Turn-Key, Comfortable, And Off-Grid—This Sustainable Investment Comes With A Three-Year Guarantee
Friend and developer Phil Hahn updated attendees at last week’s Live and Invest in Belize Conference on his current project in Belize’s Cayo District: Carmelita Gardens.
At Carmelita, Phil is creating a self-sufficient community. All of the houses will be off-grid. This development approach suits Cayo. This is a nature-lover’s paradise, an undeveloped and still relatively undiscovered frontier of wide-open spaces crisscrossed by rivers for swimming and kayaking, rain forest for exploring and hiking, and Mayan ruins for climbing.
These days, being off-grid doesn’t have to mean a cabin in the woods with no infrastructure or amenities. And that’s definitely not the idea at Carmelita. Each house will have solar electricity, but modern solar technology of the kind residents will enjoy at Carmelita supports air conditioning, fans, washers, dryers, refrigerators, and internet (Belize telecom companies provide USBs you can just pop into your computer for internet).
Residents at Carmelita will also have access to communal gardens and orchards that they can work as much or as little as they like. As the property is located directly on the Belize River, water activities are also easily accessible.
The bottom line for residents is that they’ll be living in a truly sustainable community but living comfortably and among like-minded company. As Phil likes to say, “Carmelita is where people can be independent, together.”
Just 10 minutes from Carmelita in one direction is San Ignacio (the biggest town in the Cayo and an important local meeting place) and just 10 minutes away in the other direction is Spanish Lookout (the main Mennonite village in the area…the place to go for building supplies and labor). Living at Carmelita, you’ll feel like you’re enjoying the best of country life (as you would be) while enjoying quick, easy access to grocery stores, restaurants, bars, hardware stores, and services. (I got a great haircut in San Ignacio for US$5 one time I passed through.)
The big news that Phil shared at last week’s conference was that the population at Carmelita has this month doubled. Now the first couple to take up full-time residence here is no longer living solo; now they have a second couple for neighbors. Construction at Carmelita is in full swing. Three houses have been completed, three more are under construction, and another four are planned to break ground soon.
Most of the 44 owners to date are intending to live at Carmelita. On one hand, this is great news, as it means a real community is taking shape. On the other hand, it means a shortage of rental properties, and Phil reports an emerging demand.
This revelation has prompted Phil to launch a new phase in Carmelita that he’s calling the River Club.
The River Club will be a riverfront eco-resort consisting of 30 one-bedroom, one-bath casitas. These units work for either part-time living or as a rental investment. Phil is so confident in the growing demand for this kind of rental and, as a result, in the rental returns he’s projecting that he launched the River Club offer at last week’s conference with a guarantee.
Specifically, Phil offered the first five buyers at the River Club a guaranteed return of 10% per year for the first three years. Phil had four takers. Now he has agreed to make the remaining fifth unit with the three-year guaranteed return available to the general Live and Invest Overseas readership.
Prices start at US$59,000 for courtyard units and go up to US$69,000 for the riverfront units, making this an affordable investment. Units come furnished, including solar, water, and wastewater systems and appliances. It’s a fully turn-key opportunity at a very appealing price.
Even if you don’t get the remaining unit with the guaranteed return, your rental returns should be strong considering both the continued growth of tourism in the Cayo and the coming demand from other Carmelita buyers needing accommodation while they build their own homes. For more information, you can inquire here.
Lief Simon
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