Central to the ethos of The Wandering Investor is on-the-ground research. We do not just sit from an office in Dubai or Switzerland selling citizenships or real estate without a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the local market and product.
So just as we did last November in Sierra Leone, my team and I visited São Tomé and Príncipe and explored the main island of São Tomé in depth to understand the true potential of the most popular, low-cost African CBI program.
The video below is a full length documentary on our experience living in the country for a week. We explored everything from supermarkets to restaurants to nightclubs, and met with high-ranking government officials, representatives of the Citizenship by Investment Unit, local realtors, artists, entrepreneurs and more.
How to apply for citizenship in São Tomé?
We are licensed agents for the São Tomé CBI program and have helped dozens of clients apply in recent months. We are receiving approvals on a regular basis, and our earliest clients are receiving passports in hand.
- Apply for citizenship by investment in São Tomé and Príncipe
- Apply for Citizenship by Investment in Sierra Leone
Scan this QR to talk to our team about African passports on WhatsApp or click this link:
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor
Services in Africa:
Articles on São Tomé:
- São Tomé Citizenship by Investment: A Discussion with the Program Architect
- Expat Life in São Tomé and Príncipe for CBI Citizens – A Viable Plan B?
- My Real Estate Agent in São Tomé and Príncipe
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Transcript of “São Tomé and Príncipe CBI Program – Living, Investing and Doing Business”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello from Lisbon Airport. We’re on our way to the small country of São Tomé to go explore its citizenship by investment program. We’ll be spending eight days on the ground with our team. We’ll be meeting with various government officials, local entrepreneurs to get a better understanding of the program, as well as of the country as an investment and plan B destination. Let’s go!
Air connectivity to São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: Right now, we’re on a stopover in Accra, in Ghana. São Tomé has poor air connectivity. It’s only connected with Lisbon in Portugal, with Accra in Ghana and Libreville in Gabon. On a personal basis, it feels a little strange to be in Accra and not to get off the plane, because this was home for me for three years. My last role in corporate was being on the executive board of Nestle Ghana, in charge of the dairy business for a few West African countries. So Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. So actually flying into Accra, I could see my old apartment building.
São Tomé International Airport
LADISLAS MAURICE: The airport experience was pretty smooth. I’ve traveled all over Africa and often airport experiences can be quite messy, but here, very smooth, and everyone, all the customs officials, the people for the tourist tax, the little tourist desk, all the taxi drivers, everyone’s speaking to us in French, and Portuguese, and in English. Like everyone seems to be trilingual. I don’t know, like, I don’t know if it’s representative, but overall, very positive first impressions in terms of languages.
TAXI DRIVER: Okay, taxi, taxi là?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Oh, we agree, yes.
TAXI DRIVER: 10 €.
LADISLAS MAURICE: 10 € in total. 5 €, 5 €. 10 €. Okay. All right.
When we landed, we had a notification on Airbnb and our host was like, hey, yeah, your apartment tonight is busy. We have another apartment, it’s even nicer, uh, you know. And we’re like, like where is it? Then it’s like, in the middle of nowhere. It’s not at all what we booked. So right now we don’t really have a plan. Uh, so we’re just going to go for dinner, get some food and work on our next move.
Yeah, so we eventually found a place last night. We just walked into a little lodge, really nice. We woke up, had breakfast. Today we are going to go meet with a real estate agent. Uh we’re going to discuss the market and we’re going to see if we can organize some viewings and then we need a SIM card. Uh because right now we’re going around without data. You couldn’t buy a SIM card at the airport for whatever reason. Um e-SIMs don’t seem to work well here. So we need data.
And look at that, cycling paths. Gentrification in São Tomé. I think that this right here is the Portuguese Embassy, I would tend to assume, I don’t know. Probably the biggest embassy in the country. There’s even the little CPLP flag there.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Bom dia.
SALESWOMAN: Bom dia.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Look at that, Portuguese influence.
Yeah, so this is upsetting. This is the nicest hotel in town. Put an EU flag, why?
Getting a SIM card in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so we got some data. They need your passport and all that. It’s about 2 euros per gigabyte, no matter how many gigabytes you buy, it’s objectively quite expensive. Um, the country apparently got 4G only like two or three years ago. Now they do have LTE, but it took a while for things to come to the island.
This looks like some major infrastructure development. They’re redoing the whole promenade. We’re right downtown. So imagine downtown, promenade. They’re redoing it completely until the end there. Um, other side as well here. Definitely there’s, you know, there’s public works happening here. It’s nice.
Portuguese Cultural Center in São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: Portuguese Cultural Center. So if you become a citizen, you want to learn the language. This is it.
So I guess this is probably some Portuguese funded cultural center. So it’s just always interesting to see this type of stuff they’re pushing. So against gender stereotypes, I guess diversity, family, community school, sexual abuse of minors, time management, emotions, oral hygiene, body hygiene and like events and stuff, like little events.
Money exchange on the street of São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: I don’t know, I think these guys are exchanging money or something. Let’s go see.
SAO TOMEAN: Hey.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How are you? Big boss. You exchange money?
SAO TOMEAN: Yes.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, what rate?
SAO TOMEAN: How much? How much money?
LADISLAS MAURICE: 200 €.
SAO TOMEAN: Euro.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. How much?
SAO TOMEAN: 25 for 1 €.
