April 16, 2010
Piriapolis, Uruguay
PLUS:
- How To Transfer Funds For The Purchase Of Property In A Foreign Country...
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Dear Live and Invest Overseas Reader,
It's difficult at best and often impossible to get local financing for the purchase of real estate as a non-resident buyer (or even as a resident buyer who's not a citizen) in many countries. When you can't get financing locally, what options do you have?
These days, maybe none. In the current climate, you aren't going to be able to borrow from a bank back home to buy a condo or a beach house in another country. Which means you're going to have to come up with cash. This limits your opportunities for diversification and can add risk to any foreign purchase. You're being forced to put maybe more eggs than you'd prefer into one basket at one time.
Smart developers are recognizing the dilemma as an opportunity to offer financing terms themselves. Often, though, these aren't as good as you'd get with a mortgage back home. Interest rates can be high, loan terms short.
Longtime friend David James, who has a proven development track record in Latin America, is currently building a coastal community in Uruguay called Sugar Loaf (where I am a shareholder). David contacted me this week to say that, recognizing the opportunity, he is launching a financing offer that is better than typical developer terms. David is making it possible to finance the purchase of lots in his Sugar Loaf Ocean Club & Spa community. More than that, he is offering an extremely attractive interest rate. In fact, the interest rate is as good as it gets, at least for the first two years of the loan: 0%.
As the project is well under way, with infrastructure installed to the first set of lots, three houses completed, and another four to be finished in the next week or so, developer financing in this case is not only a reaction to the realities of the current global investment climate. It's also David's way of celebrating the success of the project to date.
Lots at Sugar Loaf all have an ocean view, and the community is but 5 minutes from the beaches of Piriapolis. Piriapolis is a quaint ocean-side town with restaurants, shops, and a marina, a sharp contrast to better-known Punta del Este up the coast. My favorite thing about Piriapolis is that it is void of the high-rise towers that cover the coastal landscape of Punta del Este.
Lot prices at Sugar Loaf start at US$69,900, making the financing offer a very easy way to buy now and build when you're ready.
The down payment is 30%. The balance is paid in equal installments amortized over five years. You pay no interest for the first 24 months. Pay off the balance by the end of the two years, and you've had an interest-free loan. Continue to repay the loan over the full five years, and you'll be charged 12% interest per annum over the last three years.
Interest of 12% may sound high, but, remember, as I explained, developer financing is typically more expensive than bank financing "back home." However, in this case, when you do the math over the five years of the loan, you realize that your effective annual rate of interest is only 4.2%. That's better than anything "back home." Plus, again, in this case, you have the option to pay off the loan by the end of year two and thereby pay no interest at all.
Only a handful of lots remain available in the current phase. After these are sold, lot prices will be increased. At current pricing, you can buy with US$21,000 down. You monthly payments would be US$816.
This amounts to one of the best financing offers you're going to find anywhere right now, with a very modest cash outlay requirement.
I'm not going to try to sell you here on Uruguay. Others on our Live and Invest Overseas team are better suited to do that. I'll tell you simply that I've been spending time in this country for a half-dozen years, and I'm sold on the lifestyle that it offers. This is a safe, stable place, removed from the troubles that are such concerns in other parts of the world right now.
Montevideo is an appealing city with a European feel, and Uruguay's coast, especially in the region of the country where David is located, is beautiful.
I give this opportunity my full endorsement.
You can reach David with your questions here.
Lief Simon
P.S. People write every day to ask me what I'm doing with my own money. As I mentioned, I'm a shareholder at Sugar Loaf, meaning this is one place I've put some of my own money. I believe in David James and what he's doing. I've walked the land at Sugar Loaf, I've seen the progress. This is a solid opportunity. With the financing terms that David is now offering, it's also one of the easiest ways I know to buy into your new life or retirement overseas.
More information here.
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"How does one legally transfer funds out of the United States to purchase property in another country?"
-- Pascal L., United States
Transferring funds from the United States for property purchase in another country is straightforward. The easiest strategy is to wire the funds required from your bank to the seller's bank, your attorney's bank, or to your own local account in the country of purchase. If you're wiring to the seller's or your attorney's bank, you'll want the money to go into escrow, not directly into the seller's or the attorney's account.
Back in the United States, the wiring bank takes care of all the required reporting (whatever it may be...frankly, I don't really know).
