As I travel around the world full time in search of investment, residency, and citizenship opportunities, I regularly come across really interesting deals.
These relatively large beachfront lots were being sold for $65,000, an hour away from Nicaragua’s capital city which has direct flights to Miami. The surfing, I hear, is amazing.
What’s the catch?
– Nicaragua as a jurisdiction (I wrote about it here).
– The ownership structure of these particular lots being lifelong leases, which are nevertheless transmissible to your children when you pass away, and which can be resold anytime.
I started off the video in a nearby gated community with a nice beach, golf course, and amenities. It’s a really comfortable place for North Americans (Europeans would not fit in).
I would not buy there for capital appreciation nor rental income, but rather as a pure lifestyle decision. You can get in touch with the developer here.
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor.
Services in Nicaragua:
- My favourite realtor in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
- Create a company in Nicaragua
- How to obtain Residency in Nicaragua
- My Real Estate Lawyer in Nicaragua
Articles on Nicaragua:
- A Real Estate Investment in Managua or Gran Pacifica, Nicaragua?
- Investing in a Teak Wood Plantation, is it worth it?
- Full analysis of the San Juan del Sur real estate market
- Why buy a house in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua – great value in Central America
- Low EMF housing in Nicaragua
- Pros and cons of living in Nicaragua
- $65,000 beachfront land plots near Managua, Nicaragua
If you want to read more such articles on other real estate markets in the world, go to the bottom of my International Real Estate Services page.
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Transcript of “$65,000 beachfront land plots near Managua, Nicaragua”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, Ladislas Maurice from the wanderinginvestor.com. Today, I’m near Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, about an hour away, on the beautiful Pacific coast. So stunning beaches, good surfing, and we’re going to have a look at a capital appreciation play, namely, land plots that are right on the beach, so first line for $65,000, obviously, negotiable. Everything’s negotiable in Nicaragua. But the price point, I find, is very, very attractive.
Just to give a little bit of background, right now, I’m actually staying in a nice resort. It’s a community. They have a golf course, a pool, they have a whole bunch of homes here. A lot of Americans, Canadians, some Europeans, and wealthy people from Managua own homes here, live here fulltime or part-time, so it’s nice. This is, obviously, a very different play. It’s for people that want lifestyle and to live here in a very Western and comfortable setting. But where we’re going to go is a 5 to 10-minute bike ride away, where it’s still dirt roads, it’s still very much Nicaragua, and that’s where the capital gains are. So not the comfort, but the capital gains.
I am here with my American agent, Diego. How you doing, Diego?
DIEGO: Welcome all, very excited to show you guys the wonderful opportunities we have.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How long have you been here in Nicaragua?
DIEGO: I grew up here, but living straight has been 10 years now. I’ve been here for 10 years, best 10 years of my life.
Tour of development in Nicaragua
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, fantastic. We are going to jump on Diego’s bike. We’re going to ride through the nice development. There’s a link below if you want to find out about this development. And then we’re going to go check out these plots of land, and also discuss the situation as well in Nicaragua, because that’s always one of the main reasons why people don’t want to invest here. So we’ll discuss this in detail. Is this like one of those American communities with people going around in golf carts and stuff?
DIEGO: Absolutely, it’s one of the few places in Nicaragua that has a golf course, so it does definitely bring in the golf enthusiast, right? I mean, who doesn’t want to play golf out on the beach in the tropics? A lot of people appreciate the gated community, it really takes care of all the logistics.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Look, the reality is, trying to maintain a home when you’re never here, in a tropical climate, in a country like Nicaragua can be a bit complicated, so places like this just take away all the stress from home ownership overseas. I wouldn’t invest here for rental income, but just as a pure lifestyle. I mean, look at this, this is really nice. And they’re, like, little tiny homes as well that they have. I don’t know, for like, $150,000, little homes, nice beach, golf course.
DIEGO: We’re also the closest beach to Managua, so for people that have a hike or a flight, especially Americans, it’s not that far. They get right into Managua, and then they can get right out to the beach. It’s another pro behind being in this area. Used to be, it’s 13 kilometers from here to the top of the road.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Can we stop here for a minute?
DIEGO: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m stopping. I’m just telling you, it was 13 kilometers from this point, from the beach, to the top of the road.
Road infrastructure in Nicaragua
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. When I came here four years ago, this whole paved road up to the main road, which you said was 13 kilometers, right?
DIEGO: 13 kilometers away, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: It was all dirt, and now they’ve paved, what, 11 kilometers of it?