LADISLAS MAURICE: 25 for 1 €?
SAO TOMEAN: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Better rate than the airport. Cool.
Nice 200. They’re rare.
SAO TOMEAN: Yes. One, two, three, four, five.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you. Okay, ten is 2,000. Yeah, so if you’re wondering why I’m exchanging on the street not at the bank, that took 30 seconds, actually 20 seconds. At the bank it would have taken like 20 minutes, it would have been forms and this and that, blah blah, passport. That’s why. Generally in Africa, if you can exchange on the street and you know you’re getting like half-decent bills, just go on the street.
This is lunch. This is tuna belly, all of that for 7-8 dollars. Like pretty good deal. I think we’ll be eating a lot of fish this week.
Supermaket prices in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: So we’ve been asking around what’s the best supermarket in town. People point us towards that place. It’s not everywhere that I see an oceanfront supermarket.
All right, apples about 4 € a kilo. These are like 2 € a kilo. Cheese, all imported. Yeah, it looks like stuff that’s all imported from Portugal. Yeah, this is again, all from Portugal. Yeah, it’s like a cheese like that for salads, 4 € roughly.
I mean, it’s more expensive than in Europe for sure, but it’s not outrageous. I’ve seen much more outrageous in a lot of African countries.
Our box of cereals, 3 € for half a kilo of cornflakes, that’s not too bad. Interesting, they have Auchan, that’s a private label from France.
Ooh, cookies. Cookies. Ooh, petit biscuit. All right, so four. Like these would be typically maximum 2 € in France. And here they’re four. So yeah, 2X roughly. 2X.
So people ask me how I made my initial money. Selling this. Nestle. That’s how I started my career, saved money and then invested.
The water section is quite big here. You can’t drink water from the tap. I mean, even to brush my teeth, I’m using um, using tap water.
All right, promotion. Six beers for, that’s not that cheap. It’s six beers for 7 €.
Wine section. All right, so 10 € for a random bottle of Portuguese red wine.
Look, I mean, everything’s imported here, so it’s not going to be cheaper than Portugal, that’s for sure. I mean, Portugal is really cheap. Um, so it looks like 2X from Portugal.
Transportation in São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, don’t make the mistake we made. Uh we thought it’d be easy to get taxis or whatever around. It’s really not. Yeah, we’re going to rent a car from tomorrow. It’s pretty affordable. It’s like 40 € a day. We should have done that. Because there’s I mean, look, I’m just like trying to get a, we’re trying to get transport and we can’t.
Yeah, so it’s a flat fee of 15 local money, which is roughly 70 cents uh to get anywhere in town.
Big upgrade today. No more motos carrying a six-pack. Got a proper little Suzuki Jimmy. It’s cute. We’re paying 55 € a day. It’s brand new, 2000 km. It’s perfect. It’s small, 4×4. It’s going to be perfect for the roads here. It’ll be fun to drive.
Yeah, so I’m driving because Costa can’t drive manual. Costa’s laughing behind. I hope it’s true. I hope you’re not lying just to make sure I drive.
Meeting the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: So we have a pretty exciting day planned. We’re going to meet with the Prime Minister of São Tomé today to discuss the citizenship by investment program. And look, even Costa right here. I’m taking the camera from him, who usually goes around in shorts and dirty t-shirts, is all dressed up. Look at that. Wow, even shoes. Impressive.
Bom dia.
STREET VENDOR: Bom dia.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Heh. Yeah, that’s it. Oh, no. Okay.
The role of Citizenship by Investment Program in São Tomé
COSTA: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time. Could you talk about the role that the citizenship for investment program will have? What is the program’s vision for the future of the country?
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much. First of all, we embrace this program. We see this program as an instrument that can bring investment to the country. Large investments to the country in addition to allowing the country to be known worldwide. We are, as you know, a small country, about 200,000 inhabitants. Our strong point is tourism and services. And the citizenship for investment program will allow for a greater flow of such investment into the country to enable the country’s development. Of course, we need to be very careful with this program. We want to attract the best investments and avoid the country being seen as a destination for people who don’t have a legitimate background. Therefore, we aim to safeguard the program as much as possible. Our vision is that in the future, with the increased demand for citizenship by investment in São Tomé and Principe, we can truly attract enough investment to transform the country into a service economy and a robust tourism destination.
COSTA: Muito obrigado.
PRIME MINISTER: Muito obrigado.
Visiting CACAU Cultural Center
LADISLAS MAURICE: So we’re here with João Carlos Silva, who is the head of the CACAU House here, a very large art gallery and is known as one of the island’s top artists.
JOÃO CARLOS SILVA: Yes, I am the curator and founder of the São Tomé and Principe Biennial and the founder of CACAU, this place. It’s a house of art, culture, creation, events, and utopia. This project has many facets, including the São Tomé and Principe Biennial. Next year is the 11th edition, with almost 60 artists coming from all over the world. And at the same time, we’re reinventing a former plantation called Água Izé, 15 kilometers from here. It’s a former cocoa and coffee plantation, and we’re undertaking an integrated development project to transform it into a small town of educators and trainers and to carry out all the work within the Água Izé community, to provide employment and create jobs. We are building a contemporary art museum, a cocoa laboratory, and eventually a chocolate factory here. The idea is to reduce cocoa exports to countries like Belgium, France, and Switzerland and to transform cocoa in São Tomé to increase local value creation. We’re focusing on civic engagement through art and education to foster better environmental and cultural awareness in São Tomé and Principe. São Tomé and Principe is now a biosphere reserve. But at the same time, it’s a place of political education, photography. And we are combining elements of our history, heritage, art, culture, and local processing of everything from pepper and cocoa to fruit to develop rural tourism in São Tomé and Principe.
