The World’s Next Top Retirement Haven
The first place I ever recommended Americans think about retiring overseas was Costa Rica. That was nearly 30 years ago. A few years later I organized and promoted the first conference of my career, in San Jose.
Thinking back, I have to give it to the 40-odd souls who joined me in Costa Rica that year. What interrogations they must have endured from their family and friends. I mean, who retired overseas 30 years ago?
I continued to recommend Costa Rica as an appealing and affordable place to retire outside the box for maybe two decades. In that time, I also went on to recommend Ambergris Caye, Belize…Roatan, Honduras…Cuenca, Ecuador…and Boquete, Panama, among other places that, likewise, nobody at the time was talking about in this way.
I’m not over-stating things. When I began making these kinds of suggestions, I was ignored, questioned suspiciously, and sometimes attacked as part of the lunatic fringe.
Today the idea of retiring outside the country where you happened to be living up until that point is no longer considered crazy. Today The New York Times, the AARP, USA Today, cable news, and the rest of the mainstream media make these recommendations, too. Which is great. It’s nice having company in these ideas.
I make the point to provide context for the recommendation I’d like to offer now, which may seem like the craziest one of all.
About five years ago I finally took the advice of friends who had been nagging me for a long while to go see for myself a city they knew well, a city they described as pretty and pleasant, sophisticated and chic, welcoming and affordable…a city that was, most of all, they assured me, nothing like what I was probably expecting.
I knew within hours of arriving in Medellin, Colombia, that everything my friends had said was true. Medellin, I became convinced very quickly, was on track to become one of the world’s most sought-after destinations, for both retiring and investing.
Specifically, Medellin offers:
- Pleasant weather, meaning you can leave your windows open to the breeze and dine al fresco year-round…
- World-class healthcare, including 5 of the top 35 hospitals in Latin America…
- A rich cultural scene, with theater, orchestra, art galleries, and festivals that draw crowds from around the world…
- An affordable cost of living…
- Real-world infrastructure…living here you don’t want for anything…
- Property costs that are a bargain on a global scale; it’s possible to buy at the best addresses in the city for as little as US$1,000 per square meter…
- Investment upside, both in the form of rental yields and potential capital appreciation…
The best case when going overseas is when you can identify a place that is appealing both as a lifestyle choice and as an investment market. That’s the case in Medellin.
During one of my first visits to this city, I sat at a table in a newly opened restaurant. I was with a group of investors and businesspeople who, like me, had come to explore investment potential. The conversation went like this…
“Property values in this city are so under-valued,” one of the gentlemen having dinner with us remarked (a real estate professional). “I believe that apartment costs here are the lowest for any cosmopolitan city in the world on a per-square-meter basis.
“This is because Colombia, especially Medellín, is still misunderstood. When you say ‘Medellín’ to the average American, he thinks: Drugs…gangs…Pablo Escobar…
“It’s such a misperception. The current reality of this city is so far removed from all that. But luckily for us, that outdated stereotype is keeping prices down.”
It was déjà vu…
I’d heard the same case, made by another group of investors, around a similar table, in Boquete, Panama, back in 1999…10 years before the AARP ranked that mountain town as one of the world’s top five retirement destinations.
So I know how this scene plays out.
Three types of people should be paying attention to Colombia right now:
The investor: Prices are an absolute, global bargain. Costs of getting in are low, and demand is growing at an accelerating rate. Right now in Medellín, you could buy almost anything and feel confident that you could make money. Rental yields are running from 8% to 14% on good properties…
The retiree: This City of Flowers and Eternal Spring is going to become a top destination among North American retirees…mark my words…
The second homebuyer: More and more, I’m seeing people who are spending their summers in the United States or Europe but skipping out on the ice and snow by wintering in places where they can leave their windows open day and night, all year. These folks are bypassing the old-school snowbird haunts like Arizona and Florida and opting instead for the romance, the excitement, the adventure, and the affordable high-end lifestyle on offer in cities like Medellín.
We don’t always have the vision to jump when opportunity presents itself. Imagine if you had bought in Costa Rica in the mid-1980s… on Ambergris Caye, Belize, later in that decade…or in Panama City 15 years ago…
I recognized the opportunities in all these places at precisely those points in time, and I urged readers and friends to take advantage.
I see that same potential again right now, in Medellín.
The best way to appreciate the opportunity on offer is to come see it for yourself.
Kathleen Peddicord
Continue reading: Why Punta Chame, Panama, Is A Top Snowbird Retirement Choice
