Paraguay continues to fire on all cylinders on the back of sound economics, strong exports, surging manufacturing and quality immigration. Anyone landing in the newly renovated airport in Asuncion finds a city that is unrecognizable from a few years ago.
There is infrastructure development everywhere, as well as a lot of construction.
For now rental yields on Airbnb are high, 6%-10% after all expenses, but it is unlikely to last as supply of rentals is set to increase substantially in 2027.
So the key when investing in Asuncion’s booming market is to choose projects that have something unique. This ensures you will get the tenants and liquidity later on, and not the other guy who bought some random unit.
I was in Paraguay a few months ago looking at many projects and chose these two to show as they are different. Prices have gone up a bit since then so the yield projections should be lower based on current prices, but the reality is that if you choose projects that are unique you will most likely do well.
Importantly, $200,000 invested in Paraguayan real estate gives you permanent residency within 5 days. Once a permanent resident, you just need to show up once every 3 years to keep it active, thus making Paraguay a practical, back pocket Plan B.
It is also easy to get a tax residency certificate with minimal time on the ground, though to be very clear you must ensure you are not a tax resident elsewhere.
Interestingly, you can invest just $60,000 in such projects to get the PR and then pay the rest over two years according to their payment plan.
Matt and I look at these two projects and run the numbers.
Choosing the realtor is even more important than choosing the residency provider
Matt’s company is the only one in Paraguay that:
- is a fully-fledged real estate agency with a focus on investors who care about the numbers
- has been processing hundreds of residency applications
So whether you just want to invest, or just want residency, or want the $200,000 investor pass, he can help.
Resources
- Get in touch my Matt our realtor in Asuncion
- How to obtain residency in Paraguay
- Asuncion Real Estate Investor Guide 2026
A different solution for immediate PR in Paraguay
Another partner agency of ours offers a pathway to immediate permanent residency through a $40,000 film investment option. If you don’t wish to commit $200,000, this option allows you to invest $40,000 in a local Paraguayan film and get permanent residency this way.
The Paraguayan National Institute for Audiovisual (INAP) has obtained a special exemption and developed this new program
The movie currently raising funds is called “Paradise Lost.” Here’s a long trailer.
The film is being produced by a Hungarian citizen who lives in Paraguay and has extensive knowledge of the country (including its most remote corners) as well as experience in the audiovisual industry. He was approached by Netflix about a distribution deal, although nothing has been signed to date.
To be clear, we have no clue what the expected returns are on such a movie. I’d view it as a donation almost, with the tail chance of a financial success story, as with most film investments.
Also, unlike the other Paraguay residency options, we can help people from all over the world with this one, including with the visa process at the Paraguayan embassy for those from non-Western countries who require an entry visa.
Paraguay immediate PR through film investment.
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor
Services in Paraguay:
- My Real Estate Buyer’s Agent in Asuncion, Paraguay
- How to obtain Residency in Paraguay
- How to obtain Permanent Residency in Paraguay through investment in film production
Articles on Paraguay:
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.
Subscribe to the PRIVATE LIST below to not miss out on future investment posts, and follow me on Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Telegram, Youtube, Facebook, and Rumble.
My favourite brokerage to invest in international stocks is IB. To find out more about this low-fee option with access to plenty of markets, click here.
If you want to discuss your internationalization and diversification plans, book a consulting session or send me an email.
Transcript of “How to Choose Unique Asuncion Pre-construction Projects – Paraguay”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello everyone from beautiful Asunción in Paraguay. We’re going to be looking at two projects and we’ll be doing the exact numbers, ROI numbers for both long-term and short-term. The first one being a project that would be interesting for the short-term rental market and where one can expect a net rental yield of 10% after all expenses. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I do not make such statements easily. It’s generally very hard to achieve such numbers, but here I genuinely believe that in this project you can. So Matt, you’ve been helping people get residency here in Paraguay and you also have a real estate agency, you’ve been helping people invest from all over the world here in Paraguay. We went around for a few days, looked at a bunch of projects and I decided that we should show two. Yes. This is the first one, tell us about it.