LADISLAS MAURICE: There is a lot of artistic talent here. When I walked through your gallery, it was impressive.
JOÃO CARLOS SILVA: Ah, yes. But it stems from a significant educational and training effort. We’ve been providing training for almost 20 years, and we now have five or six major artists who exhibit all over the world to show for it. For example, René Tavares, Kwame Sousa, Olavo Amado, Adilson Castro, and even Eduardo Malé, who had a major exhibition here last week. It’s a group of artists who started with a workshop called Teatro d’Art, and now these artists are gaining international recognition and traveling everywhere to showcase contemporary art from São Tomé. It’s worth mentioning the impact of the São Tomé and Principe Biennial, which we started in 1995, and which does excellent work in showcasing contemporary art from São Tomé abroad, while also training artists so they can participate in some high-quality events internationally.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Fantastic. Merci beaucoup.
JOÃO CARLOS SILVA: Merci.
LADISLAS MAURICE: There is a link below in the description linking to the House of CACAU here in São Tomé if you want to find out more about art here on the island.
Chocolate Factory in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: We’re here with Claudio Corallo, who’s an Italian. He’s the founder of the chocolate factory here and an expert in anything related to chocolate and cocoa agriculture. He’s been here on the island for 30 years.
CLAUDIO CORALLO: I’m from Florence, Italy, and I specialize in tropical agronomy. I left Florence for the Zaire Mountains in 1974 to participate in a study on small villages in the forest. Afterward, I worked as a coffee broker until 1979. In 1979, still in the Zaire Mountains, I started producing coffee. I’m a farmer, and I began my own production in the heart of the Central Basin, growing robusta coffee. I achieved a very high quality. It was the most well-known robusta on the international market, featured in articles in specialized wine magazines, and therefore well documented online. It was considered the best robusta, by far the best robusta on the international market.
Later, I was offered a job working on arabica coffee. It was interesting for me. I didn’t want to limit myself to robusta from Africa, but an experience with arabica from another continent was interesting. And it was. But the political situation in the Zaire Mountains started to deteriorate too quickly. I knew São Tomé existed. In 1979, I came here to see if the conditions were right for starting a family.I fell in love with cacao. I had never worked with cacao before. I had never liked chocolate. But cacao fascinated me. I decided to start producing cocoa in São Tomé. But I wanted to maintain the same level of quality as my coffees, so I started tasting commercial cocoa beans to get an idea of what these fruits were like, because I had never worked with cocoa before, and I’d never liked chocolate. So it was all new to me. I was surprised because in all the beans I tasted, I found bitterness, which I think was surely due to processing defects. I was sure that if we processed the cocoa beans properly, we could produce a cocoa without defects, without bitterness.
Originally, I grew up in the school of Tuscan olive oil. So, I had a certain amount of training in tasting. Then, I worked with coffees at the highest international level. And there too, bitterness is a defect. So, I was quite prepared. I created this laboratory here in Passadeira. I started with the plantation in Principe. And in no time, I managed to produce cocoa without bitterness. It’s aromatic. So now, we’re going to taste the raw cacao beans.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Wow. Not bitter at all. Yeah, so Mr. Corallo was explaining that the chocolate is made on demand. They produce 6 to 10 tons per year. They’re not trying to produce more. They are just focused entirely on quality. So they don’t they, don’t actually stock any ready-made chocolate. It’s on demand. Look, the chocolate is just so good. Um, we’re going to have to stop the tastings because each time we taste something, we just end up buying. So now we’re at a we’re at 100 € of chocolate, and he wants us to taste more stuff, so it’s getting a little dangerous for the wallet. It’s so good. It is so good.
Opening a bank account in São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: A lot of our clients going through the citizenship by investment program here in São Tomé are interested in banking here as a potential solution. So we’re here with Hipólito, who is the head of Commercial at GTI Bank, and with Aleid, who is the head of the Treasury here as well.
So gentlemen, thank you very much for having us over.
HIPOLITO: Thank you for inviting us to this video, we are here to support.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you. So GTI Bank is originally a Ghanaian group and you have just entered the São Tomé market approximately a year ago, correct?
HIPOLITO: The GTI Bank is a new bank in São Tomé. It belongs to the group of GTI Holding in Ghana. Uh, we are coming to São Tomé market to digitalize it. We want to bring technology, digitalization to this bank and services, to bring new services like open account less than 5 minutes and then all services already.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so interesting because we spoke to a few banks here in São Tomé, and all of them were saying, you have to come here to open a bank account. We can’t do a fully remote service. But you can help São Tomé citizens open a bank account entirely remotely.
HIPOLITO: Exactly. One of our main goal is to make a bank for everyone. You can access have access to the bank whether you’re in São Tomé or not. Uh, we are using technologies. As you know this age, everyone has his smartphone device, even people outside of the country. So through the platform digital channels, people can download our app to the App Store or Play Store and download the app and open account. Uh, doing the onboarding process, you have the KYC equation, the will add its detail information. As long as they submitted, the account is open. You can do this in less than between 5 to 7 minutes and it’s done.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Now, to open an account in São Tomé, one needs a local tax number. Do you help clients obtain that tax number?