DIEGO: I would say, 12¼. All we have is about 500 meters left to the center of town from here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so this is a big catalyst for the area. If they were to complete the last 500 meters, they will eventually, but, I mean, this is Nicaragua, so it could take a while. But essentially, what was a little village accessible only by 12, 13 kilometers of dirt roads is now just a 500 meters of dirt road. That’s huge.
DIEGO: Absolutely.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How is it during rainy season?
DIEGO: What they’ve done is, even in the last 500 meters that they have left, every year, they come down and they treat it with a material called selecto, and they come with a big packer, and they pack it down. So it’s very solid, even in the rainy season, it doesn’t affect us much anymore the way that it used to. But they could only work on this during the summertime. We’re hoping that by March, April, they come by this year and they put in the last little.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, so clearly, compared to the community, by the way, there’s a link below if you want to get in touch with them, I mean, this is very different. It’s not the same level of comfort. Now we’re going to drive to that lot. We’ll see the beach, we’ll see the views, and we’ll see why I think that it’s a good long-term capital gains play for patient investors. This is it.
Land plots in Nicaragua
DIEGO: This is our lot. It is exactly 700 meters squared, which is roughly 7,500 feet squared. You’re right up against the Pacific Ocean.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s up with this structure here?
DIEGO: There used to be a stilted house on the structure.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, but people can just get rid of it?
DIEGO: But when the owner purchased the place, he didn’t like the build, so he ripped it down.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.
DIEGO: He left the foundation in case he wanted to use it in the future.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I mean, look, for surfers, this is amazing. I mean, this is proper beach front. This is first line. Look at this beautiful beach. And look at these waves. If you surf, I mean, I would hope to flip a place like this in a few years’ time to a surfer. I mean, the plot itself is, I mean, whatever, it is what it is. But yeah, so $65,000.
DIEGO: $65,000 is asking. Everything is negotiable. This is Nicaragua.
Investing in beachfront land in Nicaragua
LADISLAS MAURICE: What about the fees?
DIEGO: What happens is 200 meters off of the high tide back here in Nicaragua, the law states that we have life term lease contracts. What that means, as long as you keep up your end of the contract by paying your yearly fees, the lease is yours as long as you want. Now, beachfront, front row in this town is $10,000 for a new contract fee. It’s a one-time payment with the township. On top of the $65,000 or whatever agreement we come to with the owner, it’s $10,000 on top of that. And then your yearly taxes will be $500.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Look, I put an offer through for one of these. I threw a low ball. By the time this gets published, I may or may not have bought. That’s besides the point. Look, the play here is long-term capital appreciation, if you take a step back. I cannot think of many places in the world where you can get a beachfront lot that’s nice, with a beautiful beach and actual surfing a mere an hour and 10 minutes away from a capital city of over a million people, and an hour-and-a-half from an international airport with direct flights to the United States. From this point of view, it’s very attractive.
Now also, when you take a step back and look at the specific place, one, there’s this luxury community that we just saw with the nice housing, etc. They’re expanding, they’re constantly building new housing. A lot of high net worth individuals are moving there, so this is, obviously, good for this community here. There will be a spillover effect. Also, the road will, at some point, come. When? I mean, you sound pretty bullish, but–
DIEGO: I’m hoping within the next 24 months, yes, but it is Nicaragua, and we can hope within the next 60 months.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
DIEGO: Two years to five years.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I think that’s more realistic.
DIEGO: There we go.
Political and macroeconomic trends in Nicaragua
LADISLAS MAURICE: And also, look, there are a lot of political issues in Nicaragua that constantly make headlines in Canada, in the United States, and you have to take a step back and look at it through the lens that you’re being fed what your government wants you to think about Nicaragua. When you hear Nicaragua, you hear major issues, it’s dangerous, blah, blah, blah. When you’re on the ground, it’s perfectly fine. The government has been certainly better at managing its finances than either Canada or the United States. It has its current account deficit now under control. There is an increasing amount of foreign investment that is coming into Nicaragua, specifically from China. Because for the past few years, capital was rather fleeing Nicaragua. But we’re starting to see an inflection point with, recently, a few months ago, the government signed major contracts with the Chinese.
The Chinese are going to be building a brand new international airport, they’re going to be remodeling the existing airport, they’re going to be building a big railway between Managua, and Masaya, and Granada. There’s also, they’re going to be building a big gas storage facility approximately 200 kilometers north of here. They’re also participating in building a major coastal highway between almost here, right, 15 kilometers away from here?
