Country Article / Postcards

Honduras Beyond Roatan

Date: 03/21/2005

After more than a dozen years of research and scouting, we've finally put down roots. I made the formal introductions a few weeks ago: Janine and Ron Goben are our woman and man on the ground in Honduras. We've posted them on the largest and most developed of the country's three Bay Islands, Roatan, which serves as a good base of operations. It is not, however, according to Janine and Ron, the area of this country you should be paying attention to right now. It's the mainland coast, they predict, that is "really going to take off."

I don't need to sell you on the Caribbean. Lapping turquoise waters, soft white sand, and swaying palm trees beneath perpetual sunshine. Sells itself.

Trouble with the Caribbean is that its best-known shores are among the most costly in the world. But there are less-known outposts.

We've watched the Bay Islands of Honduras evolve from the secret playground of avid divers...to the upstart discovered by the cruise industry and made famous by Temptation Island. Along the way, the cost of owning on these shores has escalated from "best buy in the Caribbean" to "hey, it's cheaper than the Caymans."

I'm over-stating to make my point. In fact, a house on even the most developed beaches on Roatan, the most developed of the Bay Islands, can still be affordable. Janine and Ron report that for $126,000 you could find a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a beachfront half acre with a panoramic view of both the mountains and the sea…just five minutes from town for shopping and dining.

However, Roatan is the beginning of the Honduras story. There are two other Bay Islands, smaller, almost no infrastructure, no permanent expat community (as on Roatan)...but lots of everything else that attracts people to this part of the world--the white sand, the green palms, the sapphire water, the ever-present sun. The two lesser Bay Islands of Utila and Guanaja are just beginning to make their way onto the radar screens of property developers and Caribbean tourists. And the cost of owning their beachfront meters reflects this.

Plus, there's the part of Honduras completely ignored to date: its mainland coast. Some stretches of this have a reputation for being unsafe. Janine and Ron report, though, that these concerns are mostly unfounded...and they can tell you which particular regions you should avoid.

They can also tell you how to make sure any bit of this coast you might be thinking about buying is in fact owned by the entity trying to sell it to you. Title issues are not to be ignored in this part of the world. But they shouldn't keep you away, either. Do your homework, with Janine and Ron's help, and you can buy with confidence.

And what you're buying may not be island sand, but it still qualifies as quintessential Caribbean--with a big upside: The prices for this beachfront compete with those in places like the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Belize, and the British Virgin Islands...15 years ago.

On the mainland, you can buy a fully furnished, ready-to-occupy villa with spectacular ocean views and year-round trade winds, just a short walk from a white sandy beach…for as little as $96,900. And a number of International Living readers have already bought villas on the grounds of a resort in La Ceiba where inventory remains starting as low as $65,000. They’re letting the hotel take care of all outdoor maintenance and security, and they’re also getting access to the three pools, amenities, and grounds of a major hotel resort next-door. The hotel will handle renting out their villas when they’re not there…meaning they’ll collect rental income with no effort at all.

Not only real estate, but everything in this part of the country is a bargain. Janine and Ron report an expat couple can live well in a town like Tela, one of the biggest on the Honduran mainland coast, on as little as $1,000 a month.

That's why, after a dozen years of research, we've scheduled our first-ever Live and Invest in Honduras Conference for La Ceiba, "the hippest hot-spot" (our in-country team tells me) along these shores.

We like to be ahead of the pack. In Honduras, the pack hangs out on Roatan. Sure, Roatan has a lot to offer...but Janine and Ron want to introduce you to Honduras beyond Roatan. E-mail them for details: Honduras@Internationalliving.com.

Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living