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Home Countries Colombia

Six Reasons (And More) To Love The City Of Medellin

For Me And Medellín, It Was Love At First Sight

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Mar 12, 2017
in Colombia, Retirement/Living
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medellin at night
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Four days into my first visit to Medellín, Colombia, in 2008, here’s what I had to say:

The Euro-undertones are strong, from the way the women dress to the way that people greet you in passing on the street.

Wandering around Medellín is more reminiscent of walking around Paris than Panama City (my two most ready points of comparison).

In other words, as Lief remarked as we exited the international airport upon arrival, “Welcome to South America.”

The differences between this continent and the one just to the north are striking.

Medellín is a miniature version of Buenos Aires, Argentina (which is one of my favorite cities in the world), from its annual International Tango Festival to its Botero Museum.

Medellín is more manageable than B.A., and cleaner.

Otherwise, the neighborhoods, the parks, the downtown shopping areas, the antique shops, the arts and literary history… these things all remind me of that very European city way down at the bottom of this continent.

Here were other of my observations after my first few days in Medellín:

  • This city boasts some of the world’s friendliest and most helpful taxi drivers. We’ve yet to encounter even one who was rude or unpleasant…
  • Medellín is also home to the world’s cleanest public toilets (note that you typically pay to use them, from 100 to 600 pesos… that is, pennies)…
  • This is a green city, with trees, plants, and small gardens everywhere…
  • It’s also an architecturally consistent and pleasing city. Most every building is constructed of red brick and topped with red clay roof tiles. The overall effect is delightful, especially when viewed from some height. From the windows of the penthouse apartments we’ve visited, for example, the city appears a sea of red clay tiles and red brick buildings interspersed regularly by swatches of foliage and flowers…
  • This city is remarkably clean. In the central neighborhoods, you see no litter anywhere. The Metro (a point of pride for the population of Medellín and a great way to get around parts of the city) is spotless and like new. I’ve looked for but been unable to find even a cigarette butt or piece of gum on the ground at any of the stops we’ve visited…
  • Lief and I are an anomaly, especially outside the central El Poblado neighborhood, where most of the interest from foreign investors has so far been focused. Yesterday, we wandered into more local neighborhoods and drew stares at every turn…

In the nine years since that first visit, Lief and I have returned to Medellín dozens of times. What’s changed?

The rest of the world has begun to catch on. I’m reading today about others who are “discovering” Medellín…

And I think, good for you, Medellín… way to go.

The good folks of this city, some of whom have become close friends over these past eight years, have been working hard for more than two decades to overcome the stigma of Medellín’s past. They and their very special city deserve to be recognized and appreciated.

In 2010 Lief and I bought an apartment in Medellín’s El Poblado neighborhood. This was an investment in a market where we wanted to take a stake as well as a lifestyle choice.

For us and Medellín, it was love at first sight. From our first visit, we knew this was a place we wanted to return to as often as possible. Life in Medellín is about as good as life gets.

This city continues to offer everything that got our attention years ago. Plus now the expat, foreign retiree, and global entrepreneur and investor has more company and more support all the time.

Over the past nine years that we’ve been paying attention to Medellín, property values in this city have appreciated 5% to 10% per year on average… as we predicted they would.

The cost of buying a home or apartment in Medellín was a screaming bargain when we arrived on the scene, seriously undervalued on a global scale. It didn’t take a genius to forecast an upward trend.

Values have appreciated year on year… but something else has happened, too. The U.S. dollar has gained on the Colombian peso big time.

The net result is that buyers with dollars have a chance to take a position in this market at 2008 prices in dollar terms, give or take.

It amounts to a do-over.

If you didn’t take our advice nearly nine years ago when we first recommended a property investment in Medellín, here’s your second chance.

I don’t know how long the current window of opportunity will remain open, but I can say that I wouldn’t count on a third chance. Take this second one.

Kathleen Peddicord

 

Tags: international living Colombiainvest Colombiainvest Medellinlive Colombialive Medellinretire Colombiaretire Medellin
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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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