HIPOLITO: Of course, we can help them. Our headquarters is located near to tax authority. We can support our customers to get those information ready. As we have the permissions and the documentation, we can get there and get the in the same day the documents they request.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so fantastic. So you can, as a new citizen, you contact them, send a copy of your passport. You can help get the new citizens their tax number, and then they can open using the app account.
HIPOLITO: Yeah, we can open as long as they give us an authorization to them on their behalf, we can do them for them. And we don’t charge any fees on it. We can just get the information.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. So really good service. So, let’s say I’m a new citizen. I want premium service. I want private banking. What are the roughly the minimums to have higher tier banking with you?
HIPOLITO So, uh if you are private if you want a private bank with us, we can we might get an initial deposit of 5,000 euros or dollars. They have an account with us. As we have you have a bank a account manager attached to you, they will help you provide you all the support and account manager that you will need to continue any transaction from GTI Bank.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And that can be serviced in English?
HIPOLITO: Yes. So, as you can notice, uh in this meeting, this interview, we are here, we are both from São Tomé, but we know how to speak English and Portuguese, and me and Aleid we know how to speak French as well.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Oh, really?
HIPOLITO: Yeah, we can support people even if they don’t speak Portuguese or English.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, fantastic. Great. So, I get my passport, you help me get the tax number. You help me open an account. It’s on my app. I wire whatever, you know, $10,000, you know, 10,000 euros. You have accounts in both dollars and euros.
HIPOLITO: Yes.
Downside of Central Bank regulations in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: What are some of the drawbacks? Because I think it’s important to discuss this. There’s some central bank regulations that are still in place.
ALEID: Thank you so much. Yes, again, my name is Aleid, head of Treasury. So regarding the regulation from Central Bank, we have one norm that was approved last year, November 2024. The NAP says that all the inflow coming from another country to our financial uh economy. The bank must to take 25% of this FX, of the amount in FX, and give to Central Bank this amount in FX. So, once we receive, we do this operation, we take 75% on FF foreign currency credit cost an account and the remaining 25%, we credit the customer STN account. This mean that the customer must have a USD or Euro account in addition to STN account, because this STN account, all the inflow that will come, we need to send 25% uh as per the regulation to his STN account.
However, we have the possibility to buy the FX after with Central Bank through the process of exchange coverage request. In case the customer have some needs to send this the amount in STN to dollar or to euro, to another account, another account outside, we will be able to buy the FX from Central Bank and process the transaction to him.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so forced conversion of 25% of your funds on arrival, that’s done to support the currency. As a reminder, the dobra, the currency here, has a hard peg to the euro. Is it a catastrophe? No, is it great? No. It means exchange fees effectively. That’s what it really means, like you, when you buy back euros or dollars, you’re paying you’re paying fees.
Moving the capital out of São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: What about sending money outside of the country? Let’s say I send $100,000 and I want to send, you know, 8 months later, I want to send $50,000 out. Is there free movement of capital?
ALEID: Yes, going back to the norms again. Above all the amount above 10,000 euro or dollar, are free to move. We can transfer it without any proof. We need to provide attached, let’s say, the justification. If you are paying some invoice, just send us the invoice, or if this money is coming from your salary or any other inflow, just to provide us the justification.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, and you take US people as well?
ALEID: Exactly, yes. We are, as my colleague mentioned here, we are building a bank for all the people in all the country. Not only for people in São Tomé. We want to be in such a level that we can compete with, let’s say, with Revolut and Wise in Belgium. So, we are working very hard to arrive there.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so actually, even as a non-São Tomé citizen, you can open an account here. So, personally, I think it’s interesting for new citizens of São Tomé. Um, you know, will this be your primary offshore bank? Like, no, because of the currency exchange issues and, you know, limited capital controls. Um, there are more appealing options for now. But for new citizens who want to keep some money here as a stash for their plan B, you know, they say, if things take a bad turn, I want to have at least, you know, one or two years of savings here in in São Tomé so that I can activate my plan B. You know, this is perfectly reasonable. This is a great option. You can do entirely remotely. And what are the interest rates that you pay on euro term deposits?
ALEID: Currently, we are paying 3%, 2.5 to 3%, depends of the amount.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Which is significantly more than in Europe. So in the meantime, you’re getting paid, you’re getting paid interest.
So GTI Bank, there is a link below.
Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time.
ALEID: We appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Touring Max’s 160,000 € lot for sale in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: There’s traffic. We are stuck in traffic. All right, so we’re here with Max. You’ve been a realtor for how long here?
MAX: Six years.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Six years. Originally from?
MAX: France.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, fantastic. So you’re showing us some land today. We checked a a bunch of land before. It’s not, this is not the first plot that we see, but it’s the first one that we feel comfortable putting on camera because it’s actually quite interesting. Um, can you give us the metrics, where we are, the numbers, roughly?
