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    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
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  • Home
  • Countries

    Top Destinations:

    Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Panama
    • Belize
    • Colombia
    • Cyprus
    • Mexico
    • France
    • Montenegro
    • Browse All Countries

    Best For:

    • The Best Places To Retire
    • Health Care Abroad
    • Cost Of Living
    • Investing in Real Estate
    • Establishing Residency
    • Gun Laws In The World
    • English-Speaking Countries
    • Safest Places For Retirement
    • Best Places In Latin America
  • Budgets

    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

    Global Living

    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore & Diversification

    Making Money

    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing

    Follow Us:

    • Meet Our Experts
  • Real Estate

    Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

    • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

    Explore Our Latest Posts

    • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

    Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

    • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
  • Conferences

    Upcoming Events

    • Explore Our Events Site

    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Greece Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    Oct. 15-17, 2025

    VIRTUAL

    Nov. 13, 2025

    Learn More About This Event
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    • MORE EVENTS

    Contact Our Events Team

    Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
    1 (888) 627 8834
    From Outside North America:
    1 (443) 599 1221
    Working Hours
    Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

    Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

  • Store

    Unlock The World

    • Access Your Library

    Overseas Havens Reports

    • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

    Conference Kits

    • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

    Lahardan Books

    • Titles on living and investing around the world
    • Explore Our Store
    Your passport to a life well-lived abroad

    Services

    overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
    The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
    Global Property Advisor Global Investment Opportunities

    Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

  • My Library
Live and Invest Overseas
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THE 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE IN 2025

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Home Countries Colombia

One Of The World’s Most Pleasant Places To Live

by Kathleen Peddicord
Mar 16, 2025
in Colombia
0 0
Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia. Palace of Culture and Sculptures Fernando Botero. Antioquia Museum in the background

AdobeStock/camaralucida1

Book a plane ticket to Colombia.

Hop your flight… When you land you’ll be twice as wealthy as you are right now.

No kidding.

At home anywhere in this big beautiful country, your expenses could be cut by 50%.

The cost of living is incredibly, unbelievably low…

And the dollar is riding high. If the Greenback is your base currency, you’re positioned for a significant currency discount.

What’s perhaps even more remarkable is that your quality of life would likely improve. Remember, Colombia is probably not what you’re expecting.

The truth is, this country offers a top-tier international-standard lifestyle… and that’s true whether you chose to live on one of its Caribbean beaches or in one of its many charming cities.

providencia island colombia
Imave Source: iStock/DC_Colombia

I’d recommend one city in particular. It’s one of my favorite in the world.

I’m talking about Medellin.

I first identified Medellín as a peaceful and affordable haven for expats and retirees in 2009.

Back then, I was called crazy and worse.

Isn’t Medellin a violent place at the mercy of cartels?

That’s very old news.

Pablo Escobar died more than 30 years ago!

Since then, Medellin has reinvented itself to become one of the world’s most pleasant places to live.

These days, The New York Times, Lonely Planet, Fox News, CNN, and even the AARP agree with me. So do increasing numbers of tourists, expats, and investors from around the world.

Medellín is booming. A record number of tourists visited Colombia last year, and Medellín welcomed a huge percentage of them.

More and more people are attracted by Medellín’s perfect weather, super low cost of living, excellent health care, and endless cultural entertainment options (including fine dining, festivals, museums, and more).

It’s a compelling list of attributes that, altogether, provides an above-average standard of living. Medellín is far and away my top lifestyle choice in South America…

But it’s also a smart choice right now for real estate investors…

A Booming Economy And Tourism Growth

Colombia’s economy has experienced historic growth over the past 10 years.

Real gross domestic product increased from $250 billion in 1990 to $800 billion in 2024. Over that period, poverty has decreased by an average of 1.4% per year.

Colombia has the world’s fastest-growing information technology industry, one of the biggest shipbuilding industries outside Asia, and the longest fiber-optic network in the world.

Colombia welcomed 5.8 million tourists in 2023—a 24% increase from 2022 and a 174% increase from 2021.

Medellín, specifically, has a growing reputation as a safe and affordable place to visit and is well-connected globally, with two international airports and direct flights from the United States as quick as 3.5 hours.

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Urban Innovation And Lifestyle Appeal

Medellín has worked hard to earn its emerging place on the world stage. It’s widely recognized as the “Most Innovative City In The World” because of advances made in social and urban development, public transportation, and education.

Among its most celebrated achievements is the Medellín Metro, a public transportation service that over 500,000 people use every day. It’s estimated to reduce the city’s CO2 emissions by 175,000 tons every year.

But the Metro is more than just a people-mover. It’s had a profound effect on the city’s poverty and crime rates because it opens doors to people in hard-to-reach districts that were previously disenfranchised.

