A Profitable New World, Part II

International Living Postcards--Sunday Edition

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006

Yesterday, my husband, IL's Chief Real Estate Scout, Lief Simon, gave you his top four picks for where to think about putting your real estate dollars today if you're looking for big capital return.

Sometimes, though, your agenda as you consider the world map in search of places to think about buying property has less to do with profit potential and more to do with a new life…a second chance…an escape…a sunny bolt-hole…a holiday home abroad…maybe a retirement haven. Best case, of course, is when the two agendas (the one for profit and the one for fun) can be married, and you're able to identify a place where you want to be, full- or part-time…that also holds out the potential of good return on your capital. Here are our top picks, this early fall day in 2006, for meeting this double-sided agenda:

1. The Istrian Peninsula, Croatia. Valleys of olive groves and old vines between mountains of white stone marked here and there with ancient cliff side villages of the same sparkling white rock… This is the New Tuscany. They even speak Italian (as well as Serbian, Croatian, German, French, English…). Beautiful, historic, charming, friendly…miles of dramatic coastline and remarkably good infrastructure for an "emerging" destination. Istria is my personal top pick in Europe right now. Prices are no longer bargain-basement, but continued infrastructure advances and imminent ascension to the EU should keep the market buoyant.

2. Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua. On this country's south Pacific Riviera coast, as Lief pointed out yesterday, you're spoiled for choice if you're in the market for a comfortable, beautiful place to spend all or part of your year. The Cadillac of developments in this region (if we do say so ourselves) is Rancho Santana, which, for more than a half-dozen years, has been setting the standard among private residential communities. Nicaragua's Pacific shores, no question, are jaw-droppingly beautiful. They're also 2 1/2 hours from the international airport…and maybe, questions of accessibility aside, the beach life isn't your thing. In that case, look inland, to Laguna d'Apoyo, a crater lake of mirror blue. Thanks to a new road, Lake Apoyo is now as few as six or seven minutes from downtown Granada. Talk about ease of access. You're also but 45 minutes from the Managua airport. More important, you're surrounded by extraordinary beauty: lake, volcano, even the red clay-tiled rooftops of Granada in the distance. My new favorite spot in this country.

3. Cuenca, Ecuador. This isn't my pick but one of Roving Latin America Editor Lee Harrison, who retired five years ago from the fast lane in New York to sleepy colonial Ecuador…and hasn't regretted the downshift one day since he made it. Life in Cuenca, Lee assures us, makes him nostalgic for life in 1950s small-town USA. The cost of living reminds him a lot of 1950s America, too.

4. Buenos Aires, Argentina. I like Paris. Lief, though, doesn't like the cost of living in Paris. That's why our long-term plan includes BA. A walkable cosmopolitan city (with theater, history, classic-style architecture, restaurants, clubs, tango, café life, parks, plazas, museums) that's affordable, too. Real estate prices are at a high but cheap (of course) compared with the City of Light. Will they continue to appreciate (as they have since the peso devaluation in 2002)? I wouldn't bet on it. But I wouldn't mind buying here again right now, either.

Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living

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P.S. Best places to invest…best places to live…to retire…to start over…start a business…reinvent your life…follow your dreams…own a second home in the sun…escape the everyday? At current count, we've got more than 50 scouts traveling the globe in search of top opportunities for fun and for profit, continent by continent, market by market, day by day. You can meet them all (no kidding) at our biggest event ever, our first-ever Ultimate Event, planned for Oct. 18-21 in Panama No subject will go uncovered (travel, investment, real estate, business, banking, taxes, privacy, import-export, travel writing, health care, shipping, relocation, retirement, asset protection, telecommunications abroad, education, employment, immersion language programs, even live lessons in "Cooking in the Tropics"…) and no market of interest will escape our close inspection. Never before in our 26-year history have we organized an event of such magnitude. We've even invited a special keynote speaker: PJ O'Rourke, our favorite contemporary travel writer and satirist. Meet PJ…more than 50 IL experts, colleagues, editors, correspondents, in-country resources, and friends…as well as more than 300 fellow IL readers for four days of high-level meetings, seminars, workshops, and networking…plus a whole lot of fun in the sun at the Playa Bonita Beach Resort just outside Panama City. I can't wait…and I look forward to seeing you there. Full details here.

Thinking about the Utlimate Event? Learn more about Panama:

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