----- The World's 13 Hottest Property Opportunities -----

Not all real estate markets around the world are headed down. Right now, 13 property markets in particular are poised for dramatic growth in 2008 and beyond. Details Here.

 

Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,

 

"What in the world is a nice, retirement-aged couple from Vermont like us doing building condominiums in Granada, Nicaragua?

 

"It started about five years ago. After some 40 years building and operating the Landgrove Inn in Vermont, our thoughts turned to semi-retirement and change. We intended to sell our country inn business, and that prospect put us face-to-face with the big 'What Next?' question.

 

"About this time, I started reading International Living. Its articles on Central and South America caught my attention. I wanted to see these places. I wanted to know them firsthand. It was as though I could hear a voice saying, 'Go south, old man.'

 

"Something you wrote, Kathleen, three years ago, really got to me. 'Live your dreams,' you said.

 

"I made a list of countries to explore. At the top was Nicaragua, partly because it was the shortest flight time (!), but also because, by all accounts, it was a very inexpensive place to live.

 

"I planned a visit to Granada, where I enrolled in a Spanish-language immersion program. I lived with a local Nica family and went to Spanish classes (where no English was allowed...exhausting but also exhilarating) each day for a week. Then I took off to see the rest of the country--remote villages, coastal towns, planned developments... With only three days remaining on this first visit, I felt a strong desire to return to Granada. So I did. And, back in the city, I took the plunge. I began speaking with real estate agents.

 

"Walking around Granada with the agents, I realized all my senses were satisfied. I liked what I saw, what I smelled, what I heard, what I tasted, what I felt...

 

"I place a lot of value on the sixth sense, too--on intuition. And I liked what my gut told me about Granada. The place felt right, and I felt at home.

 

"Why continue looking and waste precious time? I asked myself.

 

"There was no reason I could come up with, so, the next day, just before leaving for home, I made an offer on a piece of vacant land in town.

 

"I didn't come to Granada with the idea of buying land to build condos. Not at all. But that day walking around the city with agents, I asked each of them if they could show me condos with rental management programs in place. They all insisted that no such thing existed.

 

"I figured that I couldn't be the only retirement-aged guy considering Nicaragua and interested in that concept. It's really the most sensible option for active retirees and second homeowners.

 

"The truth is, retirees in the States right now face a serious dilemma. It's impossible, really, for them to live on Social Security. And the cost of quality retirement living options has exploded. The current meltdown in U.S. housing costs doesn't change this fact. Most retirees can't afford a retirement home.

 

"I thought about all this walking around Granada during that first, life-changing trip. It seemed to me that I'd found an alternative...a viable, appealing option for Americans trying to figure out how in the world they're going to make it in retirement.

 

"Nicaragua seems to offer exactly what people like me are looking for--an affordable, quality lifestyle bundled with the chance to start over...to make a significant change in your life.

 

"Plus, in Nicaragua, you're not too far from the States, so you can get back and forth easily, and the medical care is both inexpensive and excellent (I speak from experience).

 

"I found a suitable piece of land, and I decided to design and then to build what I was looking for. If it works for me, I figured, it'll work for others just like me. Something like, build it...and the retirees will come.

 

"Then I prepared myself for battle. I rehearsed responses to the incredulous stares and raised eyebrows I expected from my wife and family.

 

"But they disappointed me. Instead of, 'Are you out of your mind?', my plans were met with enthusiasm, excitement, and encouragement. The support I've enjoyed from family and friends has had a lot to do with my being able to follow through on the plan I hatched those first days in Granada.

 

"Once I'd settled on Granada, Nicaragua, and conceived the idea to build a small condo community, I faced another important decision. Should I try to sell my condos pre-construction...or should I build them and then offer them for sale, as a finished, turnkey product?

 

"Selling pre-construction would have provided immediate and ongoing cash flow. But there was the risk that the project could stall, maybe indefinitely, and I'd feel responsible to all the early buyers.

