Whenever people consider investing in El Salvador their instinct is to search along the coast or in the capital city of San Salvador.
Few people ever discuss the mountain areas of El Salvador, or some of its lovely country clubs in the outskirts.
In this video with Roman, we spent a day exploring some very interesting lifestyle options for people seeking peace and tranquility in a world of chaos and insanity.
How did this peace come about?
El Salvador now has a unique advantage: Latin American lifestyle, but without crime and violence. Everywhere is safe. In virtually all other Latin American countries, only select regions and neighborhoods can ever be considered secure.
But you don’t go from being one of the world’s most violent countries to being one of the world’s most peaceful countries organically. The culture of violence in El Salvador was stamped out with an iron fist.
The result is peace and tranquility, but tens of thousands of people are behind bars without due process. It’s become a bit like the Gulf countries – enjoy the “safety” but don’t dare criticize the government. If you do, you’ll be in trouble fast.
If you are fine with this arrangement, and like crypto, low taxation, surfing, a fun expat community, easy flights to the US, etc. then El Salvador might be your cup of tea.
I tend to recommend El Salvador to couples and families rather than single people. Single people I’ve met there seem a bit bored.
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor.
Services in El Salvador:
- How to get residency in El Salvador
- Real estate attorney in El Salvador
- Real estate agents in El Salvador
- El Salvador Citizenship by Investment
Article on El Salvador:
- El Salvador Real Estate Market: 2026 Investor Guide – is it too expensive already?
- El Salvador’s Economy: The next Singapore or just another emerging market?
- El Salvador Homeschool Hub – Educating Your Children While Traveling
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Transcript of “Mountain Real Estate in El Salvador – Where to Buy Land to Build a House”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello everyone, Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor, and today we are going to go to the mountains of El Salvador to look at real estate options.
ROMAN: We’re super excited for today because we’re going to see some mountain developments. A lot of people that come to El Salvador, they don’t want to be by the beach because they think it’s too hot. Some people love it, but some people say, I want to be more where the weather is more cooler, and this is what we’re going to see today. It’s just going to be 40 minutes away from the beach. Also, we’re going to check the most exclusive golf country club of El Salvador. And if you play golf, that’s the place that you need to be. It’s the only country club with residence.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And I’m really excited about the lots here in the mountains because they’re in the middle of an avocado and coffee farm, so I’m looking forward to seeing what that looks like.
ROMAN: And in the middle between the beach and the city, because you are just 40 minutes away from the beach and 30 minutes away from the city. Awesome. Let’s go. Yeah.
Visiting Tamanique, El Salvador
LADISLAS MAURICE: So what’s the name of this little town?
ROMAN: This is Tamanique.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Oh, there’s a little playground here. There’s the church at the back as well.
ROMAN: Yeah, all the little towns here in El Salvador like this one have the church, the mayor office, and the park, you know, for the kids. Or in the afternoon, all the kids come here and play. Also all the tourists that are staying on the beach came here to do the waterfall tour here, and it’s some of the most beautiful waterfalls.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Really? Beautiful. Yeah. And were towns like this unsafe before, or was it just the capital city? Like, was crime an issue here as well?
ROMAN: I don’t know, but like this place, I’ve been coming here for many years to do the waterfalls and never had problems, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Oh, beautiful. Very charming. I actually met some expats two nights ago that bought land here. They live in El Zonte, and then they wanted a little mountain village retreat, so they bought here because it’s just 20 minutes away from El Tunco.
ROMAN: Yes. And this is what what’s happening, you know, that people came with the dream to have a beachfront property. And it’s okay if you just come for a few months a year. But once you live in here, you start to seeing like, wait, El Salvador have more than just beachfront, you know. We have this beautiful mountain just 30 minutes away from from the beach and 30 minutes away from the city. So you can live on the middle. And something that it’s also really appealing to people is the weather. If you are here at night, probably you need a small sweatshirt, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Oh, really?
