shops overlooking the 175-slip marina already under construction and due for completion by the end of this year.
This is an ambitious project. And I was a little skeptical of the whole thing before our visit. In fact, I'd resisted making the trip for months, because I had trouble getting excited about a development of this magnitude in this part of this country in the context of the current global climate.
The principal in the project I've been communicating with, however, Luke Chadwick, persuaded me. In telephone conversations, e-mail exchanges, and the delivery of all due-diligence materials I requested, I found him to be one of the most impressive and most professional developers I've ever encountered in this part of the world.
Now, after having visited the property, I'm completely won over.
Here are the quick fundamentals:
- Sanctuary Belize has no debt. They own all their land outright...
- Dirt is moving. They've chosen to focus on the construction of the marina first, for strategic reasons, related to both the long-term infrastructure plan and to marketing, and, as I said, the marina is well under way...
- In addition, roads are under construction, and a plantation house has been built by the developer, with accommodation and meeting space...plus three homes have been built by owners, including a big bamboo house overlooking a lagoon that looks like something out of Architectural Digest...
- The team behind Sanctuary Belize has many years of experience developing property around the world...
- That team includes a local Belizean who is well-connected, well-respected, and who knows how to get things done in this country...
- The developer is offering creative and flexible financing terms. This means two important things. First, as they've been selling this way for some time, they have built up a war-chest, as it were, that amounts to a significant monthly cash flow...
The second important thing about the creative and flexible financing on offer at Sanctuary Belize is more personal.
As I remind you often, financing an overseas property purchase isn't easy in many countries; in others, it's impossible. It is possible to borrow as a foreigner from Caye Bank in Belize to buy real estate in this country, but the terms are rigid and require a 50% down payment at least.
Sanctuary Belize, on the other hand, makes many financing offers available, including, in some cases, 0% down or 0% interest.
The developer is effectively working with each buyer to find a combination of down payment, interest rate, and term of the loan that fits the buyer's budget and circumstances.
These guys are smart. They understand that, between the down market for the buyer back home (wherever that might be) and global cash flow concerns, people are reluctant to make a buy decision right now. They've decided they're going to do whatever they can to make it as easy as possible for someone who wants to buy to be able to buy.
They can afford to do this, because, again, they have no debt. They own all their land outright, and they have built up a multi-million-dollar bank of receivables out of which they continue to fund infrastructure investment.
I'm happy to be able to make this introduction today. If you're interested in waterfront property in Belize, either ocean- or riverfront, I say give Sanctuary Belize a close look right now.
More information here.
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Kathleen Peddicord
Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group. With more than 25 years experience covering this beat, Kathleen reports daily on current opportunities for living, retiring, and investing overseas in her free e-letter.
Her book, How To Retire Overseas—Everything You Need To Know To Live Well Abroad For Less, was recently released by Penguin Books.
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