 

"Building in full before trying to sell, on the other hand, meant much greater financial risk. What if nobody liked what I'd built? It'd be too late at that point to make adjustments in design or pricing.

 

"I remembered something Lief Simon had written, more than once: "Buy what you see," Lief said.

 

"I decided to build. This way, my potential buyers would be able to see what they were getting.

 

"I won't ask people to use their imaginations, I thought. I'll show them what they're getting into.

 

"Three years ago, when I made my first trip to Nicaragua, the market was hot. Today, activity has slowed considerably. There was a pullback just after Ortega was elected, but the Senor Daniel fears seem to be settling down. Meantime, economic and investment market worries are escalating in the States. Investors, especially American investors, seem to be looking for a bottom...or a shakeout. They're taking a wait-and-see attitude.

 

"Nevertheless, our Condominiums de Xalteva are selling. We've set up our own management team and are renting units for their owners. Remember, this is the first product of its kind in this city, so it's hard to project prospects for the rental program. Tourism numbers were up for 2007 and are holding in 2008. Granada is perhaps the biggest tourist attraction in the country. All available units were rented over the Easter holiday with no advertising.

 

"My goal is to provide a 6% net return for owners, which is 1% or 2% higher than typical. I don't think this is unrealistic. We've built a quality product, and I believe that, given the chance, the discriminating investor, buyer, and renter will appreciate it."

 

I'll interrupt Jay's story for a minute to say that he is being modest.

 

Jay Snyder and his wife haven't simply built a "quality product." They've created something beautiful and special. Take a look: Condos de Xalteva Gallery. 

Today, this adventuresome retirement-aged couple from the northeast divide their time between Granada, Florida, and Vermont. They make five trips a year to Nicaragua, staying two to six weeks at a time.

 

"I don't have a solution to the problems facing Americans right now," Jay continues. "It's too frustrating to contemplate. I do feel, though, I've found an alternative that works for me and that could work for many, many others, as well.

 

"You've got to think outside the box--the box being the United States. I realize this isn't a new idea, but it's truer and truer. Statistics show an increase in the numbers of Americans leaving the States and a big increase in the numbers considering the idea.

 

"It's tempting to continue living the way you've been living. It's easy. Certainly easier than making the kind of change I'm talking about. It can be very frightening to think about creating a whole new life for yourself in a foreign place.

 

"That fear can keep us from acting on chances for fun, for adventure, and for possible profit.

 

"All I can tell you now is that I'm thrilled with this project. It has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life."

 

Kathleen Peddicord

 

ALSO RIGHT NOW:

 

 

Up 300% in two years and showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon...

 

Foreigners can't own property freehold in Cambodia, a point of law that has become a hot political issue. Many in the country are pushing to open the Cambodian real estate market to unrestricted foreign investment.

 

A reader advises from the scene: "I wouldn't hold my breath."

 

"Meantime," our reader-friend continues, "Phnom Penh is growing fast. The Phnom Penh Hotel has just been renovated and expanded, adding 202 rooms, but even that's not enough. Tourists and businesspeople from Korea, from Japanese, and from China...they just keep coming, in greater and greater numbers."

 

How can you buy in if you (as a non-Cambodian) can't take freehold title to real estate in your own name? Well, you could buy leasehold. The idea makes many nervous, but it's not as risky as you may think. Cambodian property leases are for 70 to 99 years and can be renewable.

 

Or you could set up a local corporation. You'd own 49%; your Cambodian partner (required) would own 51%. He'd sign over his shares to you and give you a power of attorney so you'd have control of the company's assets (that is, the real estate).

 

Right...still not risk-free. But given that the Phnom Penh market is up 300% in the past two years and shows no signs of slowing, it's maybe a speculator's risk worth taking.

 

Open-air tango in San Telmo...one of the best ways to enjoy a sultry, sunny afternoon in Buenos Aires.