ROMAN: Yeah. It’s really cooler.
Bitcoin economy in Berlin, El Salvador
LADISLAS MAURICE: Last time I came around, I went to Berlin. That little beautiful little colonial town about two hours away from San Salvador in the other direction. And that city is all Bitcoined out as well, because you’re very involved in the whole Bitcoin community, Bitcoin project here in El Salvador. So what’s happening in Berlin? Have there been recent developments there?
ROMAN: The the guys there are doing great job, you know, creating a Bitcoin circular economy. It’s working really well. Like some expats moved there, you know, and a lot of people also that are coming to El Salvador that don’t have a big budget or still are in the, you know, stacking sat or earning and working, you know, and they cannot live in El Zonte, for example, because it’s more expensive to to live to renting a house. People are deciding and looking now to places like Berlin, you know, because you can renting a house in Berlin for $400 per month, you know, $500 per month. You cannot do that in El Zonte, you know. But also the the unique thing about Berlin is that since Gerardo Nevelin start the Bitcoin circular economy there, people have a purpose to visit in Berlin, you know. And this is something cool and this is something that we’re working with Bitcoin Beach to create more Bitcoin circular economies and these little towns. That when people come or want to move to El Salvador, they can also have places like Berlin to go and visit or living in there, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Because the reality is the government was forced by the IMF to remove Bitcoin as legal tender and to remove the, I forgot the name of the wallet, whatever, the government-sponsored Bitcoin wallet. But the the reality is people are just switching to private wallets and the private sector still pretty much accepts Bitcoin. So in reality on the ground, nothing really has changed.
ROMAN: Bitcoin never was forced to use, you know. In fact, I think it’s positive this change, you know. I’m seeing more adoption now. I’m seeing more people into Bitcoin. People still buying properties with Bitcoin. People still pay for groceries for in Bitcoin, you know. Still have the Bitcoin Bitcoin tourist booming.
Mountainside land with avocado and coffee trees near El Zonte
ROMAN: So we’re here in one of the first development on the mountain side. This is literally 40 minutes from the beach and we’re just 30 minutes from the city and this way. And this is a subdivision. People can buy here just lots, build their dream homes in the mountain, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And I have to say, the road up to here was really good. Just the the last like two minutes were not great, and even there they were actually working on it. So like easy, easy roads.
ROMAN: Yeah. And we’re going to hear from the founder of the project today, how this beautiful piece of property was a coffee farm. Now it’s actively a coffee avocado, you know. So people will field, you know, that maybe your lot already came with some avocado tree, you know. That concept that you live in the farm, you have enough land to cultivate it, that is one of the reason that a lot of people also want land in the mountain, you know, and have enough land to grab your veggies, fruits. And also we’re going to visiting the the common areas because it’s going to be a gated community that will have the common areas, like bars, playgrounds for the kids. I think it’s going to have a paddle, barbecue areas, and some stunning views to the beach.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Awesome. Let’s go check it out.
ROMAN: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: We’re here with Jorge, whose development this is. How are you, Jorge?
JORGE: Very well, and welcome.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you. And what is the vision for this project?
JORGE: It’s to offer houses on land so that people can build retirement homes, simply for investors who want to build for Airbnb.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And what is the history of the land?
JORGE: These properties belonged to the Martínez family in the last century. We bought them in 1992 from one of the Martínez heirs. They had a coffee plantation. We were producing coffee. We set up an organic coffee processing plant and delivered the coffee in parchment, and we roasted some of it ourselves. But then, due to falling prices in the international market, we decided to switch to avocados. And in 2020, due to climate change, we had problems, and instead of producing 25,000 ten-kilo boxes, we went down to producing 5,000, so we looked for an alternative. Here we have planted 5,000 avocado trees.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And all the land has avocados?
JORGE: 90% has avocados. The other 10% has coffee.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you. And what are the prices roughly?
