Real Estate in Nicaragua—A Low-Cost Bolt-Hole, Part I

 

Nicaragua is probably the most interesting country in Central America right now.

I believe owning property there represents an attractive, relatively low-cost solution for those looking to obtain the enormous diversification benefits foreign real estate offers.

This is why I am thrilled to bring International Man readers the perspective of Sean Dennis. Sean is a true expert on Nicaraguan real estate; he’s lived and worked there for over eight years and is perfectly suited to give us the exciting story of what’s happening on the ground.

Before we dive into this interview, be sure to check out this article if you haven’t already, for an overview of the attractive opportunities that Nicaragua offers.

Nick Giambruno: Tell us why somebody should consider Nicaragua instead of Panama, Costa Rica, or other Central American countries.

Sean Dennis: The quality of life and cost of living are amazing. You can live a very good lifestyle on like $1,000 a month—in fact you could probably spend less. In places like Panama or Costa Rica, it’s much more Americanized. A lot of that is now reflected in their American prices because they’ve been able to charge higher prices for a longer time. Here in Nicaragua, they haven’t quite caught on to that yet.

Nicaragua is probably one of the last places where you can mix with the locals a lot. You’ll never meet a nicer person than a Nicaraguan. They’re such a friendly people and no matter whether they have everything or nothing, they’ve still got time to help you. And I haven’t felt that in many other places that I go to.

It makes a big difference. For example, if your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, these guys will all stop and help you fix it. It’s a real camaraderie—there’s no animosity between foreigners and locals here. They embrace people coming in.

But at the same time, there’s a really nice expat community that lives here, and there’s a well-educated Nicaraguan community that’s here as well, so it’s a really nice mix of people.

Also, a lot of the products that you eat when you come down here are tremendous fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish. You can eat everything that’s been caught or grown within a mile or two of where you’re eating it. There aren’t many places like that in the world anymore.

Nick: Why don’t you briefly go over the main areas that would be of interest for expatriates?

Sean: San Juan del Sur is the main area of interest for expats. The city has its roots in a small fishing village on the Pacific coast. That’s, I think, what a lot of people like about it. It’s not a town which has come from nothing, or it’s not just foreigners who have come in and built it up. Without foreigners, it’s a functioning small fishing village, and it has grown around that. There are beautiful cliffs, hills, and beaches.

San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur is around an hour and 45 minutes by car from the international airport based in Managua, which is the capital of Nicaragua. There’s full paved or tarmac roads all the way down. It’s a nice, easy, smooth ride. When I first moved here seven or eight years ago, it was a four- or five-hour drive, so it’s drastically improved, and the government is spending so much money on infrastructure, which is really nice to see.

You usually get countries like this developing slowly behind the private developers coming in, whereas Nicaragua seems to be the opposite way around. They’ve actually got too much infrastructure for the level of tourist coming.

It’s definitely where most of my clients tend to focus. There’s lots of different bars and restaurants—you can mix with lots of the locals, so it definitely has the local culture side to it; it’s not just foreigners there.

There’s also another main beach area that a lot of people focus on which is called Tola, which is about an hour north of San Juan del Sur.

Near Tola there are a couple of American-owned property developments—Iguana and Rancho Santana.

Iguana is one of the older, original ones. It has its own nine-hole golf course and probably one of the best—if not the best—waves in the country right in front. So it has always been very popular with surfers. There’s a nice little bar/restaurant situated there as well.

Rancho Santana doesn’t have a golf course, but they’ve got plenty of land. There’s horse riding, a tennis court, some great beaches, and beautiful oceanfront lots there. I’d say around $250,000, maybe a little bit cheaper for those, and then you can get ocean-view lots from around $75,000 up to $150,000.

The other development is Guacalito de la Isla, but that one is Nicaraguan owned. It is also the most expensive. Lots in there vary from a couple of hundred thousand up to a million—just for the land. You can buy three-bedroom townhouses from $750,000 and upwards. So that is a very high-end residential developmental complex with a golf course. They’ve also got their own boutique hotel, called Mukul. It’s beautiful and very expensive. But they’re aiming for that high-end clientele. Morgan Freeman came out for a visit once.

So these developments are for a different kind of person—someone looking for something easy… a nice place in the sun on a beautiful beach. One who doesn’t necessarily want to or need to come to Nicaragua for the culture.

Nick: What about infrastructure like roads, electricity, water, Internet, and so forth?

Sean: Guacalito de la Isla is the one with the big-money backing, so they’re paving the road all the way out from the highway to their development.

With Rancho Santana and Iguana, you’ve still got a 20- to 30-minute drive on unpaved road, but they do pack the dirt track quite well. But I find a lot of people who come down here don’t necessarily mind that, or they quite like the fact that it doesn’t feel like the US.

As for electricity, water, and Internet, that’s all everywhere.