MAX: Yeah, here we are above what we call the Pasadeira, which is a road that dries around the Barrio do Hospital. It’s one of the last pieces of land, which is a very nice view on the ocean and a nice view on the Bay of Ana Chaves. And actually the Bay of Ana Chaves shows about the whole historical city. Here we have a piece of land of 3,000 square meter, about uh 30,000 square feet, which is above the ocean on the hill. It’s one of the last pieces of land that we have in this area with all the localized documentation. It was sold to a French person a few years ago and unfortunately, for some personal reasons, he can’t stay here and do his project in São Tomé. So now this piece of land is back for sale.
LADISLAS MAURICE: We are literally a five-minute drive from the center and a five-minute drive to the airport. So, prime location, prime views. What’s the price?
MAX: The price will be around 160,000 euro to negotiate.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so how negotiable are prices here in São Tomé? Let’s go in there. Nice car. Is this your car?
MAX: I love that one. It’s my uh, it’s an old Ford I keep for my collection.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Before we go into the negotiation, can you tell us a little bit about because, you know, some people watching this will be a bit surprised to see cars like this and all the garbage and I don’t know what this is here.
MAX: Well, let’s say that that’s an area which is not really populated. You can see on this side, very big house, very nice, with guards. But I would say that for, you know, cleaning the surroundings, it’s better to rely on your own efforts, you know, and hire your own people. So, since there’s no one living here, people have been using this place more like a trash place. Yeah. But as soon as someone gets in, you know, that won’t be anymore the case.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I mean, the views are absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. You see the whole bay, you see the container port, you see town. Um and no one’s gonna build in front of you because it’s a cliff right after with the road. So, you’re you these views are guaranteed. And 3,000 square meters, you can build a building like either a really nice house or an actual building. About the negotiations because it’s a very liquid market here. I mean, it’s a small country, 250,000 people. You know, buying is easy, selling is hard. How much can people negotiate?
MAX: Well, I think you can always negotiate 10 to 20 percent, really depending on the modes of payments and depending on the attitude of the seller. But I would say that if you look it for a personal project, maybe it seems a bit pricey. It still depends where you buy in the world, but if you have more a business project, I mean for here, I would see a condo with plenty of apartments, with a sea view, with a nice swimming pool, tennis court, you know, clubhouse, a good gym, some, you know, basic leisure infrastructures that we lack in São Tomé. So you could turn this place into a small paradise with a great view on the ocean and even get a ladder, you know, to get to the ocean. And as you said, it’s five-minute drive from downtown, five-minute drive from the airport. It’s got an incredible view on the ocean, which is something that is scarce now in São Tomé.
LADISLAS MAURICE: There are business opportunities here on São Tomé. I can’t think of too many countries where you could get essentially prime real estate like this with ocean view in a capital city for such prices. Um, I mean, obviously, it’s a small country and it’s far from everywhere, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But still, this is this doesn’t come across as obscenely expensive.
MAX: And I will even add that it’s uh mid and long-term investment that is really interesting because they’ve been searching for oil in São Tomé for some time. So people are expecting to get oil in the future. You can see many embassies, many foreign countries moving, you know, in São Tomé, trying to get closer relationship with the government. So even if we don’t have oil right now, we have the perspective of having oil in the near future. And we know that this price will quintuple, if not sextuple, if they get oil. So buying now is first you’re secure because you can sell it again, no problem at all. And also in case we get the oil extractions, there may be some kind of economical boom in this island.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And now you’re going to show us an entire hectare, so about two acres, ocean front.
MAX: Yes, it’s got a very nice sandy beach where you have sea turtles laying eggs six months a year. So it’s kind of a not protected area, but very nice for any personal, you know, tourist project. It’s 1 hectare with 50 m wide along the beach and 200 deep inside land.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, cool. Let’s go check it out.
Who buys real estate in São Tomé?
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, Max, where are your clients from for real estate here?
MAX: Mostly foreigners from Europe, a little bit from the United States, and we have few from Middle East. Depending on the kind of project, some people just want a house for retirement, to put in an Airbnb, some other people have been looking at spore plantations to do some cocoa or coffee.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Like organic little things.
MAX: Oh, yeah, organic plantation. I mean, here we have an extremely fertile soil. But the cost of production is quite high. So we are one of the best coffee and cocoa in the world because we work with terroir and old varieties.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Would you say that buying an Airbnb here gives good rental yields or is there oversupply?
MAX: I believe that a lot of people here open Airbnb and don’t understand about tourism people expectations. As westerners, you know, you come from a well-off family, you’ve traveled a lot when you were a kid, so you’ve seen places, you’ve seen houses, apartments, hotels. So you know what to expect. As a foreigner if you open an Airbnb, you understand what are the facilities that people want to get. Local people think they just have a house and AC and then it works, but there’s no shelves, there’s no, you know, vendor for your clothes. It’s just empty. So…
LADISLAS MAURICE: So with proper execution, you can do relatively well.
MAX: Exactly.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, I mean, you see this in in quite a lot of markets. I mean, we were looking at Airbnb ourselves. I mean, you saw what happened to our Airbnb, they just essentially tried to play us as soon as we landed. But yeah, even when we’re looking, there weren’t that many options that were palatable at all. We’re actually in a guest house now, not in an Airbnb.
This road is really nice.
MAX: Yeah, it was uh built a few years ago thanks to the Portuguese cooperation and I think European Union funds. We have a very nice and smooth road up to the place where we’re going now. It’s really enjoyable.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so European taxpayer, you may not be able to get good health care anymore, but São Tomé has nice roads.