ROMAN: Here we have lots around $100 per square meters. And we have big lots, smaller lots are 1700 square meters lots. So this is the perfect development that you can buy your lot and build your dream home like Jorge say. A lot of people that live in the city, that want to leave the city, they’re buying here because they want to live in a environment like this. Look at the view of the ocean, being inside of an avocado farm, you know, a coffee farm is the weather is cooler. So we’re seeing this after the pandemic as well, that people are willing more to leave the city and live in in a gated community like this. So it’s hard to find like a small lot that you can buy, you know. You find like 170 acres of coffee farm, you know. So for a lot of people, for our clients, international clients, after they buy on the beach, they start seeing on the mountain, you know. And we’re bringing a lot of clients here now. And they love it because they’re with a better weather, close to the city and close to the beach.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And I think this is an important point, so we’re not in the middle of nowhere. I mean we saw we’re 40 minutes away from the beach, El Zonte, El Tunco, where a lot of foreign capital is flowing into, but also we’re close to the city. So it’s not just a play on, you know, beach people wanting a mountain retreat. It’s also a play on San Salvador people wanting a place also 35 minutes away. So the addressable market is quite big. Um and that’s why it’s also, you know, it’s not cheap, let’s be clear it’s not cheap. The building density is very low. So I I like that about this project.
ROMAN: You can build on 25% of the site of the lot. But it’s also thinking about that you’re not going to live in a gated community that is all built. You’re going to build your home and you’re going to live in a place that you’re going to be walking, you’re going to be running, and there are trees all over the places, you know. And I think that’s something that I really liked about his vision.
Did I sell a lot? Did you see people calling? Did you see hot sales, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Talking about hot sales, this is still very much early stage. The roads are built, the amenities are not built yet, a lot was sold.
ROMAN: Yes, he already sold 45% of the lots. We still have like 45 lots available here of 70, 75.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So let’s say I want to buy something in this area but I don’t want to be in a gated community because whatever, I don’t like gated communities or I want, you know, a cheaper price. What would be the equivalent price for such a lot outside of a community, just, you know, just raw land that I need to develop?
ROMAN: Actually that’s a good question and it’s hard to compare with something else outside because there is not a lot of inventory, you know. Because like I say, all this area used to be coffee farms. And we have other coffee farms but are big coffee farms, you know. We have a client that he purchased 100 manzanas, 170 acres of land, you know. He try to buy like a small piece from the from the vendor and he say, no, everything or nothing. To give you an idea, it might be we have some lots that maybe will be around around 100k maybe, but you’re not talking that is is not inside of a gated community with amenities, water, electricity, internet already just to connect it.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so this is an interesting lifestyle opportunity for people that are into this.
ROMAN: After here, we’re going to El Encanto. We have three golf courses in in El Salvador and El Encanto is the most exclusive golf country club with residence that you actually can live there.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, let’s go.
ROMAN: You know for many people having an avocado or a mango tree in their house is a dream.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Roman is absolutely lovely, but his driving is so crazy that even though our video equipment has stabilizers and all that, it just they just stopped working when he drives.
ROMAN: That’s happened when you want to see too many things in one day, you know. That’s your problem.
El Salvador real estate investor tours
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. That’s the cost of efficiency.
Talking about tours, can you tell us about your the tours that you organize for potential investors or people who want to move to El Salvador?
ROMAN: Yes. We became with this idea with with Lexie and our team, you know, everyone is interesting in El Salvador, everyone want to visiting, everyone want to understanding what type of opportunities we have here, but they don’t know where to go. And they don’t want to go where to start it, you know. So we started something that we call Discovering Trips, they are basically five days of real estate dive deep in, you know, and where we have workshops with architects, engineers, lawyers, accounting. We see different areas of El Salvador like beaches, gated communities, the city, the mountain. And the idea is that after these five days, you will have the knowledge, you will have the understanding, you will have the confidence, because I think confidence is everything when you understanding what you’re doing, you feel confidence to investing more. But the most important thing is that you understanding if you want to be on the beach or you want to be on the mountain or you want to be in the city. Or you can become with the conclusion also that El Salvador is not for you yet, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, El Salvador is absolutely not for everyone. At the end of the day, it’s it’s still pretty niche destination.