 

A friend living in Uruguay writes:

 

"We went over to Buenos Aires last week and had a great time. Sampling Malbec...going to a tango show...visiting galleries.... But the best part was the realization that the Argentine peso has remained relatively stable against the U.S. dollar...while the Uruguayan peso has gained more than 70%. It made B.A. seem awfully affordable to us 'Uruguayans.'

 

"We were there just before the current strikes. They started a day or so after we left. While we were there, Buenos Aires was peaceful and alive...with perfect sunny autumn weather..."

 

 

The Mediterranean as it once was...

 

Two years ago this month, after a day spent sloshing around muddy farmyards and climbing steep, slippery slopes, the children complaining, the weather not cooperating, Lief and I looked at each other and said, "We love it here."

 

We made an offer the next morning on a tumbledown stone farmhouse on the side of a mountain in Istria, Croatia. It was the views that most charmed us. Long vistas of olive trees and grape vines. Across the way, on the side of the mountain facing ours, an ancient village of white stone.

 

We'll frame that view in the window of our kitchen (when we rebuild it), I told myself.

 

The rebuilding has yet to be accomplished, but Lief and I have never second-guessed that quick decision to establish a foothold on Croatia's beautiful Istrian Peninsula. We've yet to renovate, but our little stone house is worth twice what we paid for it, not including the currency gain of the euro against the dollar during the time we've held the property.

 

Our Istrian farmhouse was not meant to be an investment, though. It's part of a long-term plan. Once both children are out on their own, Lief and I intend to divide our year among four or five "home bases." Places where we enjoy spending time and where the kids will want to come to visit (we hope). Winter in Buenos Aires (where it's summer in January and February), for example...springtime in Paris...and summer holidays on the Istrian Peninsula...

 

We bought our little tumbledown stone house from the folks at Croatian Sun, and we've kept in touch with them since. They don't sell only ruins, of course. In fact, they wrote yesterday to alert me to a new development project they're launching at Zaton Bay, just outside Dubrovnik. Rather than rustic and tumbledown, this is high-end and turnkey. Priced at 3,500 to 4,000 euro per square meter.

 

Remember, walled Dubrovnik is the best address in the country (and one of the most extraordinary and historic cities in the world), and Zaton Bay, just outside it, is, likewise, beautiful. These prices don't qualify as cheap, but they're a good deal given what you're buying. Indeed, for my money, Croatia is the best buy on the Med.

 

In addition to sales, by the way, Croatian Sun also offers rental and property management, local financing, renovation expertise, even help furnishing and finishing.

 

 

 

Here's how to borrow up to 50% toward your new home in Paradise...

 

"We don't have a single bad loan on our books. We're pretty happy to be able to make that statement right now," reports longtime friend and President of  Caye International Bank in Belize Peter Zipper.

 

"We just don't do stupid things. Belize is a small country, and every bank here is watched closely by the Central Bank. It'd be hard to do stupid things even if we wanted to. We're careful, and we're well-regulated."

 

Peter's bank is also one of the best options I know if you seek financing for a real estate purchase in Central America. He doesn't lend right now for every country in the region. You can borrow, though, in most places you'd want to buy, at competitive rates, up to 50% of the purchase price.

 

"50% loan-to-value is the best we can do under Belizean law. It's another way they try to keep us from doing stupid things."

 

 

Argentina wine country...one of the best places in the world

to place a little capital right now.

 

Until recently, the Argentines placed so little store in grape production that they were happy to rip out their own vines. Over the last half-century, hectares and hectares of grapevines have been replaced with onions, shallots, tomatoes, corn, and other cash crops. What grapes the Argentines did grow went into producing wine that they mostly drank themselves.

 

Meantime, Argentina's neighbor to the west, Chile, was expanding its grape production and marketing the wine it produced aggressively outside the country. The more Chile promoted its wines, the greater the worldwide demand.

 

All the while, productive land values in Chile were rising...eventually to the point where Chilean grape-growers--Concha y Toro, for example--went in search of more affordable options. They didn't have to look far. Across the border in Argentina, they found primo grape-growing soil available for bargain prices.