Young population of São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: There are a lot of kids around here.
MAX: Yeah, especially around noon time because you have the kids going out of school and the others going to school. The school system is a bit of a set where you have classroom used in the morning for the primary classes and afternoon usually for secondary classes. It’s what I like to call the great migration. So these blue and yellowish uniforms, yeah, it’s a very uh youthful country, a lot of energy. Half the population is under 21, and maybe a little more now because most people who left Portugal were above 18, 18. So maybe now you have 60% of the population under 21. And that’s a big problem because unlike in many, you know, Western countries or even in Asia, they don’t invest much in the education of their children. So you have very nice and friendly people, but with difficulties reading, you know, counting, which makes it more difficult for them to get good jobs and good opportunities in life. So when you look at these kids, you see a little Tom Sawyer, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: They’re cute. Nice uniforms.
MAX: Exactly, yeah, they’re very good at getting mangos and fishing, you know, climbing to coconut trees, which is super cool in the countryside life. But they’re not prepared for, I think, urban life.
Touring Max’s 170,000 € lot for sale in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: Stunning.
MAX: I love the place.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So we drove 20 minutes, 20 minutes from town.
MAX: Indeed.
LADISLAS MAURICE: 1 hectare?
MAX: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So about two acres?
MAX: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How much?
MAX: 170,000 euro.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so about $200,000. And you’re right there on the beach.
MAX: And you have sea turtles coming six months of the year.
LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s amazing. Um, you were saying people need to be aware that the first 80 m actually still belong to the government.
MAX: Yeah, it’s uh belongs to what they call in Portuguese orla maritima, which is maritime domain. This part of land cannot be sold, but you can annex it. So you meet with the, what we call Capitanary, the harbor office, and then you tell them, you have the piece of land behind and you want to annex for your personal use the piece of land in between your land and the ocean. Then you bargain for a rental fee and every year you renew the rental fee and then uh you can build, you know, restaurant, swimming pool, whatever you feel like, as long as you follow, you know, the proper steps.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So the land is actually from behind the road here.
MAX: Exactly.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So from the road to the beach is this concession that you should pay for on a yearly basis. And then the land, is the land hard title?
MAX: It’s provisory concession that is renewable very easily.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.
MAX: And which has a project attached to it.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.
MAX: Because the owner of that concession uh made a project for tourist development, tourist complex, and he’s got all the authorizations. So technically, as soon as you launch the building of the project, you can now turn the provisory concession into a private title.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so the first land we saw was clean, title deed, everything, nothing strange. Here, there’s still a bit of a process.
MAX: Exactly.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Relatively low risk, but there’s still a bit of a process.
MAX: Yeah, very low risk as long as you follow the steps.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. This has been approved for a tourism project. Great, so accommodation, whatever, small hotel. What if I just want to build my house or I want to build condos and sell them? How easy is it to to switch the authorization?
MAX: The cadaster, uh the land registry has issued the concession. So, we have to handle the transfer of the change in forms with them. So there should be some kind of fee that we could try to insert during the trespassing because you cannot sell a provisional concession, but you can sell the ownership, the right of use. It’s called trespassing, you’re giving to.
So, when they change the name, then we should have a conversation with the land registry to ask them to change the goal of this piece of land. There’s a goal that is set up on it. Could be investment, touristic investment, tourist complex, private houses, you know, buildings.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And that can be done before the transaction. So that you don’t end up buying something and then you try to change later, it becomes complicated.
Is there a way to through escrow to make it safe so that it’s like, I will buy this on condition that I can use it for personal…
MAX: That’s very fine, it’s very easy to do, yes. Because then it becomes the responsibility of the seller to make sure he’s got an arrangement with the people from the land registry. And actually we know them, so it’s really not a problem at all.
Handling a real estate transaction outside of São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: To make the transaction easier from a banking point of view, is it possible to have the whole transaction overseas? So I assume a lot of the sellers have bank accounts in Portugal, for example.
MAX: I would say that many Santomean people have bank accounts in Portugal for their business or personal purposes. So it has to be defined during the negotiation process with the owner of the piece of land and yes, you could have some transaction in São Tomé with euros, special accounts, or dobras, the local currency. But I’ve seen also transactions directly overseas, the guy in Portugal was buying.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Look, nice piece of land. What I’d be a little bit wary of is… is there’s a bit of a kind of goes down, uh, flooding in case of storms. I would probably raise the land.
MAX: It’s a floodable area, but so far in 10 years, I’ve never seen it flooded. Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, you know, gotta be careful with that for sure.
MAX: Most construction here will be on stills. So if you make proper construction on stills and you do bungalows, you know, it’s structures. Of course, you can also bring, you know, debris and kind of filling holes. That’s another story. But basically, you like the natural construction system with stills, so you have better natural ventilation, you know, it’s drier, it’s much better. A lot of people build, you know, with blocks and AC, but I think you have traditional techniques for tropical areas where you would use the wind, you know, and the material, especially wood and stones to get natural ventilation.
Contact Max for help with real estate in São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, if you’re interested in real estate here in São Tomé to complement your CBI, just feel free to get in touch with Max. There’s a link below. He can help you with anything real estate related, as well as tours. He organized nice tours.