ROMAN: When I say that it’s not for everyone, that it might be in the stage that we’re now as a country is not for everyone. Now it’s for builders, you know, for people that like to move first, that want to be first on something. And a lot of people, a lot of investors, entrepreneurial people find El Salvador really interesting in the stage that it is now and really excited, excitement, you know, about it because there are so many opportunities here now.
LADISLAS MAURICE: There’s a link below in the description, you can get in touch with Roman and find out when the next Discovery Trip is. And then also in the description below, there’s a link to my El Salvador real estate analysis and investor guide. I analyzed the whole country, the different cities, the ones I find interesting, the ones less interesting, some key mistakes you should avoid. There is a link below as well.
The thing with traveling with Roman is he constantly makes pit stops. What are you drinking here?
ROMAN: This is tamarindo juice.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And look at these views. Look at this. San Salvador, the capital city. Beautiful.
Residential developments in San Salvador
LADISLAS MAURICE: Roman, tell us about San Salvador. How’s the capital city developing?
ROMAN: Ah, San Salvador is a small city, but it’s really nice city in terms of developing, every time you come to the city, you see a new building, a new skyscraper, you know, a lot of apartments building now.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What are the average price per square meters for an apartment in a premium area, off-plan?
ROMAN: Now what is coming is that even Salvadorian people or the diaspora, Salvadorians that live in the USA, they’re buying these apartments. And what we’re seeing now is like smaller apartments, you know, like one bedroom, two bedrooms apartments maybe between 80 square meters up to 150 square meters, you know. The average price can change. It can go between 2,000 and we see in San Benito, for example, that is one of the most expensive areas, I would say up to 5-6 thousand dollars per square meter.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So yeah, it’s a recurring theme. El Salvador is not cheap.
ROMAN: But then you can buy also apartments for $150,000, $200,000 per apartment, you know, 110, 120 square meters. But I’m giving you an average of everything, you know, that you could find in the market. You gotta understand also that El Salvador is a small country, so land will cost more than other places because there is not many land, you know. The country is small, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And what about traffic and infrastructure development, because last time I was here traffic was hell.
ROMAN: The traffic in the city, for example, for us, we really like try to get there in the in the times that there is no traffic, after 9:00 AM in the morning and leave the city before 4:00 PM. But that’s why you’re seeing that the city is coming outside, you know. That’s why we’re seeing a lot of new projects that are like 20, 15 minutes from the city or where we’re here in the way to the to the beach and you’re seeing like different gated communities that have been built now.
LADISLAS MAURICE: The the whole area between San Salvador and La Libertad, that highway between the beach and the capital city is bound to just grow until it just becomes one big agglomeration.
ROMAN: Yeah. I know that is one of the biggest challenge and I know the government is trying to solve them, to improve the the transportation. And I think it’s essentially for the growing of the city, you know. And also what is beautiful to see is that the city is also getting decentralized in some ways, you know. That the people people now before everyone want to live on the city and now people prefer to live outside and just go to work. As long the public transportation gets better, I think more people will want to take that like in the biggest cities in Europe or Colombia, I was in Colombia and people use the metro, you know.
Visiting El Encanto Country Club in El Salvador
ROMAN: Welcome to El Encanto Country Club. Buenas.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Roman, who’s the target market for a place like this?
ROMAN: The target market here is families, golfers. If you play golf, this is the place that you need to be, you know. Uh we’re seeing a lot of Bitcoiners moving here, people that want to live in an nicer community in El Salvador with beautiful amenities. This is the place, you know. You see here is a mix of foreigners, expats, locals, diplomatic, Bitcoiners, like I mentioned it. It’s for everyone who can afford it.