 

The Chileans weren't the only ones to cop onto the opportunity. What's followed recently has been steady growth in the Argentine wine industry...led by vintners not only from Argentina, but also from Chile, Europe, and North America.

 

The opportunity continues. The best-known wine region in Argentina is Mendoza Province, home to both Mendoza city and San Raphael, a town that rises from slumber around 10 o'clock each morning, then retreats from 1 to 5 each afternoon for siesta. Shops and restaurants reopen around 9, and you shouldn't be surprised to be invited for dinner at 10 or 11 or later.

 

By all accounts, a charming place to visit. And, in the context of the current global investment climate, one of the best places we know to think about placing capital right now. More soon...

 

 

Right now, only 10% of this country's coast is developed...

 

World's fastest-moving markets right now?

 

Ecuador would be on that list. A contact in the country writes:

 

"The buy in this country right now is the coast. Prices are dramatically better than those in Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica...but this is changing fast. I've watched people flip houses on the beach for profits of 35% and more in less than a month, and I've personally realized returns of 50% and better in less than six.

 

"Building costs right now are $25 to $50 a square foot--and that for top materials, including hardwoods, marble, and custom-made tiles.

 

"Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar. That may or may not be a good thing long-term, but right now it means this is one place where American buyers don't have to worry about their devaluing currency.

 

"Ecuador has more than 1,300 miles of coastline, less than 10% of which is developed. Two new international airports are going in at different points on the coast. Those two coastal spots, in particular, are set to explode.

 

"Also note that property taxes in this country are embarrassingly low, and labor costs are about one-tenth what they are in the States. Plumbers, electricians, and carpenters earn less than $20 a day... not an hour..."

 

 

You'd never know you were just a few minutes outside one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.

 

I didn't know the place existed. My daughter, Kaitlin, a freshman at St. Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland, made the discovery while visiting us in Panama last month. I asked her to share it with you:

 

"You have to walk around back, behind a resort restaurant, and down an unmarked road. You come to a fence and a gate, guarded by a police officer, that leads to a dirt path lined with purple and yellow flowers.

 

"We weren't sure you were allowed to pass through, so we hesitated. But the policeman waved us on (after we paid $2 apiece). On the other side of the gate, we saw the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute sign and a map of the Punta Culebra. We followed the road to "Crab Beach," which was, yes, crawling with orange and white crabs.

 

"At the end of the beach road, we entered a small building where a man played a tape for us and invited us to read about Panama (in ancient Native American, "Panama" meant "Where Fish Abound") and its amazing diversity of fish.

 

"In fact, Panama has an amazing diversity of all kinds of living things, from turtles to mangrove. Continuing along the peninsula, we passed tanks of turtles, starfish, sea cucumber, anemone, conch, urchin, and all kinds of fish I couldn't identify.

 

"A promenade around the aquarium circled the tip of the peninsula, and we were able to observe, with the aid of a telescope, flocks of birds scouting for food inches above the waves of the ocean.

 

"It began to rain, cooling the temperature, and we continued in the drizzle up to the Dry Forest exhibit. We saw iguanas roaming wild and crazy-looking lemur-esque ring-tailed raccoons. We watched a lizard hunt the biggest black bug I've ever seen. We were told to look for two-toed sloths but didn't see any. They must have been smart enough to go in out of the rain.

 

"Walking along the nature trails, it felt like we were far from civilization, and we had the sense we were wandering alone in the jungle. Yet we were just minutes from downtown Panama City, at the end of the Amador Causeway.

 

"Given all the activity going on in this city, I'm afraid this undiscovered corner won't remain so untouched much longer. The museum will continue, I'm sure, but the area around it will have to give way to development. Right now, though, it's as though you're on an island by yourself--no other tourists, no guides, no guards watching to make sure you stay on the path. Nature wild and free. In the heart of one of the fastest-growing cities in the world."