Sometimes this can give you the feeling that you’ve arrived at a secret paradise, miles from anywhere, when the bumpy road suddenly opens out to sweeping vistas, lush gardens and well appointed homes. Ahh, you think, no one except other discriminating investors like myself will take the time to reach and assess this opportunity so I’m guaranteed exclusivity, privacy and maybe somewhat of a discount due to the access.  But, more often, the bumpy trip can leave you tired and grumpy and heaven help a developer who doesn’t then have a cool drink on hand and something worthwhile to show you as an investment opportunity.

It’s important to be prepared before you set out - to know exactly where the project is located, how long it will take to get there and on what sort of road. So on RevealRealEstate we include a location map for each real estate development and answer these 3 questions:

• Is the road paved from the nearest international airport? (if it’s not paved, we’ve estimated the amount of driving time on unpaved sections)
• What is the total driving time from the international airport?
• How long does it take to drive to the closest town with a decent sized grocery store?

This data is useful on a development-by-development basis when planning a trip, doing a price comparison, or for tossing up real estate options; but there’s also something to learn from aggregating the data and analyzing by country.  So here’s the picture for Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Is the road paved from the nearest international airport?

In broad terms the data reflects the level of investment each county has made on its infrastructure and the remoteness of the main purchasing destinations.  Panama leads the field when it comes to paving.  You can drive in comfort, on paved roads, to most of the real estate developments featured on RevealRealEstate, including of course all the condo projects in Panama City.

Costa Rica follows close behind with over 70% of the developments having paved access. We haven’t yet seen the new section of road between Quepos and Dominical, but this should improve driving comfort further.

In Nicaragua be prepared for a bumpier ride.  Only 20% of the projects on RevealRealEstate have paved access.  But if the planned coastal road from the border with Costa Rica heading northwards following the ribbon of development ever gets off the drawing board, this would change the picture quite dramatically.

How long does it take to drive to the airport and the nearest grocery store?

The pattern between the countries is similar when it comes to driving times.  Real estate developments in Panama and Costa Rica have a shorter driving time on average to the airport and to a decent sized grovery store than those located in Nicaragua.

If you need to pop out to a grocery store with a decent range of items you’re looking at a 9 minute drive, on average, in Costa Rica.  In Nicaragua, your grocery run is 23 minutes on average.    Of course this varies considerably for each real estate development. Click though to each development page for individual driving times.

What about Belize real estate?

We’ve included the Belize data separately as it’s not directly comparable to the other countries.  The terrain is quite different, particularly on the coast, and visitors mostly get about by taking short internal flights and then getting in a golf cart for the final stretch.  Many of the projects on Ambergris Caye for example do not have paved access but in practice all this means is a short golf cart ride on a sand road.

Infrastructure is steadily improving in Belize.  The paving of the 16 mile road along the Placencia Peninsula is underway with the section from Maya Beach to Placencia Village already completed.  So the only bumping we’ll do on our next trip to Placencia will be over speed-bumps.

So what does all of this mean for pricing?  Does paved access lessen a development’s exclusivity?  Does a long driving time from the airport or grocery store mean that prices will be lower for comparable real estate? We’ll be looking at this in our second post on accessibility.  Stay tuned.

Still the global context is important for regional buyers and sellers, so we’ve summarized the results below.  The full data and analysis from Knight Frank can be seen here.

• House prices increased in almost half of the locations reporting prices for the second quarter of 2009.
• The picture has improved from the first quarter where double-digit falls were seen in a number of locations. In the second quarter, price falls did not exceed 10% in any country.
• Dubai recorded the largest year-on-year falls at 47%, but prices seem to be falling at a slower rate now - losing 7.5% from the first quarter 2009
• In Israel house prices increased 12.5% over a 12 month period, making it the top performer in the sample.
• The report concludes that although there are signs that the prices are beginning to bottom out, the market is still “fragile and patchy.”

We’re excited to be hosting Carnival of Real Estate #164 this week from Nicaragua.