DIEGO: Yes, the beginning of that road would be starting here, or at least our main road would bleed into the beginning of that road. So no matter what, we’re attached to it. To get on it or off of it, this would be your town you’d go through, and it would go all the way to Costa Rica.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So major highway, all the way, essentially all along the coast of Nicaragua up to Costa Rica. So all of these major Capex investments are happening in Nicaragua, regardless of all the news that you’re getting on CNN, on Fox News, etc., on what’s happening here. Look, is it a higher risk proposition to be investing in Nicaragua than to be investing in Costa Rica, for example, or Mexico? Sure. But where are you going to get this sort of lot for $65,000 negotiable, an hour away from a capital city of over a million people with infrastructure coming this way? I think that it’s a very decent, long-term capital appreciation play with relatively minimal downside risk.
Expat community in coastal Nicaragua
LADISLAS MAURICE: How many foreigners actually live in the town, not in the resort?
DIEGO: There’s about seven of us that live here fulltime. Right now, three of that seven are visiting their home country. But, I mean, you’ve seen everybody else over the course of the day. There’s seven of us fulltime here now. Foreigners that own in our town, that’s the full-timers, there’s about 20 of us that own, and pop in, and have future projects planned out. The town is growing, it’s been developing and turning into something.
Liquidity of land in Nicaragua
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. And before people get too excited, one of the biggest downsides, apart from the $10,000 transfer fee, which is [laughs] not nothing, is liquidity. Can you say two words on liquidity here? For example, if I were to buy this and I try to sell it, how many years? Because we’re not talking weeks, we’re certainly not talking days, potentially, we’re not talking months, we’re potentially talking–
DIEGO: I mean, for the upside of what you’re looking to do, if you’re really looking for an ROI, if you’re looking for, as you said, a small gain, it’s going to take anywhere from three to five. But international, I mean, as you know, and as most know, international real estate, so if I catch a lead in the United States, a lead lasts me three to six months till I sell. If I have a property, and I’m selling it, and somebody comes in, it’s three to six months. Whereas in international real estate, these things could take anywhere from 3 to 7 to 10 years, because people have their affairs to put into order, they’re coming to move here, whatever that may be. Or, if there’s a big boom that happens quicker, but generally, it could happen anywhere from three to seven, I would say, if you’re looking to move.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Look, at the end of the day, what’s the thesis? The thesis is, you come here, you negotiate hard, you try to get a better deal than the $65,000–
DIEGO: Absolutely.
LADISLAS MAURICE: because there’s low liquidity. I mean, the cost of liquidity is that you can, when you own something that is not very liquid, you have to negotiate more, be willing to negotiate more, and then you sit on it for five years.
Investment outlook in Nicaragua
I don’t see too many scenarios where this would be worth less than $100,000 in five years from now. I think I’ll just put it this way. This is like a 5 to 10-year investment horizon. Within five years, especially if the road does eventually come here, if all of these new catalysts, all these highways, the railroads, everything gets delivered by the Chinese, and when they start having a go at it, they’re quite quick. I’ve seen this everywhere in the world. It’s not US AID, it’s, literally, Chinese investments and construction companies that come here, so they do things quickly. This should very much result in positive capital appreciation.
Look, from a political point of view, if suddenly the US were to manage to overthrow the government through a color revolution, like they like to do everywhere in the world, then you would have more American investments coming here, and your property would also increase. Look, the best case scenario for Nicaragua, it’s just staying on its path, being a country in Central America that is not completely aligned with the rest of Central America, that’s a bit more neutral, a bit more closely aligned to the Chinese, to the other side, so that this way they can position themselves as a base for Chinese investment long-term, and really get to milk this unique positioning. This would be the best-case scenario. Worst-case scenario is, generally, just chaos because the two sides are having a go at each other.
It’s not risk free, but I would say that it’s certainly much lower risk to be investing in Nicaragua than what media in the West likes to portray it as. Any thoughts?
DIEGO: I agree with you 100% there. It’s actually alarming how many people land from the Western world, either Canada or America, land in Nicaragua and are absolutely shocked at how safe, how different it is than it’s being portrayed. Like, you’ll get here and be like, “Oh my God, it’s shocking. This is not what we thought.”
Get in touch with Diego
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, great. Look, if you’re interested in plots of, I mean, you even have plots, like, second line, third line for like–
DIEGO: We have inventory. If anybody is looking for–
LADISLAS MAURICE: $20,000, $25,000?
DIEGO: Absolutely, yeah, $20,000, $25,000. If somebody wants to, they can reach out, we can find whatever that is they’re looking for.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Personally, I find that the prime is more interesting, but, I mean, you can get really cheap lots here, just second row, literally. Cool. If you’re interested, feel free to get in touch with Diego. There is his email right below. All right. Cheers, man.
DIEGO: Thank you, brother. Thank you, amazing.