MAX: Yeah, one of our activities is travel agency and uh, we have lots of activities. See theaters, dolphins, coffee, cocoa, you name it.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, link below. Max, thank you.
MAX: Thank you very much.
MAX: Merci.
LADISLAS MAURICE: This is so good. Uh, how much for these?
MAX: I think uh, 20 cents of euros, maybe.
LADISLAS MAURICE: 20 cents. Come to São Tomé.
Nightlife in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, tonight’s Friday night. We’re going to go get some dinner and then see uh, what town has to offer. You excited, Costa?
COSTA: Wow, you have no idea.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Super Bock, Portuguese beer. All right, cheers.
All right, so we had a nice surprise. Pierre is joining us for dinner.
COSTA: Gostei muito. Obrigado.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, Costa, what’s the game plan?
COSTA: We’re going to Pica Mocambo. This is an old, you know, kind of, I don’t know if it’s historic, it’s like apparently from the 1950s before independence, uh, it’s this old kind of Portuguese mansion, villa and there’s a nice Italian gentleman that runs a bar upstairs.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You sound like you’ve been here a few times this week.
COSTA: Oh, no, couldn’t be me.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Irish boys.
IRISH TOURIST 1: Hey!
IRISH TOURIST 2: How are you doing?
UK TOURIST: Troublemakers, troublemakers, troublemakers.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Ivory Coast, Cote d’Ivoire?
UK TOURIST: Me? No, UK, Wolverhampton, yo!
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. Sounds good, sounds good.
IRISH TOURIST 2: General.
LADISLAS MAURICE: This guy’s really cool, the general.
So, Costa, what are you doing with these things?
COSTA: I’ve been told that this is a puzzle. And I’m supposed to get this smaller ring on to the whatever this is rolling.
IRISH TOURIST 2: It’s impossible.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, you’re from Ireland?
IRISH TOURIST: Hell yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Uh, from Cork, right?
IRISH TOURIST 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What brings you to São Tomé?
IRISH TOURIST 2: The vibe of the island, I suppose.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You live here, you’re a tourist, what are you doing?
IRISH TOURIST 2: I’m a tourist, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m over here for three weeks.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How do you like it?
IRISH TOURIST 2: Yeah, it’s gorgeous. Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What have you been up to?
IRISH TOURIST 2: Surfing and swimming and snorkeling.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You recommend it?
IRISH TOURIST 2: Drinking. I do, yeah. Yeah, it’s gorgeous. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so we here there’s uh some sort of bar, nightclub or whatever called Zima or Zima Blue. So we’re going to go check it out.
All right, cool. So now we’re going to this other club called Kizomba. All right, that’s quite the motto. Discoteca viva para gente activa. Live discotheque for active people.I think this means no flip-flops. Let’s see how much cover is. All right, $2 cover charge.
So you guys are from Portugal?
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 1: Yeah, from Portugal.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How do you like São Tomé?
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 1: Very good, São Tomé. Very nice place. Very friendly people. We like a lot. Beautiful beaches.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So you’ve traveled all, you’ve went to Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde?
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 1: All the palops of Portugal, we travel. They speak Portuguese, they are friendly people, they are nice people. We like a lot.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How is São Tomé different?
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 1: São Tomé is an island. So an island is everything cool. We can leave the keys on the car, we go away, everything is cool. It’s a nice place to be.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Safety. You feel safe here?
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 1: We feel safe here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Did you feel safe in Mozambique or Angola?
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 1: Mozambique.
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 2: No way, no way, no way, no way. You know.
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 1: It is an island, the other ones are not.
PORTUGUESE TOURIST 2: It’s a free spirit, it’s a country with a free spirit.
Visiting the countryside of São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so today we don’t have any meetings planned until late afternoon, so we’re going to take the car and drive into the countryside and see what the country has to offer. Let’s go.
Look at how, I don’t know, there’s so much here. There’s so much to say. The volcanic beach, the village, how lush everything is. It’s an interesting place. Yeah, São Tomé is a good surf destination. We met a few people who come here specifically for surfing.
Food in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, we just had lunch at this eco-lodge. It’s absolutely gorgeous around here with some five or six course meal. We wanted to film all the food, but the food was so good, we completely forgot about filming, and it’s only when dessert showed up that we started, we remembered we should take out the camera. Look, amazing fish. The food is good here. The food is really good here. The six-course meal. We didn’t know the price. We just showed up and we said we wanted lunch and then they’re like, okay. And then just food kept coming. Uh, we never asked the price, and we were guessing with Costa here behind how much we’d end up paying and we thought, uh, probably $100 for two people. It turns out we’re less than $40 for two people.
São Tomé compared to other African countries
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, what are your thoughts, Costa, thus far on the trip?
COSTA: It’s been really good. It’s honestly exceeded expectations in a lot of ways. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an African country that’s, you know, this laid back, like this free of hassle. You know, you compare it to I mean, pretty much anywhere else I’ve been in Africa. Like getting hassled is kind of like the prevailing experience, is just non-stop. And here people kind of mind their own business. They’re really helpful if you need them. Quite cheerful overall, very polite. And then also I mean, it’s just not, you know, it’s not particularly crowded, which is nice. You know, we’ve been driving on this road for like an hour and a half. And we feel like we’re the only car on the road. You know, you got other places that have a coastline as beautiful as this and it’s pretty much just bumper to bumper traffic the whole way. This is pretty unique in the African context, I would say.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And just as a bit of background, Costa and I met about 11, 12 years ago, right?