In our work in Central America we regularly draw inspiration from the US RE.net on online marketing and ways to equip buyers and sellers with tools to help them make better decisions. This makes us avid followers of the Carnival. We use it as a quick way into the best real estate posts each week.

Not a huge list of submissions this time round, but still a few nice articles in the mix. We’ve picked out the three we liked most and added in a runner up.

The top three real estate posts:

We enjoyed reading Jim’s advice to Rent Forever, Don’t Buy A Home posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. It’s always refreshing to see an article ”tackle the cornerstones of well-accepted advice.” You may not agree with everything he’s saying. But maybe that’s the point.

We’re always exploring rankings, rating and lists in our work to help buyers get to grips with the local market. So we appreciated Whitney Tyner’s Trick-or-Treat Housing Index: Top 5 Seattle Neighborhoods posted at Zillow Blog which lists neighborhoods that “provide the most candy, with the least walking, and minimum safety risks”. Perhaps we need to inject some more fun into our own rankings?

Also in our top three is a post from Cindy Jones on Short Sale Train Wreck Coming to Northern Virginia Soon posted at VA Real Estate Talk. She may be right about conflicts between agents as a result of the way some short sales are being handled.

And the runner up:

We’ll close this Carnival with a runner up prize to Saundra Washington for her 12 Terrific Topics for Your Real Estate Blog posted at Technology Tools for Real Estate. It seems that there can never be enough list posts helping real estate bloggers come up with new content day after day.

That concludes this edition of CORE. To participate next week please submit your best post using the carnival submission form.

We’ve added them below as a complement to the insider tips to real estate investing in Central America we published in April.

The advice from the AAIP is solid and you should certainly keep the tips front of mind when considering investing in real estate in Costa Rica, Panama, Belize or Nicaragua - the markets we cover on this site.

Here are the 5 tips from AAIP:

1. Independent lawyer

• No matter what anybody tells you, no matter how easy it all seems and no matter how lovely the agent seems, ALWAYS use an independent lawyer to represent you throughout the purchase of your property overseas.
• It is the lawyer’s job to protect you and inform you.
• You will need to pay the lawyer a fee – accept that as part of your purchase costs. This is not an area in which to keep costs down.
• The definition of ‘independent’ is that the lawyer represents you and only you.

2. Do the numbers

• Make sure you know your budget before you start looking at properties – this should include at least a provisional mortgage offer if you’re borrowing money.
• Don’t then be tempted to buy more properties than you can afford (particularly on off-plan properties) hoping to sell the extra properties before completion unless you fully understand the risks as well as the rewards (see point 5).
• If borrowing money, your repayments will stretch over several years, years in which lending criteria and borrowing costs may change. Discuss the long term repayment with a financial specialist before proceeding.

3. Beware exchange rate movements

• The rates do not need to move substantially to affect the value of your purchase. When you start looking, £100,000 may buy you a certain property – a 10% drop in the value of the £ against the Euro, for example, may then put that property out of your budget. If you’ve already signed contracts to buy, this could cause you a problem. Speak to specialists in this area and secure your rate of exchange early.
• The rate fluctuations will also affect the costs of mortgages (if you raise the mortgage overseas and earn your income at home). Again, speak to a foreign exchange specialist to highlight the risks and to take appropriate action.

4. Use professional agents and developers

• There are few, if any, guarantees when buying property, at home or overseas. Using an independent lawyer (see point 1) significantly reduces the risks you take on an overseas property purchase and employing a professional agent or buying from a professional developer will also help you.
• Ask lots of questions. 3 year old children are known for asking lots of questions (why? why? why?) and you should follow their lead when talking to agents about a purchase. Initially, focus questions on the company itself, not the properties for sale. Dig around for details on the founders of the company and the track record of the company. Ask for client testimonials (real ones) and make sure you find out in detail exactly what service they offer. Don’t just take their word for it – ask for details on their service in writing, preferably in the form of some type of ‘Terms of Business’.