Medellín has a track record for identifying problems, coming up with unique solutions, and implementing them…

In 2016, it launched its “green corridors” initiative to address air pollution and the urban heat island effect. This involved connecting the city’s green spaces by planting millions of plants and trees… and it actually worked. Temperatures dropped by 2 degrees across the city.

Medellín has also made major advancements in health care and is now a world-renowned medical tourism destination. Six of the best hospitals in all of Latin America are in this city alone.

These positive innovations have enhanced Medellín’s lifestyle appeal and caught the attention of UNESCO, the UN, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other global institutions that have heaped accolades and awards on Medellín.

It makes sense that this city has become so popular with tourists, expats, and a relatively new type of visitor: remote workers.

These laptop-based workers come to take advantage of the affordable living costs and solid infrastructure, including high-speed internet.

As one Medellín-based digital nomad puts it, “Living here, I can afford to pay someone to clean and someone else to cook for me, meaning my time really is my own.

“But the real benefit of living in Medellín isn’t the low cost… The real advantage is the high standard of living—nice apartments, nice restaurants, nice everything. The people are great too!”

Affordable Real Estate With High Growth Potential

More tourism and higher numbers of expats and remote workers in Medellín are boosting demand for short-term rentals, creating profitable opportunities for investors.

Real estate prices per square meter in Medellín are among the most affordable in the region, at $1,688. This is substantially less than Buenos Aires, Argentina ($1,900); Mexico City, Mexico ($2,401); and Panama City, Panama ($2,598).

Construction standards are high, and you can afford far better digs here than back home, including modern, well-appointed apartments… even penthouses.

I made my first investment in a luxury apartment in El Poblado, in the heart of Medellin, in 2010, and I’m factoring spending time in this lovely city into my roving retirement plan.

El Poblado continues to be the neighborhood I recommend first for real estate investment. It’s the most sought-after area of the city, home to excellent restaurants, chic cafés and bars, top-tier shopping, and a lot of wealth.

Foreigners flock here, and rental returns are among the highest in the city. Rental yields are strong at about 8%… and in the right location with the right connections on the ground, they can be much higher.

Why Medellín Is A Smart Investment Choice

Foreigners enjoy the exact same property rights as locals in Colombia, and the purchase process is clear and easy.

Investing in real estate can also come with perks, as Colombia offers a real estate investor visa. If you invest 350 times the minimum salary (about $125,000), you qualify for a residency permit. This can put you on the path to a second passport as well.

Until next time, 

Kathleen Peddicord signature

Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas  Opportunity Letter

Tags: Colombiahealthcarelow cost of livingMedellinreal estate investment opportunities
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has reported on opportunities for Americans to live, retire, and do business overseas for 40 years. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 24, established businesses in 7, renovated and built properties in 6, and educated her children in 5.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets from the east coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland, then to Paris, France, and finally to Panama City, Panama, where she has based her Live And Invest Overseas business. Peddicord and her husband, Lief Simon, now divide their time between Panama and Paris.

Peddicord was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. She opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Waterford, Ireland; Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France. Peddicord launched Live And Invest Overseas group in 2008 and has built it into a successful multimillion-dollar business. Today, she shares her firsthand experience of expat life with more than 500,000 readers of her publications, including Overseas Opportunity Letter and Overseas Living Letter.

Kathleen has been featured often in The New York Times, MSNBC, AARP, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and more and writes monthly about expat matters, international real estate, and offshore diversification for Forbes and U.S. News.

Kathleen has written several books including the memoirs “At Home In Ireland” and “At Home At Los Islotes” and her latest title “At Home Abroad,” all published by Lahardan Books. Her best-selling "How To Retire Overseas: Everything You Need To Know To Live Well (For Less) Abroad” was published by Penguin Random House in 2018 and her “Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life)” was published by Wiley in August 2020.

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Top Countries

  • Spain
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  • Belize
  • Colombia
  • Cyprus
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Best For:

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BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

Budgets

How Much Will It Cost
To Live Overseas?

Super Cheap

  • Chitré, Panama
  • Santa Marta, Colombia
  • Phuket, Thailand
  • Dumaguete, The Philippines

Cheap

  • Medellin, Colombia
  • Boquete, Panama
  • Kyrenia, Cyprus
  • Hua Hin, Thailand
  • The Algarve, Portugal

Affordable

  • Valencia, Spain
  • Cascais, Portugal
  • Las Terrenas, The DR
  • Pisa, Italy
  • La Rochelle, France
  • Mazatlán, Mexico

Luxury

  • Ambergris Caye, Belize
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • The Panama City Beaches
  • Paris, France

Resources

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Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

Store

Overseas Havens Reports

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  • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

Lahardan Books

  • Titles on living and investing around the world

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