Perfect Storm Retirement Investing
“How many of you are here this week because you’re interested in investing in real estate overseas to make some money?” I asked the crowd convened in Panama City for this week’s Global Property Summit our first morning together.
Half the people in the room raised their hands.
“How many of you are here because you’d like to buy a place in another country for vacation or maybe as a second home?”
Half the people in the room raised their hands.
“How many of you are here because you’d like to do both those things?”
No hands in the air for a few seconds…then, as the idea settled in, nearly everyone in the room responded to agree that, yes, now that they thought about it, that seemed like the best idea of all.
And it is.
I call it the perfect storm of property buying objectives, when you are able to find a piece of real estate in a place where you want to spend time, today and also longer term, that also holds out the potential for an investment return, from capital appreciation or rental yield or both.
Even if your priority agenda is return on investment, I recommend starting your thinking process for where to invest by asking yourself where you’d like to be.
Buying real estate in another country isn’t like investing in a stock. You don’t make the purchase and then sit the asset on a virtual shelf. Wherever you invest in a piece of property, you’re going to have to visit. So, rather than dreading your twice-yearly trips to check on your rental investment on the coast of Panama (because you’re miserable in the tropics), why not consider a rental buy someplace where you’d count down the days until you got to go back (maybe Medellin, Colombia, for example, where the weather is cool and pleasant year-round).
Medellin is a great example because this city offers so much potential right now both from a lifestyle and an investment point of view. Great weather, great health care, affordable cost of living, pretty city, Euro-undertones, lots to do…plus an expanding middle class, a growing tourist market, a currency that continues to appreciate, and, for the time being anyway, rock-bottom values, meaning you can buy in even if you’re working with a modest investment nut.
Where else did our panel of property experts direct the attention of those in attendance at this week’s event?
- Cayo, Belize, where you could invest in a house very suited for earning a rental yield for as little as US$50,000…
- Limousin, France, where you could participate in a chateau leaseback opportunity for as little as US$16,000 at the current exchange rate…
- Paraguay, where you could land-bank for as little as US$100 per acre…
- Argentina, where our man on the ground reports that the end of the current crisis is drawing near…meaning right now is the time to be shopping for coming crisis opportunity…
- Ambergris Caye, Belize, where you could get in on a turn-key tourist rental program to earn a guaranteed cash flow each month and a total net yield of more than 10% per year…
- The Caribbean coast of Mexico, where you could own at the premier sustainable community in this part of this country for less than US$50,000…
- Nicaragua, where you could own a home in a fully serviced master-planned beachfront community for less than US$100,000…
- Panama, the fastest-growing market in Latin America, where prices are on the rise and we believe will begin a sharp and long-term upward trend starting in 2015 (in other words, this year is your last chance to get in before this market takes off)…
- Brazil, where you could earn 15% in one year in one of the most turn-key and risk-mitigated foreign property investments I’ve ever seen…
- Ecuador, where you could invest in a home of your own for US$70,000 or less…that could earn a good rental return when you’re not using it and, thinking longer term, that could be standing ready when the time comes to flip your switch to retirement…
Another perfect storm opportunity.
We’ve also looked closely at real estate-for-residency opportunities, including one in Panama right now that comes with a minimum buy-in of just US$17,000 (this is the most affordable invest-for-residency program available anywhere in the world today)…
Plus key agricultural investment buys, again with modest minimum investment requirements, including teak, one of our personal favorite legacy plays.
Kathleen Peddicord
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