5. Remember the reward : risk ratio

• If you are buying property overseas as an investment (as many people have done in recent years), you need to bear in mind that big returns may come with significant risks. Be careful to assess the possible downsides to an investment property as well as the enticing investment numbers that could be achieved if all goes to plan.

Take your time and follow these tips and there is no reason why you’ll be taking any more risk buying overseas than you do at home.

The 5 tips have been reposted from AAIP.  You can view the article on AAIPs website here.

There is no global standard yet for green building, but there are initiatives in the pipeline and plenty of guidance, webinars, TV shows and research reports on what constitutes a green approach to construction and development.

To build the 2009 GreenList we reviewed public disclosures made by real estate owners and developers against the following 5 criteria: Biodiversity, Energy Management, Green Building, Water & Waste Management and Social Responsibility & Giving Back.

Developments with a general environmental slogan (e.g. “eco-friendly”, “earth-friendly”, “eco-luxury”) that did not provide additional evidence of social and environmental action steps taken or planned were not included.

Like many green rankings, the list is imperfect. It captures commitment (and at worst, just good public relations) and not effectiveness. Also the list probably under-reports what is going on in the region as some developers may keep information private.

We’ll be improving the list over time.  But for now these real estate developers are laying down an environmental commitment, and we’re keen to recognize this.

Keeping track of the green pioneers

As more buyers actively seek to invest in a way that helps produce a healthy and livable world for all, how real estate developments perform on environmental and social issues will have a direct impact on their competitiveness and profitability.  They’ll be perfectly poised for future growth driven by buyers looking to live green and invest well.

Buyers, if you’re interested in buying green then have a look at these places.

The 2009 GreenList

Click on the table headers to sort them. You’ll find more information in the right hand sidebar of each development page by following the links in the table.

B=Biodiversity,  E=Energy Management, G=Green Building, W=Water & Waste Management and S=Social Responsibility & Giving Back.

More details on the 5 criteria:

• Biodiversity (for example re-forestation project; large dedicated green areas that will not be developed, accreditation as a private reserve)
• Energy management (use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, thermal energy)
• Green building (eco-friendly architectural design such as solar chimneys, natural ventilation, thermal exchange, roof overhands, water catchment systems and green building materials such as FSC certified wood products, recycled materials, straw bale)
• Water and waste management (for example water catchment systems, grey water recycling)
• Social responsibility and giving back (support for local charities and community groups; use of local suppliers of goods and services and local employment schemes)

Owners and developers, if our analysis has missed social and environmental action steps that you have taken, we’d love to hear from you, so please contact us with the details or reply in the comments.

We can’t overlook the fact that no Multiple Listing Service (MLS) exists for Costa Rica, Panama Nicaragua or Belize and official market data is not published. Or that sales prices recorded in the Public Registry can be different from actual sales prices, making it hard to compare one property to the next. But we can try and build the next best thing to a MLS and help improve the flow of market information to buyers and sellers.

Keeping things simple

We’ve started with a simple international real estate PriceRank table where we compare the median asking price for condos and houses in master planned communities, condo projects and resort developments. We’ll be following this up with a second PriceRank table, this time ranking developments that offer serviced lots for sale.

We could have split out other categories such as long ocean view houses or golf view condos or even distance from the airport and whether roads are paved. But for now, since we’re in the business of ’simple-making’, we wanted to provide the most straightforward representation of the market.

The 2009 Annual Central America International Real Estate PriceRank

Here’s the short story for 2009 for international real estate developments with condos and houses for sale:

• As the most mature market in the region, Costa Rica tops the ranking with the Four Seasons, Papagayo Peninsula. The project is located in northern Guanacaste close to Costa Rica’s second international airport at Liberia, a region peppered with luxury brands and top end resorts. The least expensive community is Belize Reserve an ‘eco-community’ located in Cayo, the forested hilly district in western Belize.
• Costa Rica holds 6 of the top 10 spots in the PriceRank. Panama has 2 real estate developments in the top 10 and Belize has 1. Nicaragua, the most ‘emerging’ of the markets has none.
• The most expensive real estate development in Belize is the Placencia Residence, located at the northern end of the Placencia Peninsula. In Panama, the Trump Ocean Club, perhaps its most well-known development, leads the field. Portofino Condos overlooking the bay of San Juan del Sur is Nicaragua’s highest entry (but ranked 44th overall) and, yes, the Four Seasons at Papagayo tops the list in Costa Rica.
• Turning to the least expensive; it’s Belize Reserve in Belize, the Condos Montemar (also in San Juan del Sur) for Nicaragua, Rancho Las Lomas in Costa Rica, and for Panama, Montanas de Caldera has the lowest median price.
• Master-planned communities on or near the ocean percolate to the top of the list whereas developments in lake/river/lagoon areas make up the more ‘affordable’ market-share in international real estate.

So dive into the detail and sort the table by clicking on the headers. You can also follow the links for further information on the real estate developments including amenties, location maps and price comparisons with the country medians.

The 2009 PriceRank table

* Average of the median asking price for condos and single family homes for each real estate development. Data collected July to September 2009. More information on the data.

That’s it. Any questions, niggles or comments, just write back. Our goal is to be comprehensive - while keeping things simple - and to provide a useful resource.

Between 2005 to mid-2008, property developers in Costa Rica witnessed enormous increases in property launches and sales as vacant land on the ocean and in the highlands was developed into second homes for North Americans and Europeans.

There were three key factors supporting the boom:

• Political stability – Costa Rica has had over half a century of uninterrupted democracy, making it one of the most stable countries in the region.
• Its long-standing as an eco-tourism destination – Costa Rica’s express commitment to environmental conservation and it’s rich biodiversity have enabled it to develop a unique “eco” travel product.
• US retiree haven status – With more US citizens venturing abroad, Costa Rica has benefited enormously from its retiree haven status.

The morning after

But since the global economic collapse the Costa Rica real estate landscape has changed.  Large scale, ultra leveraged properties have suspended operations, others have stalled or cut-back on the more ambitious aspects of the master plan, and prices have been cut for the first time since the boom.

Still, asking prices in the luxury end of the housing market (ie: master-planned communities, resort developments and condo projects catering to the international buyer) have held up relatively well compared with the sharper declines experienced in the developed world.  Our year-on-year numbers to September 2009 show relatively modest fall of 8.75% for serviced lots, 3.73% for condos and 8.92% for single-family homes across the main master-planned communities.

So what are the takeaways from this?

Optimists will find some solace in the fact that Costa Rica has been shielded somewhat from the collapse in house prices witnessed in the developed world. It’s relatively underdeveloped mortgage market, formerly considered a weakness, has meant that it has avoided the rampant foreclosures that have tugged at the bottom of the market in the US.

But property pessimists will doubtless point to the high profile project suspensions such as the St Regis Project, the Rosewood Residences at Costa Carmel and La Punta Papagayo in Gunacaste. They may also insist that with re-sales (sales from end-user to end-user) continuing to undercut developer direct prices, the data under-reports the extent of the decline and there are more falls to come.

We’d love to hear your views. Leave a comment below or write a review on one of Costa Rica’s international property hotspots.

Our goal is to try and fill this data gap for Belize real estate and provide an additional layer of information to buyers to help them with their decision making.  Our focus is the international real estate sector - essentially the ‘luxury’ sector of the market - comprising master planned communities, resort real estate and condo projects in Belize.

We’ve identified the major real estate developments active in Belize and aggregated listing prices across the main real estate categories (e.g. serviced lots, condos and single family homes).  Then, with our baseline collected in 2008, we’re able to determine a year-on-year price trend.

So what’s the international real estate market in Belize looking like in 2009?

• As you would expect, any type of water view property commands a premium. Beachfront single family homes are the most expensive property type followed by beachfront condos (this holds for both median price and median price per square foot).
• In order to purchase prime real estate in prime areas, you’ll need to spend over $200 a square foot.
• But there is also a market-share in ‘affordable international real estate’ that’s evident as soon as you leave the prime zones such as Placencia, Ambergris Caye (and to a lesser extent Hopkins). Here the per square foot price for property falls considerably.