Real estate lagoon development in Asuncion
MATT: So this is actually one of our top-selling projects at the moment. This is a really unique project that will be only one. As you can see, there is a big lagoon, so this will be an artificial lagoon, which is pretty unique in a country where you’ve no sea. That’s a good amenity to have in your project and we are actually only 10 minutes away from Shopping del Sol, which is the main shopping here in Asunción. For our investors, this is a really good project. Uh there is nothing similar, close, as close to Asunción like this. As you said, we can expect 10% at least for the yield return.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. So we’ll have a look at the showroom and then we’ll sit down, we’ll do all the numbers. Effectively, the thesis is pretty simple. You have Asunción, you have the really nice areas, you have the airport and this sits pretty much in between the airport and the really nice areas. 10 minutes to the airport, 10 minutes to the nice areas. 20 minutes when there’s traffic. I mean, Asunción is a city where there isn’t much to do. We are literally in the middle of nowhere. I mean, this is the very definition of Paraguay. And then suddenly in the middle of the capital city, you will have a massive lagoon. Can you tell us about the size of the lagoon?
MATT: So, the superficies of the lagoon is 6,000 square meter and the deepest point should be around 2.4 meters. So, you can swim around, you will have eight towers around the development. So that’s really good when we talk about investment because every time a tower is launched, the price increase. So, if you enter early on the project, you will always have really good capital gains. Also around the development, you will have everything. Basically a restaurant, beach bar, uh paddle course, football course, volleyball course, really big gym as you may know in the buildings in Asunción, the gyms are really ridiculous.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, they’re a bit small.
MATT: So in this kind of development you have like more than 100 square meter gym with everything you can think of. So that’s really makes a difference.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And what about the infrastructure around? Because when we came this morning, the roads were a bit beat up. I know we’re close to the center, but the roads are pretty beat up. Is anything being done about the infrastructure?
MATT: At the moment, this is still a growing neighborhood, but there is a lot of stuff done around. You have seen there is a lot of building in construction. So of course, once the first step of the process is finished, once the first building is delivered, all the road will be ready. The another group made an acquisition next to the project. They will make a supermarket with a lot of commercial stores next, just by the project.
LADISLAS MAURICE: The reality is real estate is booming in Asunción and there’s a real risk of over supply, but if you buy into a project like this, I mean there will not be over supply of projects like this right next to the center of a booming capital city. I mean, finding tenants here will be so easy. Let’s just go have a look at the at the showroom and then we’ll do the numbers there.
1-bedroom apartment rental in the lagoon development with 10% yield
MATT: So, now we are in the showroom. This is a two-bedroom. You can actually see the quality, that’s pretty nice. Uh really nice decoration, pretty standard, but yeah, always good.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So Matt, how much for one bedroom apartment here?
MATT: So, the one bedroom apartment starts from $105,000. For the short-term rental, you can expect different rates. During the week, we would be around $60 and during the weekend, of course, there would be a lot more demand, so we increase a little bit the prices, it should be around $80 for one bedroom. This is actually still really reasonable prices.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I mean for access to this, it’s pretty cheap. You come with your family, you know, a couple, two kids, you pay $80 for a night for this experience, for access to the pool, everything for the whole day. Well not the pool, the lagoon. I think people need to understand there is nothing to do here in Paraguay. There’s really nothing to do. Like you can just go out into the Chaco and where it’s just desert and there’s nothing to do, or you hang out in the city, you go to cafes, you go to malls, you go hang out at friends’ places, for asados, barbecues. It’s very social but in terms of activities, it’s very limited. And I know I’m repeating this probably for the third time. This is very unique.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So you manage quite a few Airbnbs through your agency. What would be your estimated occupancy rate?
MATT: Pretty much for this project, as it is really unique, as you said, we expect to be fully booked. The only thing we chose to put 75% occupancy because during some months of the year, it’s a bit colder in Paraguay and obviously the main amenity here is the lagoon. There will always be the restaurant, there will be always be the other activities, but during the winter, it will be a little bit more quiet.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Define winter.
MATT: Basically, the month of July is probably the coldest month of the year. It should be days around 15 degrees, but for the rest of the years, I mean it’s pretty hot around here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Excuse him, he’s European, he only speaks in Celsius. So about 59 Fahrenheit, which is effectively a Canadian summer.
