The reason we run luxury real estate round-up articles on this travel site is that many people end up buying in places where they’ve traveled. They go from vacationing to living in Latin America at some point, making their favorite spot a retirement spot or a snowbird destination. How many times have you heard someone say, “We went there on vacation and just fell in love with the place.”
For me, it was my sometimes home of Guanajuato, Mexico. After trying it on for size, we eventually made it our permanent home and got Mexican residency.
Down the road are about 12,000 foreigners who felt the same about San Miguel de Allende.
Buying Luxury Real Estate in Mexico
We’ve run articles on other spots in Mexico that our readers landed in and then decided to put down roots. Bienes raices, “good roots,” is the phrase for real estate in Mexico after all.
Luxury Real Estate in Mazatlan
Living Next to Nature in Huatulco
Luxury Life in Punta Mita and Riviera Nayarit
Why buy a vacation property or retirement villa in Mexico? Well you can’t beat the proximity or air connections, first of all. No other country in the world has as many flight connections to the USA and Canada, from more than 20 different airports. Many of those are direct and if there’s a hub connection, it still won’t take you all day or night to get there. You can leave in the morning and be on your deck enjoying a margarita that afternoon.
Also, if you come into Mexico as a tourist, you can just show up with your passport and then spend up to 180 days without leaving. This is ideal for snowbirds who want to experience the best of both worlds. They fly south for the winter when the weather is bad up north, then return just as it’s getting nice again.
If you want to get residency in Mexico, it’s a rather straightforward process. You just need to go through the proper steps with income verification and some identity documents, pay some fees, then complete the process after arrival. Temporary residency can turn into permanent after four years or if you’re around retirement age and have a high income or savings level, you may be able to go straight to permanent residency in Mexico from the start.
Prices are a good value throughout the country and you get a lot for your money. Even in the most expensive markets like Los Cabos, you could spend less than half of what you would in California and get twice as much square footage, including on the ocean. Head to less lofty beach markets or to the interior and prices go down by half or two-thirds.
Luxury Expat Hotspots in the Rest of Latin America
After Mexico, the next most popular spots for foreign real estate investment tend to be the next-closest places that only take a few hours to reach. Costa Rica and Belize have been popular for decades, as have a few other expat hotspots for living in Latin America: Antigua, Guatemala; Roatan Island, Honduras; and Boquete, Panama.
We recently posted this round-up on a market that just keeps getting more and more popular: Costa Rica Real Estate for Wealthy Investors. The market there has expanded beyond the early destinations like Guanacaste and now includes the suburbs of San Jose and mountain areas like Dominica.
Then heading down to South America, real estate in Medellin and Cartagena in Colombia continues to be attractive to foreign buyers from all over, the latter attracting a younger entrepreneur crowd on top of the usual retirees migrating.
Retiring in Cuenca, Ecuador might be the best value in this whole hemisphere, with some of the best luxury condo and house prices you’ll find anywhere in Latin America.
They all sound more romantic and exotic than Palm Beach or Scottsdale, right? If you’re willing to fly further though you could head to progressive Uruguay, Buenos Aires or Bariloche, or spend a few months each year in Peru or Brazil.
Be Prepared Before Making the Leap
If you’re house-shopping in Latin America with plenty of cash on hand, it can be tempting to jump on what seems like a fantastic deal because the prices are so attractive. The problem is, you might soon find 10 better deals than that after your closing and be kicking yourself for not being more patient.
In comparison to where you live now, almost every place south of Arizona is going to feel like a bargain. So it’s important to do your homework, both the kind you can do from a laptop and the time you can only do in person.
Moving to a foreign country or spending part of the year there isn’t as simple as just packing up a suitcase. Start by looking for books and expert articles on the area(s) you are considering. These will answer all the questions you have and a lot that you didn’t know you should have. They will cover visas, cultural issues, costs, real estate, and the most important question: why there?
You can find lots of free information on the web for specific locations and if you can dig up a good Facebook message board the expats use, that’s a great place to get nitty-gritty details. You’ll also find subscription services that are dedicated to living abroad and although the TV show House Hunters International is mostly fake entertainment, the prices they show for rentals and purchases are real.
Research what you can in advance, but then don’t neglect valuable time on the ground getting a feel for the market(s) and narrowing down your options.
There’s no substitute for scouting trips and ideally a trial run where you’re going to live. The “feel” of a place is extremely important, which includes specific neighborhoods, the kind of community network you can have, the available amenities, and healthcare options. It’s hard to know if a place will be a great fit for you personally until you’ve spent more than just a quick vacation there.
If you want to be integrated into a foreign community, you might want to look into a city or beach location where the locals aren’t separated from the foreigners. If you want a sprawling villa with beach clubs, a golf course, and tennis courts all inside a gated community though, you might want to look into a development like Punta Mita in Mexico, north of Puerto Vallarta.
Living in Latin America can mean having a much higher standard of living than you would with a vacation home or place to retire in the USA or Canada. If you’re just getting started on the research and you’re looking to really cut your expenses and live better when you move abroad, see this book: A Better Life for Half the Price.