Belize real estate at the high end

• Six of the top 10 most expensive master planned communities in Belize by median price/sqft are located in Ambergris Caye. The Caye is also the most visited tourism destination in the country - a fact that points to the close link between tourism and real estate activity in Belize.

Looking at the year-on-year trend

• Belize has seen some price falls across the main real estate categories. The condo market is the most active in the international real estate scene, has the most data-points, and is the one to look at most closely if you’re trying to read the market.
• Although there are no double digit falls (like we have grown accustomed to seeing in many areas of the US for example), there is also a sense that few people are buying.
• Developers are holding their ‘official’ prices relatively firm but may be offering other forms of incentives and ‘discounts’ without showing price falls.
• Re-sales (i.e. sales from end-user to end-user) are not included in our figures but do in some instances undercut developer direct prices where sellers are highly motivated.

In later posts, we’ll compare the Belize property market against Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua to see how it stands up. But, no question, it’s still a buyers market out there, with great deals to be had if you’re willing to spend the time seeking out the opportunities.

Master-planned communities in Central America come in all shapes and sizes - from small condo buildings to developments covering thousands of acres offering resort style amenities.  Many offer pre-construction sales where you buy before you see the finished product.   Great gains can be made as properties are offered at a discount.  But you have to be confident that the developer will deliver.  The starting point is getting answers to these 10 questions below, before you sign the contract.

1. Find out what kind of title the developer has to the land and ask to see the master title insurance policy.  Ensure the legal due diligence on these documents is carried out by a good quality attorney.  The developer may recommend their own attorney, but it is always safer to conduct an independent review of the documents before signing.
2. Ask whether the development masterplan has been approved by all relevant authorities.   In particular, check to see if environmental impact statements have been submitted, and approved.   Authorities across Central America are getting increasingly stringent in their environmental regulation.
3. Investigate whether the developer has the capital to move the real estate development forward or if they are relying on sales revenues.  Remember that limited financial flexibility or low project sales can adversely impact the timely completion of a project.
4. Do some research into the past experience of the developer and and ask to be put in touch with previous buyers.  Try and get background information or bios on the entire developer team including builders, architect, marketers, operators and master-planners.
5. The builder being used is a critical component of the development team.  If the developer is using a well respected local firm that has a track record in the type of construction required by the master plan, this is a good sign.  If possible try and see examples of buildings that have been completed by the builder so that you can get a real sense of the quality of their work.
6. Find out how much time of the year the developer spends in-country.  If the developer is foreign, but lives full-time in the country where the real estate project is located, this is a positive indicator for their long term commitment to the project and country.
7. Find out about the water source and whether the developer has ensured that there will be enough supply even when the development is fully built-out.  Ask how sewage is being handled and does the process comply with local regulations.  Check to see if power lines will be underground or overground.
8. Read the Codes Covenants and Restrictions (CC&Rs) carefully.  CC&Rs in some international real estate developments can be highly restrictive, down to what you can or can’t grow in your garden, what pets you can have, the architectural style that is allowed, or the color of your roofing tiles.  Make sure you know what you’re getting into. In most cases the CC&Rs will be enforced by a Home Owners Association (HOA) - a legal entity which allows the developer to transfer ownership and management of the community to the homeowners after it has sold a predetermined number of units or lots.  Ask to see a copy of the Association bylaws and budget.
9. Don’t forget to find out about after sales service such as property management, rental management and marketing support for re-sales.  Make sure you are comfortable with the level of service that the developer intents to provide after the sale.
10. Find out if the developer is addressing the social and environmental impacts of the development and whether there are any programs in place to support the local community.  Efforts to protect the environment, treat employees and suppliers fairly and ensure that the local community is benefiting are all good signs of a ‘responsible’ approach to development over the long term.

Finally, remember also to check out our 16 insider tips to purchasing international real estate in Central America.