COSTA: Yeah, we met in Accra. Yeah, back in 2015.
LADISLAS MAURICE: In Ghana.
COSTA: Mhm. I was uh, I was working there for a year. Ladislas was uh, what were you doing there? Managing the milk business, right?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, I was on the executive board of Nestle managing the milk business for Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
COSTA: And here we are back in Africa.
LADISLAS MAURICE: We’re in Benin as well, right?
COSTA: I was in Benin as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we’re long-time believers in Africa and we see its potential. A lot of people might view, you know, the continent as a monolith, they might view it as a write-off, but we think that the future is here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Look, we’re the Africa CBI specialists. It’s what we do investments, CBI, etc. Um, we’re very much involved in Africa and we’ll continue to be involved in Africa. And uh, it’s very practical going around with Costa because he speaks Portuguese, English and French. And French with the Benin accent, which is quite hilarious.
Football game in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so we’re driving and there’s like a football game on the side here, a soccer game. Let’s go check it out.
CARLOS: I’m Carlos, I’m young, my parents were from the state of Cape Verde. So I’m a son of Roça Água Izé and today there is a game, one team is from the village Sardinha, which is Sardinha e Caça de Água-Izé, and another team comes from the district Cantagalo.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You know these bills are dirty.
CARLOS: 10, 10 ,10 ,10.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Our team is the green team. It’s Roça. We’re with this guy. Roça.
CARLOS: With this guy.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Green Team.
Obrigado.
Gas price in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: So the distances are quite small here. We drove around all week and we just used one tank, that’s it. The price is cheap. We’re paying 1.20 euro per liter for gasoline. Really affordable. I wonder if they have a special deal with Angola. They probably do with Angola, something. These prices are really low.
Exchange rates in São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: As the week went by, each time we go exchange money on the black market, we were able to negotiate a better and better rate. So there’s an official peg to the euro at 25 to the euro, but then we got 26, and then we got 27. Um, so that means that the country definitely has capital controls, as we saw with the bank. And people are paying a lot more to get access to uh to euros. So, I think, you know, when there’s that forced conversion of 25%, sure you can buy back euros. I think the question I should have asked the banker is because they’re like, yeah, yeah, we need a week or two to find the euros and then it’s all good, it’s at what rate? If people on the street are, you know, you’re exchanging euros for 27, I can imagine people on the street are paying at least 29, 30, if not more. You know, there’s potentially a loss of at least 5 to 10% on that forced conversion of 25%. So I think that’s something to keep in mind. As long as this is the case, it’s only very mildly interesting to open a bank account here. Just again, for people who get the citizenship, plan B, fine, you, you know, you have your passport, you have a bank account, all good. But just as a pure offshore center, you can do better. They really need to change the legislation ultimately. I mean, the Central Bank is just not … This should not have the same rules for residents and for non-residents. If you start doing forced conversions into local currency with capital controls on non-residents, I mean, no one’s gonna put money here.
Visiting Catholic Cathedral in São Tomé
LADISLAS MAURICE: So we’re flying back to Europe tomorrow on Sunday. So I’m going to go to Holy Mass today on Saturday evening at the local Catholic cathedral. So they have Holy Mass at 5:00 p.m. apparently.
Citizenship by Investment Program in São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, time to go to the airport and fly back to Europe. It was a really, really interesting week. I did not know what to expect when coming here to São Tomé. The country is absolutely gorgeous. There’s a lot of potential here. Like the reality is, no one outside of the Portuguese world has ever heard of this country. Actually, the citizenship by investment program is putting it on the map. I do not doubt that foreign investment will grow over time because of how beautiful and untouched it is, and especially as Central Africa and West Africa continue to grow. We’ll be seeing more investment coming from these countries as well, as well as local regional tourism. Look, we met a lot of local entrepreneurs, foreigners, etc. They’re doing business here, they’re making money. Uh, we met quite a few people that naturalized São Tomeans. So it’s not strange to be of non-African descent going around with a Sãotomean passport. It’s something that already happens. Ultimately, it’s a very affordable price to pay to get citizenship for yourself, for your family, and then also all the future generations. Especially if you apply with a whole family, on a per-person basis, it’s a really, really good deal. And the country really needs the funds. I mean, we see they’re capital controls. It means they need foreign investment, they need capital inflows and that’s what the funds are being used for to stabilize the currency, and also to make investment in local infrastructure. I mean, there are regular power cuts. Those are the basics that need to be fixed. So if you go through this program, you know, just bear in mind you’re become a citizen of an African country, which comes with its unique set of challenges. It’s a very solid option amongst all the citizenship by investment programs out there.
Contact us for more information on Citizenship by Investment Program in São Tomé and Principe
LADISLAS MAURICE: So we’re licensed agents for the São Tomé citizenship by investment program. We can help you with your application from A to Z. There’s a link below with more information. Unlike our competition, we do not charge any extra agency fees. You’ll get the lowest possible price by applying through The Wandering Investor.
Make sure to download my free ebook, “12 Mistakes to Avoid When Investing in International Real Estate”, which you can find on my website, link below, and feel free to follow me on Instagram @TheWanderingInvestor. I look forward to hearing from you.