MATT: Basically, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Talk to us about the expenses.
MATT: So basically, you have the HOA. This depends on the square meter that you that you actually acquire. This should be around $60 per month. Overall, that’s pretty low. Also, for the electricity, internet in our calculation, we put $100 but it should be actually way less than that. And apart from that, this is the administration. People for short term, we can do it for you. We take 15%. Overall, that’s a really good return, you should get around 10%. I mean, the number we put are really pessimistic actually.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, so the developers were promising a lot more. Obviously, they always do. Then, you know, we looked at more reasonable estimates and then they were still a bit too good and we just felt uncomfortable showing that. So we just like, okay, let’s just put 10%, like it’s fine, like it’s fine, 10% is fine. I really think it’s very doable, 10% is very doable. Once you take into account all the other expenses that are that are listed there.
Who is renting an Airbnb in Paraguay?
LADISLAS MAURICE: So who’s the target market? Who would be staying in the Airbnb?
MATT: So, actually there is a lot of different people that can stay here. The main target will be the local people that have a enough money to go in this kind of zone because as you said, there is not too much activity in Asunción. All the middle class and upper class, they actually want to spend weekends here. After that, there is also a lot of corporate tourism in Asunción, so there is Argentinian company, Brazilian companies and the executives, they come minimum once a month. So they would actually love to stay in this kind of areas. And of course, there is all the foreigners coming for the residency or even staying longer during the year. I mean, who wouldn’t like to stay in a place like this?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, so we did the numbers for the one bedroom unit. I mean, ultimately it’s a bit over $2,000 a square meter, a bit over, you know, around $200 per square foot. but there are three bedroom units, there are studios, etc., there’s a whole wide range. I mean, if you have a three bedroom unit here, um or a two bedroom, it’ll do really well with uh with families on the long-term market even. We didn’t do the numbers there um because they’re obviously better on the short-term market. But for the long-term market, we’re going to now go see another project in a different area, correct?
MATT: Yes, we will see another project which will be situated way closer into the city. You will see it’s a similar concept with several towers as well. Obviously, there is not a lagoon in the city, but it’s really nice to have something long-term also.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, cool. Fantastic. Let’s go check it out. Let’s go. We just had to tell Matt to calm down with the driving. What’s up with your driving?
MATT: I mean, I’m really Paraguayan now, I’m driving like crazy in Paraguay.
What are investors looking for in real estate in Paraguay?
LADISLAS MAURICE: So Matt, can you tell us a little bit more about the what your clients are looking for when they invest in real estate here in Paraguay?
MATT: So people coming here, they are mainly looking for diversification because of what’s going on in the Western countries and in America also. They are also looking for good yields and good capital gains. That’s something you can totally get in Paraguay. More and more people, I can see this tendency, are coming to actually live here. So they would need a house. And also some of them are not ready to come yet, but they are also willing to set a plan B for the future.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And where are most of your clients from, which countries?
MATT: Mostly Europeans, there is also a growing number of Americans coming.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Americans are investing here.
MATT: Yes, also, yeah, a lot.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And Canadians, I think?
MATT: Yeah, Canadians, you know, of course.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, Canadians are found all over Latin America just buying up real estate.
Modern real estate project in the center of Asuncion, Paraguay
MATT: Okay. So we arrived to the new place. As you can see, that’s really nice. We are actually within the city. It doesn’t look like it, but this neighborhood is called Los Laureles. It’s a really nice residential neighborhood. The good thing about this place is you can only build up to six floors, so there is no crazy skyscraper in the zone. It’s pretty chill, not too much traffic, really nice for the families. So we’re going to see this project. For me, it’s a really nice project because it’s really different from what you can find in Asunción. Usually, you find this kind of project more outside of a town, let’s say 30 to 45 minutes from the center. We are actually five minutes from Shopping Mariscal, maybe like 10 to 15 minutes from Shopping del Sol. It’s a really big, really big land. They will build three towers here, but they will keep a lot of trees like this, for example, that are more than 100 years. You will have some space to walk around, you will have also amazing amenities, like a semi-Olympic pool, more than 100 square meters of a gym, a lot of places where you can organize birthdays, places for the kids, paddle course. This project is really unique in this sense, is because at the moment in Asunción, it’s almost impossible to find places that big to do this kind of project.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, so look, this neighborhood, Los Laureles, I remember the first time I came to Asunción, I was here with my family and uh my wife really liked this neighborhood compared to other neighborhoods because of how green it is, how calm it is and also there are some nice um supermarkets around. There’s a really nice supermarket around the corner.