Yes, list prices for real estate in resort communities, condo towers and gated developments in Panama are falling for the first time since the boom.   But the falls are smaller than those we’re getting used to seeing elsewhere in global property markets.

The picture in 2009

The chart provides a snapshot of where things stand in 2009.

• By price per square foot, beachfront condos top the list at $253.  But in terms of overall price, ocean view houses rank as the most expensive property type with a median price of $624,600.
• 5 property categories break the $200 per sqft price point: beachfront condos, ocean view condos, urban view condos, ocean view houses and water view houses.
• Of the 10 most expensive real estate developments catering to international buyers, 9 are located in Panama City.  Donald Trump’s Ocean Club tops the list with a median price per/sqft of $483 for remaining apartments (see below).

Comparing with prices in 2008

Panama property prices have fallen since 2008 but the falls are relatively small when compared with other markets around the world.  The median price per square foot has declined 3.55% for serviced lots, 2.02% for condos and 6.8% for single family houses between 2008 and 2009.

Panama is certainly not immune to the global economic downturn.  You just have to look at the fall in GDP growth rate from 11.7%  in 2007, to 8.3% in 2008 to a predicted 3% in 2009.  But the country is still beating regional averages across a range of economic indicators and many remain optimistic about the country’s ability to ride out the economic difficulties, particularly with recently elected President Martinelli at the helm.

It’s a new market in Panama

Things may still get worse before they get better.  Local developers and realtors are warning about project delays and closures.  In areas where a high level of sales have been made pre-construction (such as Panama City) more price falls are expected as buyers default on their payments.   And resale prices are already significantly undercutting developer-direct prices in many areas.

Sellers, used to riding the long boom years, are slowing coming round to the fact that it’s a new market in Panama.

The Nicaragua real estate market is hard to generalize on a national level. It’s made up of many micro or sub-markets.  In this article we deep-dive into some of Nicaragua’s most important sub-markets or ‘purchasing destinations’ to draw out the kind of data we hope will help buyers and sellers make more educated decisions.

In Nicaragua the main purchasing destinations are located on the south western part of the Pacific coast.  In particular the town of San Juan del Sur, the area south of San Juan del Sur to the border with Costa Rica, the Tola Rivieria & Popoyo region and the Central Pacific Coast, due west of the capital, Managua.

Together these four areas have 80% of all real estate developments in Nicaragua catering to the international buyer, making them a logical basis for comparison.

Mingle enough with real estate investors in Nicaragua and you’ll hear them expounding on the relative merits of different areas and asking questions like:  “Is the town of San Juan del Sur with its local cafes, bars and restaurants a good place to invest.  Or is Tola with its master planned resort-style communities a better option?”

Ranking purchasing destinations by price

The Central Pacific Coast of Nicaragua tops the list for median price/sqft for both serviced lots ($11.75/sqft) and condos ($206.30/sqft). Several large scale resort communities are planned in this area, including 3 championship golf courses.

The area South of San Juan del Sur, towards Costa Rica is the most expensive for single family houses ($173.03/sqft), followed by Tola Riviera & Popoyo ($164.78/sqft).

San Juan del Sur receives the most press and has the most international tourist visitors.  But it is not the most expensive purchasing destination for any property category. (It comes a close second for condos.)

San Juan del Sur has certainly seen a rush of development in recent years and is home to 1/3 of all real estate projects in Nicaragua focused on the international market.  Perhaps developers have been doing the math on buying a lot in the San Juan del Sur area (5th most expensive location) and developing this into condos (2nd most expensive location).

What about trends over time for San Juan del Sur?

The median price for lots, condos and single family homes has fallen in San Juan del Sur by more than the average across the country. For lots, the overall fall in median price between 2008-9 for the country was -3.53% (in San Juan del Sur the median price fell -9.38%), for condos the overall fall was -6.40% (in San Juan del Sur the drop was -9.90%) and for houses -3.41% for the country compared to -11.98% in San Juan del Sur.

