Buying a house in the carribeans

rfders are mostly high income earners but too cheap to buy vacation homes elsewhere ... unless it goes on sale dirt cheap.

The best deal might not be in in the carribeans. It might be in the Indias or the the Perus or the Philippines or the Vietnams, or IF you are lucky in the Russias. Try broadening your search until you find something. you will for sure.

Yeah, but first you have to cross the boarder.

AndrewShev wrote: ↑Hey there. I just have a totally random question. Let's say I am looking to buy a house somewhere in costa rica or dominican. How easy is it? I've seen huge villas for under 100k. Would be awesome to buy it there and chill on vacation

If you have the money I dont see why it would be hard for you to buy one. Question is are you going to live there?. If its a vacation spot you better have someone you trust watching the house for you.

What is the whole point in having a cottage in muskoka or vacation house abroad if you will just spend your 2 week vacation there?

book a resort!

Ilovejaneandfinch wrote: ↑What is the whole point in having a cottage in muskoka or vacation house abroad if you will just spend your 2 week vacation there?

book a resort!

True.

And you wouldnt be stuck in one place either.

ya you get sick of phuket, you can move on to Boracay and then Playa del carmen. I would never commit wads of cash to one part of the tropics.

Not sure if there are continual expenses involved with owning a place abroad, but I imagine that alone adds up to more than you might spend just on resort, without even considering the initial cost of buying the place.

Ilovejaneandfinch wrote: ↑ya you get sick of phuket, you can move on to Boracay and then Playa del carmen. I would never commit wads of cash to one part of the tropics.

Not sure if there are continual expenses involved with owning a place abroad, but I imagine that alone adds up to more than you might spend just on resort, without even considering the initial cost of buying the place.

Boracay!!!!



I plan to go to iloilo next time I go back home to the philippines. I have family there. Only been there once and i was really really young but I remember it being beautiful. Crabs and hot white sand everywhere. ahahaha

AndrewShev wrote: ↑Hey there. I just have a totally random question. Let's say I am looking to buy a house somewhere in costa rica or dominican. How easy is it? I've seen huge villas for under 100k. Would be awesome to buy it there and chill on vacation

Don't buy. Just rent in Costa Rica.I don't know enough about Dominican to give you an opinion.

There are many YT videos about real estate market in either countries.

It's cheap to travel from Canada to Costa Rica so it's a better location than the Asias.

kevindurant1 wrote: ↑Boracay!!!!



I plan to go to iloilo next time I go back home to the philippines. I have family there. Only been there once and i was really really young but I remember it being beautiful. Crabs and hot white sand everywhere. ahahaha

Ok that is good. Bacolod is just a short ferry ride away. I found Bohol is very interesting to try out. You should try Bohol. It looks super cheap and enjoyable. Someone told me once there was 100 peso room available in YMCA in Iloilo. I was fascinated to find out it was so cheap there. Iloilo is also high on my list to spend time on in the future, higher than Bacolod. I heard that Beiber bought a resort in Boracay but I am not sure if it is true or not. Do you know anything about it?

Kesehoda wrote: ↑It's cheap to travel from Canada to Costa Rica so it's a better location than the Asias.

Dominican republic is even cheaper and eve closer. If you want to avoid Asia and stay here in the americas for cost sake, look no further than Las Terrenas.

That's exactly what my parents did about 5 years ago, they bought a 3 bed/3 bath house on a huge lot with a massive pool in Sosua, Dominican Republic for about $150,000. The neat thing is that it's within a gated/guarded community (apparently, a lot of Canadians own houses in there as well). There is a maintenance fee, but it does provide a peace of mind to ensure that their property is secured when they're not there and landscaping is maintained.

Sosua is a pretty neat location because it's a short car drive to the airport and close to both Sosua Beach and Cabarete Beach with tons of shopping and great restaurants. Cost of living (for a foreigner) is ridiculously cheap.

They will eventually be spending the winter months down there once my dad retires in 2 years, but for now they go down every few weeks for a few weeks each time. The flight is only about 4 hours.

Keep in mind that you still need to pay for the upkeep on your property and whatever other expenses you incur whether you live there or not.

Unless you plan to live there and make it your home, would it not make more sense to rent? Or even just spend the time at a resort? It doesn't always have to be five star?
One of the resorts we've been to in the DR usually gets inundated on the weekends with locals (with money) looking the a weekend getaway -- the staff hate it.

I've always wondered what you'd pay if you approached your favourite resort operator and told them you wanted to book for an extended stay, say 3 or six months. You can be sure you wouldn't be paying anything close to retail.

