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Home Retirement/Living

Life On The Bay Island, Roatan

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Oct 02, 2013
in Retirement/Living
0
With waters like this, you gotta experience Life On The Bay Island, Roatan
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Your Own Home On Our Favorite Caribbean Isle For US$83,500

Approaching Roatan from the air, the view is of a small Caribbean island, 40 miles long, 2 miles wide, and very green. Roatan may be the largest and most developed of the three Bay Islands offshore from mainland Honduras, but it’s still a very natural place. No high-rise hotels here. Construction regulations don’t allow buildings over three stories. This, along with density setbacks from the beach, have succeeded in keeping the development on this island low-key. Bananas and coconuts grow everywhere, and cows and pigs graze in the lush grass. Occasionally you encounter them wandering down the road, as well.

The lifestyle on Roatan is laid-back, the people hospitable and friendly. Change comes slowly on this Western Caribbean outpost.

Roatan’s greatest appeal is its water, which is warm, crystal clear, and home to some of the most beautiful, diverse, and prolific marine life in the world. While Spanish is the official language of Honduras, English is the language of the Bay Islands (once part of British Honduras). The increased tourism and expanding construction industry of the past decade have created an increased demand for labor, and many Spanish-speaking workers from mainland Honduras have migrated to Roatan in search of work. As a result, today, both languages are spoken on the island, as well as many others as, more and more, Europeans and people from all over the world are seeking out Roatan for first and second homes.

The expat population on this island is established, expanding, and eclectic. Roatan appeals to an assortment of demographics, including both retirees and young couples with families. If you appreciate island living, enjoy diving, and want an uncomplicated life, Roatan could have your name all over it, no matter what your age. This island is also an emerging golf destination, thanks to the Pete Dye-designed Black Pearl Golf course, which is attracting a more jet-set crowd.

Roatan, though, is not a typical jet-set destination and may never be. There’s a single main road, which runs almost the length of the island. Access beyond the reach of this main thoroughfare is via a series of other loops, many of which are now hard-surfaced. The second expansion of the international airport in 10 years was completed recently; you can fly here direct from Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Toronto, and Milan weekly. Regular flights to Dallas are planned for next year, and other destinations are added seasonally.

Roatan’s appeal for the retiree is straightforward—it’s quintessential Caribbean at a fraction the cost of more developed Caribbean isles. Real estate, especially, can be a bargain buy right now in the wake of the post-2008 downturn of global property markets, which hit this island hard.

It’s possible to find straight-up fire sales. A home site of more than an acre in the prestigious development of Lawson Rock was priced at US$220,000 in 2009. Today it’s on offer for US$89,900. A five-bedroom house in the same development valued at US$900,000 in 2008 is now listed at US$324,000. And even these discounted prices can be very negotiable. A cute two-story home on a corner waterfront lot in CoCo View was listed for US$120,000 but sold this year for US$83,500.

The cost of living and, right now, especially, of real estate can be tempting, but not all retirees would find life here comfortable.

As Caribbean Correspondent Janine Goben, who has been living on Roatan for 10 years, puts it, “You need to realize that life here is going to be different than you’re used to in the United States. For example, there are no addresses on the island. If you were to ask for my address, you’d be told to look for ‘the Gringa’s house on Brazil Hill above the road to the air traffic control tower after the gates to Larry McLaughlin’s property.’ I find that charming. Some others, though, might find it maddening!”

Janine shares more insights into expat and retired life on little Roatan and provides a comprehensive overview of the property market on this island, including details of particularly interesting current opportunities on offer, in the October issue of my Overseas Retirement Letter, in production now and due in subscribers’ e-mailboxes the 15th of the month.

If you’re not yet a subscriber to the ORL, become one here now in time to receive Janine’s delightful (and fully illustrated) firsthand report on living the good life on Roatan’s sandy Caribbean shores.

Kathleen Peddicord

Continue reading: Retire To Ajijic, Mexico

Tags: 'Honduras''investment''retirement'expatsislands livingmarine lifeoffshore real estateRoatanTravel
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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