Some buyers will see this as a clear buying opportunity given San Juan del Sur’s continuing status as the pivotal center for real estate development in Nicaragua. Others a sign of over-supply.  What do you think? Let us know in the comments below this post, or leave a review for San Juan del Sur.

We’ve just compiled Nicaragua real estate market statistics for 2009 and compared this against our 2008 data. With price falls across the main real estate categories, it’s clear that Nicaragua is not immune to the global contagion of sliding property markets.

The numbers that tell the story

The table below sets out the change in median price for Nicaragua real estate developments since 2008.  To ensure that we are comparing like with like, the data aggregates prices for the same property category within each development for both 2008 and 2009.  So if a project offered beachfront condos in 2008, but not in 2009, the data was not included in our comparison.

Median asking prices in real estate developments that target the international buyer have fallen 3.53% for serviced lots, 6.40% for condos and 3.41% for single family homes since 2008.

Looking deeper into the numbers, we found that ocean view condos showed the largest fall in median price at 13.62%, followed by long ocean view houses with a drop in median price of 7.55%.

Beachfront property held its own relatively well against the other property types.  In call cases (lots, condos and houses) beach front property fell by less than ocean view property.

Not immune

Nicaragua, is clearly feeling the pinch of the slowing global economy. The falling GDP real growth rate from 3.8% in 2007 to 2% in 2008 (according to the CIA Word Factbook) paints the picture for the local economy. But the biggest factor at play in the international real estate space is the fall-off in demand from the US, Canada and, to some extent, European countries. Many of these buyers no longer have access to the necessary capital (be it from investment portfolios or built-up equity in their properties at home) to purchase a property abroad.

But, despite the darkening economic mood, Nicaragua is not experiencing the double digit drops we’ve seen in property markets elsewhere. One of the reason for this is the low levels of lender mediated activity in Nicaragua, making the real estate market stickier. There could be some pockets of finance-driven speculation, but the broad foreclosure waves as experienced in the US are not a factor. Another reason could be the low cost of living possible in Nicaragua. This is attracting a particular type of ‘lifestyle purchaser’ looking for a more affordable retirement.

The upshot for investors

All-in-all if you’re a buyer looking at Nicaragua, you’re in the driving seat. The factors you’d expect from a buyer’s market are present: developers are offering incentives, charter programs, package deals, heavy discounts for cash buyers, extended financing and so on. In fact, if you negotiate hard enough, you may get a deal of a lifetime.

Our goal at Reveal Real Estate is to plug this information gap.  We aggregate asking prices from real estate developments that target the international buyer and put this information online.  It’s the next best thing to a functioning MLS or centralized database.  Learn more about our data.

2009 Nicaragua property price report

The table looks at property in real estate developments - effectively the luxury end of the Nicaragua real estate market.

Most of the developments are located in key ‘purchasing destinations’ or property hotspots such as San Juan del Sur, Tola Rivieria, and the Central Coast, offering close acccess to surf breaks, swimming beaches and other tourism attractions.

Beachfront condos registered the highest median price in 2009 -  But when looking at price per square foot, ocean view condos come in as more expensive. The only two property categories to have a median price/sqft greater than $200 are beachfront condos and ocean view condos.

Long ocean view lots have a median price/sqft of $4.11 - This is lower than the median price for serviced lots that have views of a golf course or fresh water (Lake Apoyo and Apanas primarily).

Beachfront and ocean view property has the highest price/sqft - This holds true for houses, condos and lots. But if your house or lot has only a distant view of the ocean, you may find that lake view property has a higher price/sqft.  

Comparing property prices with 2008

We’ve in the process of comparing this new 2009 data with prices in 2008 and will be revealing the trends in later posts.

We’ll also be digging deeper, breaking down the information by ‘property hotspot’ and running comparisons with other Central America markets.

Listing prices in Panama are decreasing for the first time since the boom.  We’ve partnered with the Panama Report on releasing this data on the Panama real estate market.  The aim: to put data into the hands of consumers so that they can make more informed investing decisions. Head on over to the Panama Report for the full findings.