Repooc wrote: ↑That's exactly what my parents did about 5 years ago, they bought a 3 bed/3 bath house on a huge lot with a massive pool in Sosua, Dominican Republic for about $150,000. The neat thing is that it's within a gated/guarded community (apparently, a lot of Canadians own houses in there as well). There is a maintenance fee, but it does provide a peace of mind to ensure that their property is secured when they're not there and landscaping is maintained.

Sosua is a pretty neat location because it's a short car drive to the airport and close to both Sosua Beach and Cabarete Beach with tons of shopping and great restaurants. Cost of living (for a foreigner) is ridiculously cheap.

They will eventually be spending the winter months down there once my dad retires in 2 years, but for now they go down every few weeks for a few weeks each time. The flight is only about 4 hours.

Sosua used to be a bit of a party town but now it's a ghost town and many shops/restaurants especially on calle presidante is closed down..and the shops near the public beaches are struggling. Crime is pretty bad even for DR in Sosua. but positive is that due to those factors it's very cheap and you can hope that if redevelopment does occur (they are trying to turn Sosua back into a tourist destination) but it's been very bad for past few years in Sosua.. definitely not for most people. A lot of the expats there have left or have had their business closed down by the corrupt gov't there who want to take back foreign businesses and have their locals run it.

But main problem with Sosua is that it's really struggling and crime/poverty there even for DR is pretty bad. At least Carnival is building a port in Puerto Plata about 40mins car ride away but not sure if any of that will spill into Sosua

LandKing wrote: ↑Sosua used to be a bit of a party town but now it's a ghost town and many shops/restaurants especially on calle presidante is closed down..and the shops near the public beaches are struggling. Crime is pretty bad even for DR in Sosua. but positive is that due to those factors it's very cheap and you can hope that if redevelopment does occur (they are trying to turn Sosua back into a tourist destination) but it's been very bad for past few years in Sosua.. definitely not for most people. A lot of the expats there have left or have had their business closed down by the corrupt gov't there who want to take back foreign businesses and have their locals run it.

But main problem with Sosua is that it's really struggling and crime/poverty there even for DR is pretty bad. At least Carnival is building a port in Puerto Plata about 40mins car ride away but not sure if any of that will spill into Sosua

Interesting to hear that....

Honestly, the past few times that I've been there you could walk around amongst the locals and be none the wiser of this alleged crime you speak of. I've been to Punta Cana for my honeymoon, and felt far more threatened/apprehensive walking outside of the resort amongst the locals than anywhere in Sosua. I found there to be quite a bit of wealth concentrated in Sosua, especially where my parents' place is. It's not uncommon to see Range Rovers, Land Rovers (even saw an Audi R8 once... probably driven by a baseball player) driven around. I'm not denying that there is no crime (all areas have it, especially in a 3rd world tourist destination), I just don't think it's as bad as you make it out to be.

Heck, I'm more cautious of walking through certain sections of Toronto before walking through Sosua.

Repooc wrote: ↑Interesting to hear that....

Honestly, the past few times that I've been there you could walk around amongst the locals and be none the wiser of this alleged crime you speak of. I've been to Punta Cana for my honeymoon, and felt far more threatened/apprehensive walking outside of the resort amongst the locals than anywhere in Sosua. I found there to be quite a bit of wealth concentrated in Sosua, especially where my parents' place is. It's not uncommon to see Range Rovers, Land Rovers (even saw an Audi R8 once... probably driven by a baseball player) driven around. I'm not denying that there is no crime (all areas have it, especially in a 3rd world tourist destination), I just don't think it's as bad as you make it out to be.

Heck, I'm more cautious of walking through certain sections of Toronto before walking through Sosua.

I'm speaking about the main part of town (even though most of the shops/restaurants are closed down now) along Pedro Clisante and surrounding area. the gated parts your parents live in are of course fine I'm sure .

I mean it's quite clear with how much Sosua is struggling with lack of business and jobs (even for DR)..crime is going to be up since there's no other source of income. It's quite sad..i rememberred when Sosua used to be a good lively place to visit..now it's like a ghost town with boarded up shops and dilapidated condition around town due to abandoned homes/stores even around the Sosua beach area.

now it's mostly working girls and every kid and guy on a motorcycle trying to sell me drugs..maybe i go with friends and not my SO (who i won't ever bring there for obvious reasons) that exacerbates this. There was always the above vices but also lots of bars/restaurants and shops as well..now it seems only those former items are left in Sosua.

Yucatan sounds better.

http://www.mayanworldrealestate.com/Lis ... D=69511849