MATT: Just two blocks away. You know, Casa Rica.
LADISLAS MAURICE: With a lot of imported stuff. Very family orientated, a little outside of the core center, um which I would be typically a little wary of because in a city where you can usually build very high and without any limits, here you’re a little bit outside, but the fact that it’s a huge lot where it’ll be like a private space, unlike just a random tower on its own. This makes this project really unique and the pricing is absolutely fair. So when we’re looking at all the projects together, you know, this one really stood out for long-term. Personally, if I wanted a place for myself and my family long-term compared to the other towers, this is the one that I would I would go for. Great. So we’re going to do all of the numbers for long-term rentals in a bit, but you bought a place here yourself.
Investing in Los Laureles area in Asuncion
MATT: Yeah, actually, I bought in the first tower that was launched uh last year. Now, they also launched a second tower because the first tower is fully sold. I think there is just one or two units actually. But now they started selling the last one, the second one, and then there will be a third one. So, I actually bought in this one because I really like the project. For me, when I visited for the first time, I it felt amazing. I’m actually living in this neighborhood also. I have a house here and for me it made a lot of sense to invest in this neighborhood because it’s uh it’s one of the best in my opinion, especially if you are a foreigner, it’s a bit more quiet. I used to walk during the evening. There is a lot of quiet streets you can walk around. It’s not like near Shopping del Sol where it’s crazy with the with the cars. I mean, it’s also possible to walk, but it’s not the same environment.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Very walkable here. You bought here yourself?
MATT: Yes.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Um, your business partner also bought a place here?
MATT: Yes, also in the first tower.
Cost of purchasing an apartment in Los Laureles, Asuncion
LADISLAS MAURICE: Can you give us prices?
MATT: For studio, it ranges from $52 to $60,000 at the moment. So, the price per square meter is quite accessible if you compare to other buildings, pretty much the same. For the one bedroom, it will be from $80,000 to $90,000. And for the two bedroom, it will be around $130,000. You can note also that if you want a three bedroom, it’s totally possible to have one. You just need to discuss with the people here and they can mix some units, they can rearrange a few units.
Long term versus short term apartment rental in Paraguay
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. Great. So, let’s say I buy the a one bedroom apartment. What’s your recommendation? Long-term, short-term, unfurnished, furnished?
MATT: For this kind of project, of course, short-term is always working, but I would preferably recommend long-term, especially for the zone, for the area and for all the amenities. As you said, it’s a really nice place to live if you have a family or even if you’re single, but you want to be long-term in Asunción. I would always recommend to go with something furnished because on the local market, there are not so many offers for furnished apartments. The people tend to buy something, put the minimum, like really cheap uh furniture, it’s not selling that well. But if you make a little extra effort, put a little bit more cost into your furniture, you would have a really nice apartment and it will pretty much rent within a week.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You know, I travel all over and I just keep seeing this. People put a lot of money, they buy nice apartments, off-plan properties and then they’ll just, you know, put a cheap couch. It’s like. Yeah, so just have a decent budget for furniture. So in the numbers, uh we put $7,000.
MATT: We put $7,000, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Which gets you a, you know, something decent here in in Asunción. Um if you were going to furnish in Argentina, it would be two, three times the price. Here things are a lot more affordable.
Rental income in Asuncion, Paraguay
LADISLAS MAURICE: What rent could I expect on a monthly basis?
