What Can You Get For $50,000?

Date: 02/02/2007

International Living Postcards-- Saturday Edition

Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007
Paris, France

I can find properties in the U.S. that cost less than a condo in Panama City or a beach house in Honduras. So, why do I bother traversing the globe in search of those international property deals I tell you about each week? Here's why: I'm not in the cheap property business; I'm in the good value property business. If the point is simply to buy something cheap, you've no reason to look outside the U.S. You can find inexpensive housing in Florida…but the price you'll pay for something five miles from the beach in the Sunshine State will get you something in Central America with an ocean view (and probably better quality). Comparing apples to apples, Latin America almost always wins on pricing.

However, you can find inexpensive properties overseas. "Inexpensive" is a relative term, but we'll start at the lowest reasonable price range this week: around the $50,000 mark.

Even in Europe you can find something in this range, as my contacts at Croatian Sun (e-mail: info@croatiansun.com) have shown with a 50,000 euro ($65,000) house on the island of Brac. Don't expect much from this small house--it's but 325 square feet plus a front terrace. However, it does have an ocean view and is less than a mile from the sea. The house has permission to build a second floor, to add another 325 square feet. The cost of the addition is estimated at 20,000 euro ($26,000). You might even be able to rent the house short-term to vacationers coming to the island.

In Buenos Aires you can still find apartments for around $50,000. My friends at Reynolds Propiedades in B.A. (e-mail: Argentina@internationalliving.com) sent me information on a studio apartment in the downtown area that is selling for $55,000. Again it is small…about 300 square feet, with a small terrace that can accommodate a chair and table to take in the sun while you read your morning paper. The kicker is that the price includes the furnishings, and the apartment doesn't need any work done to it.

If you want to be near the beach, I learned from Janine and Ron Goben, IL's couple on the scene in Honduras (e-mail: Honduras@internationalliving.com), of a residential resort on the coast of Honduras. Here you can buy a two-bedroom house for $67,000. Not right on the beach, but you are close enough to walk. The development has a swimming pool and restaurant as well as property management services. The price includes the appliances, but remember that the construction--while good--is geared toward Hondurans…which means it is basic block construction without a lot of fancy finishes.

Low-priced properties exist in every country we talk about, but they may not be for you. I couldn't spend my retirement in a 300-square-foot apartment in Buenos Aires. But I know people who could…and are spending their retirement in basic, but comfortable, apartments and houses that cost anywhere from half to a quarter of something comparable in the U.S.

Lief Simon
For International Living

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P.S. When I say "comparable," I am not just referring to size. Setting and location have to be compared, too. I'll tell you another time about the guy who scolded me for writing about a project in Belize on the water where you could buy a house for less $150,000…when he could buy a house in Phoenix for the same price.