Homeschooling in El Salvador for expat families
LADISLAS MAURICE: We’re seeing an increasing amount of families, just from talking to people and stuff, that are moving to El Salvador because they feel that they have a bit more freedom in terms of how they can raise their children. There’s some international schools here, but there are also these homeschooling hubs that are being set up by these typically Americans, Canadians, some Europeans that don’t want their kids to go to normal school and they prefer to have the kids, you know, work on other stuff or be on their own schedule. So there’s a lot of that. And then communities like this, I mean from a tenant’s point of view, if you’re going to buy a place like this and you can’t really move in right now and you want to rent it out, I mean I guess Airbnb’s banned, I guess here in?
ROMAN: Yeah, it’s not possible to do Airbnb. But a rental here, houses you will not find houses for less than $3 to $4,000 per month, you know. And there are not houses.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, typically your tenants would be foreign executives or diplomats that, you know, want to be near one of the many embassies here in El Salvador. I think that would be the typical tenant. Or these Bitcoin people that are moving down here, they’re giving family life a try in El Salvador, and they’ll rent a place here for a year or two before pulling the trigger on a on a property.
ROMAN: This is a quick quick story about one of our client. He bought in El Zonte in Bitcoin Beach. But he came here a few times now and he’s saying, I want to move my family here, but we don’t want to live full time by the beach. So he’s buying a lot here. He’s gonna build their family house here, and they will use El Zonte as their second house for for vacation on the weekend. Nice. I like how low density it is here. Yeah. And the weather here is magical, man. Like are we in wet season right now? This is the winter winter time for us. Winter goes from April to November. And but most of the day raining during the night and look at now. We’re have like 30 degrees all day.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, it’s uh it’s a nice country. It’s a nice country. I understand why people are moving here.
Cost of buying lot on a golf course in El Salvador
LADISLAS MAURICE: Beautiful amenities, very nice community. It was a bit hard to take videos and pictures because of privacy restrictions. But yeah, I understand why people would want to move here. What’s the what’s the price point?
ROMAN: Here people can buy a lot and build their dream home here and the prices for per lots per square meters started in $300 more or less and it can go up to $360 depending on location, view, and everything. And then houses, the cheapest house here will go for 3 650 like 345 square meters homes. And then we also have houses that people build, families build, and now they want to result, those are big homes and are gonna be maybe close to a million dollar or above a million dollar, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so roughly $240,000 for an actual lot if you want to build yourself. Yes, yes. So I mean the value proposition is pretty clear. In terms of target market for foreigners, it’s people that want to move here, they want to relocate, they want lower taxes, they want safety, and they want to educate their children the way they choose to. And there is that level of freedom here in El Salvador that people from certain provinces in Canada or some states in the US do not have. So obviously it’s a niche proposition, it’s not for everyone. I do understand why people would want to to live here.
ROMAN: I play golf here, so I love it. But it is also the community here, you know. People will imagine that just because is the most exclusive gated community here in El Salvador will be like crazy expensive like in the USA or Canada, you know. But the reality is not, you know. And you have here a good mix of people between Salvadorians, expats, Bitcoiners, people that working here in embassies, you know, diplomatic. But it’s a good community, you know. And I think that is key in a places when you relocate to another country, that community that make you feel you make friends easily, you know, and quality friends that I think that is important. And also you’re just 35 minutes away from the beach from here, 25 minutes from the city. So it’s right in the middle. And if you play golf, this is the only place that you can live. We have three golf courses here in in El Salvador and this is the only one that you can live with residence, you know. And then if you have a family, there is not a better place to live because all the amenities that your kids can do here like paddle, squash, pickleball, tennis, football, the gym, the pool, everything thinking in families, you know. And that’s why a lot of people that come here choose this place to live.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Equivalent living in the US would be a lot more expensive if you were to buy a a house in such an equivalent development community in the US. So I also understand the tradeoff that some people are are making. They’re like, well, we want that lifestyle, we can’t really get this in the US, but we can get this here.