MATT: At this moment, we could expect around $700. We also have to take into account that when the project is finished, for the first hour and two years, probably the price would go up, maybe from 5 to 10% per year.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so here, you know, there’s a lot of construction going on in Asunción. There will be more supply. Is there going to be more supply than people coming to Asunción? I don’t know, you know, a lot depends on the whole economic situation worldwide. There’s a lot of volatility. But what I will say is when we were having a chat with uh we came here a few days ago because we’re going through all the projects, we’re having a chat with one of the sales girls here and then she was saying, yes, uh we’ll probably increase our or we’ll potentially increase our prices soon because of the crisis in Hormuz and the energy crisis, we’re going to have to, you know, protect our margin. And I was pleasantly surprised to hear this because we’re entering unchartered territory with construction really worldwide. Um and having spoken to a few developers, some are just not even thinking about it. And then there’s a risk. I would rather invest in a developer that is proactively thinking of inflation, of oil shocks, etcetera, so that the thing actually gets built. I find it good that everyone in this company from clearly senior management to sales people on the ground are aware of the situation and understand that pricing has to remain dynamic. That’s pretty reassuring.
Importance of buying from an experienced developer in Paraguay
MATT: And to talk a little bit more about the developer, because it’s always important to know who you are working with. They already have some experience building this kind of project. They actually did one almost 10 years ago outside of town, like 40 minutes from here with eight towers. So this one is obviously a little bit smaller because you don’t have so much space in the capital. This is this developer is the alliance of two famous developers here in Paraguay. They made these similar projects before, so we know that for the quality, we know what we can expect, and that’s why we are also working with them.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, it’s decent. I mean, we had a look at the showroom, we’ll add some B-roll. It’s, you know, standard. It’s perfectly fine. Great.
Management and other rental costs for the apartment in Asuncion
LADISLAS MAURICE: So $700 a month for the rental income, we put in an occupancy rate of about 90%. Again, this is unique. It’ll be easy to rent out. What’s the HOA, the monthly charges?
MATT: Basically, we counted $1.3 per square meter. It should be a little bit less, but for one bedroom, you should spend around $60-65 per month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What is your what about your management fee to take care of management?
MATT: So for long-term rental, the management fee is 10%. Basically, if your rent is 700, it should be around $70 per month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. And you offer this service?
MATT: Yes, exactly.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And what about property tax, other expenses?
MATT: For property tax, this is something you pay yearly. So, for Asunción, it’s around 400, 450. So in that range, so it’s not even too high. And the other thing that you would pay after the construction is done, obviously, is the property title, which will be transferred. And it’s 3% of the total price. If you pay 80,000, it should be around $2,400.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And what about the uh and a bit of a budget for maintenance, you know, issues?
MATT: The budget for maintenance, it really depends on what’s happening, of course, but we estimate at around $500 per year. Could be totally less sometimes.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, especially if it’s new.
MATT: If it’s new, it will be less, but after 5 to 10 years, of course, it will be maybe a little bit more.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Great. So this takes us to net yield of about 5.6% on the long-term furnished rental market. Short-term, you could also do short-term here. I know a lot of your clients come here, they want a place for 2, 3 months a year, the rest of the time they rent it out. It would work here, but it’s just a bit more optimized for long-term living due mostly to the location, the amenities, everything. This is more of a long-term uh long-term setup. So we looked at a bunch of projects in the past few days and I decided for us to focus on these two because of how unique they are. So the downside is that they’re not in the core for center, they’re, I mean this one is really close. The other one a little farther away, but they’re still close. But I believe that the uniqueness of the projects overrides the lack of total centrality of location, and I also like the pricing strategy of these developers that are really increasing prices, and which should protect their margin and give buffer and reduce the risk of them going bankrupt because, again, uncertain times. Uh maybe I’m overreacting to everything that’s going on. I’d rather overreact than underreact, you know, I that’s the reality of the situation. In the meantime, you know, Asunción is still booming, there’s construction, people are coming here. I would prefer to position myself in projects where I know the developer has a good strategy and where the product is absolutely unique.
How to contact Matt for real estate in Paraguay
LADISLAS MAURICE: I wrote a whole report on the Asunción real estate market, the neighborhoods that are interesting, the neighborhoods that are a little bit less interesting, some key learnings. There is a link below and if you’re interested in real estate here in uh Asunción, Matt and his team took me around, showed me a bunch of projects, explained everything, we did all the numbers together. You offer a full turnkey solution. So, feel free to get in touch with Matt. There’s a link below as well.
MATT: Okay. Thanks for coming, and talk soon.
LADISLAS MAURICE: 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.
