A Profitable New World

Date: 09/22/2006

International Living Postcards-- Saturday Edition

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006

Here at International Living, our radar screen is continually refreshing itself. Where best to put your international real estate investment dollars if capital appreciation is your agenda? Today's answer can be very different from yesterday's…and nothing like tomorrow's.

If you're shopping right now with capital profits in mind, here's where to consider looking:

1. Cafayete, in Salta Province in the north of Argentina. Still largely unheard of outside the country, Cafayete is slated for considerable infrastructure improvements, including a new airport. Meantime, this sleepy town in the shadows of the Andes is blissfully ignorant of the transformation to trendy we predict is already under way. Prices are moving up in town and in the surrounding countryside.

2. Nicaragua's north. About a dozen years ago, we sat around a table in our offices in Baltimore, Maryland, and decided to invest in a piece of land on Nicaragua's south Pacific coast. That decision led to the purchases of Rancho Santana and Los Perros. People told us we were crazy. And in our hearts, we weren't so sure they were wrong. We were pioneers on this coast…speculators. Twelve years later, beachfront in this part of the country has appreciated in value by 1,000% and more. And the region has become competitive. At least 20 developers are at work. The end-user buyer is spoiled for choice…but there's little room today for the speculator. That's why we're heading north. Call us crazy…again. But if you're in the market for a good buy with good upside potential…maybe you'd like in on the madness.

3. Ciudad Viejo, Montevideo, Uruguay. The market here trails that in Buenos Aires, Argentina, across the river by two or three years…which is to say that, today, you can invest in a building or apartment in need of renovation at a prime address for as little as $500 per square meter (renovation costs will run you $300 to $600), compared with as much as $4,000 or more per square meter for a comparable (renovated) buy in BA. There's a growing short-term rental market in Montevideo, too.

4. A region on the Pacific coast of Panama that I'm not going to name here. We believe this area will be the Next Big Thing in Panama and are scouting as I write. Watch this space.

Your ever-roving scout,

Lief Simon
Real Estate Editor, International Living

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P.S. Want to know more about these or other top picks right now for capital property investment worldwide? I'm assembling 12 of my far-flung Dream Team real estate investment experts in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 6-7. The timing is right. U.S. property markets are cooling…and worse. But outside the States, particular foreign markets are poised for serious appreciation. The intensive two-day seminar highlighting current opportunities will be followed by an optional day in the field, where I'll take the first 50 who sign up for a daylong Field Trip to show them how to put theory into practice. Full details here.

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Properties in Panama

Beachfront real estate in Panama