ROMAN: Yeah. That’s that’s key.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yes. But it is key, eh? Or just compare your two-three bedroom condo in whichever big North American city and look at what you could get here. So personally, I find that just from a pure investment point of view, not that I think that this is great for rental income or, you know, you’re going to double your money on lots, etc. I think there’s more liquidity here and there is more potential for capital appreciation here than in the avocado lots that we saw before. Yeah. I mean they’re two very you can’t compare the two ultimately.
Affordability of healthcare in El Salvador
LADISLAS MAURICE: What about the healthcare situation in El Salvador, because for Americans, they often have affordability issues, and Canadians just don’t get healthcare.
ROMAN: Yeah. No, that’s a great question because that’s the number one question that we always receive, you know, when people are thinking to move here. So let me explain you really quickly in this way. In El Salvador we have two system- the public one and the private one. The public one it have been improving a lot and is getting better every time, and is public. But then the private system is I would say better than many things in the USA or Canada, comparing to the USA and Canada. As a local or if you’re resident here, you can have insurance here and the insurance will cost you between $80 and $150 or $200 per month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And that covers inpatient and outpatient?
ROMAN: Yeah, everything, you know. And once you go to the private system, brother, is is it’s really good. We have been having friends here from Canada, from the USA, you know, that have emergency and we have been taking them to the hospital and the result is that they’re impressed by the quality and and how they treat you, you know.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And if you want to see a specialist, you don’t need to wait 18 months.
ROMAN: No. No. And in fact, a lot of people are coming to El Salvador, for example, all the Salvadorian people that live in the USA, they come to get their check, medical checks here, you know. And we’re seeing more and more that people are coming here to do dentist, for example. Here it will be better quality and you will pay one-third of what you pay there.
El Salvador as a destination for snowbirds
ROMAN: And you know something that we start seeing a lot that people that are buying here are people that want to escape the winter in Canada and the USA or in Europe and they want to have a place here. A lot of people that don’t play golf are choosing like a place here because we have the sun every day. I met a a couple they buy here one apartment. We have apartments here, they’re sold out, but sometimes there are some apartments available in resale.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How much roughly?
ROMAN: 450 for an apartment.
LADISLAS MAURICE: $450,000.
ROMAN: Yeah, $450,000.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Three bedroom, two bedroom?
ROMAN: Three bedrooms, yeah, on that. And but this couple they choose to live here because her his wife need sun, you know. And he’s like, this is the perfect place for us to be. Spend the summer wherever you want and six months in a place like El Salvador.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I don’t know how much are the HOAs for a normal house here roughly?
ROMAN: Here it will go the HOA fee will go around 350.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, which is again a fraction of what you would pay in the US in terms of HOA and with that price difference, you could literally have full-time help at home. Right? So you can be in the US, pay your HOA or be here, pay your HOA and have a full-time staff at home taking care of the kids, cleaning, cooking, doing whatever. So again, when you look at it this way, it’s actually really affordable.
ROMAN: That’s what I told our clients, El Salvador is a place that you can live your dreams, you know. Like having help at home. I don’t like to say that is more cheap, but it’s more affordable, you know. It’s like you can do that. El Salvador is a place that if you want to eat lobster every day, you can eat lobster every day, you know. You hear me in the phone two days ago that I’m ordering lobsters, $12 per pound.
How to contact Roman to buy real estate in El Salvador
LADISLAS MAURICE: You ordered lobster and shrimp and paid with Bitcoin.
ROMAN: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. On these on these beautiful words, I wrote a whole article on the real estate market here in El Salvador, the the cities that are interesting, the places you should avoid, the tax situation, like a lot of information. There’s a link below. And if you want to get in touch with Roman, you can help people with real estate in the whole country, right? Your team is all over. Yeah. All right. And there’s also a link below. Roman, thank you.
ROMAN: Thank you.
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 linked below, and feel free to follow me on Instagram @thewanderinginvestor. I look forward to hearing from you.