There seems to have been a trend in New York-based or California-based buyers or people in the tech industry coming to Nicaragua. Quite a large portion of my clientele has been tech-industry guys. So then they’re coming down and they’re looking at spending a couple of months here whilst they work on a project, so they need good Internet. There seems to be quite a young, trendy crowd with money coming down—not just the retirees, which is nice because it provides a good mix.

Nick: Back to San Juan del Sur: what kind of price ranges are we talking here? What do you think provides the best value right now?

Sean: There’s a number of developments which cater to any need and budget. You can come down here with $50,000 and you can find a great lot. You can get a nice two- to three-bedroom place for around $200,000, and that obviously goes up in price. This is for properties or lots in neighborhoods or developments on the hills with beautiful views overlooking the horseshoe-shaped bay.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for part II of this interview, in which Sean and Nick discuss the finer details of purchasing real estate in Nicaragua, as well as the colonial city of Granada, the other popular expat/retirement destination. Be sure you get the free IM Communiqué, so you’ll get part II right when it comes out.

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Eddie
Eddie

When I was looking at emigrating, an idea that I eventually decided wasn’t for me, Nicaragua looked pretty good. If i had to be an ex-pat, Nicaragua would be on my short list.

Zarathustra

Hell, I’m a Contra already.

Stucky

Pie in the sky. This country is great. No, that country is great. Grass is greener …… everywhere else.

Those ex-pats are one new Nicaraguan dictator away from being deported or, shot.

Rise Up
Rise Up

Stucky: “Those ex-pats are one new Nicaraguan dictator away from being deported or, shot.”

That may also be true for us here in the USSA soon, Stuck…

In any case, that particular location in Nicaragua is too humid for me–averages 80% in summer, 70% in winter, temps mid-80s daytime, down to mid-60s nighttime.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Nicaraguan necktie:

A slit across the neck, below the chin, supposedly from ear to ear, similar to the “Cuban Necktie”, except the tongue in this case is substituted with the victim’s dismembered penis, pulled down through the hole in the throat, thereby resembling a necktie.

Stucky

” … except the tongue in this case is substituted with the victim’s dismembered penis, pulled down through the hole in the throat, thereby resembling a necktie.” ——– Iska Warran

In bb’s case it would resemble a bow-tie.

Snake Pliskin
Snake Pliskin

I owned a condo in Iguana (in the bldg between the golf course & Playa Colorado surf break). Put the down payment in Ulrik’s slimy hands in 2006. Took them 4 yrs to finally get it built.

The writer of this article fails to mention anything of substance. It’s like he’s sitting around a campfire singing Kumbayah with the Nicas. What about the corrupt cops who will, without exception, pull gringos over who are driving to SJDS from MGA? Not once, not twice but often 3 times on that 2.5 hr drive. You’ll pay anywheres from $25 – 60 each time, and you’ll do it again on the way back to MGA, 3 times.

What about the rising level of crime? Petty crime is epidemic. Gringos are looked at as targets by Nicas, walking ATMs as it were. The number of rapes of gringo women in the beach areas has skyrocketed. A woman cannot go to a beach alone in Nica & expect to return safely.

Inexpensive COL, yes. Because the level of poverty is massive. Again, though, you’re a gringo so you must have money – – – and thus you get to pay the gringo price, not the local price, in restaurants, markets as well as for labor.

The condo bldg was owned by Don Jaime: ex-Sandanista leader & murderer, now an old, evil man. He charged the owners $70k for a $20k generator. Better not say a word! And the country is run by a dictator, Ortega, who makes no secret of his dislike for Americans, in particular. Ortega is contstantly changing the country’s bylaws so that he can fill his pockets with money. Eventually, he will come for the foreign-owned land.

The Nicas are a sullen people. They’ve had the light stomped out of their eyes by decades of oppressive rule, from Somoza to Ortega. You won’t hear laughter on the street, you don’t see many smiles.

Take a vacay there, surf excellent waves there, but buying property is an idiot’s choice.

yahsure
yahsure

Just this morning i was thinking about how great life is. I live like a king compared to my ancestors. And hoping the so called smart people in Washington don’t screw it up.

IndenturedServant

I’m all for people becoming ex-pats but if they try to get back in once (if) things get better, they should be shot on site.

Billy
Billy

You can HAVE Central America. Been there, done that. Got the t-shirt, coffee cup and bullet holes to prove it…

The ONLY place I ever found down that way that I really, really liked was the Panamanian highlands… but even those were and are filled with bandits. Only people I ran into down there that were worth a shit were the Kuna Indians, and most of them lived on an island separate from everyone else… and for good reason.

Crum
Crum

I’m not going anywhere. They can plant me in one of my raised bed gardens when someone decides to flashbang my big boy crib. And as Stuck said above, the grass is always greener. USA is still big enough with enough places to move to if where you’re currently sitting is not good.
AND, I already live OK on a couple of thousand a month.

bb

Billy , don’t you worry your self not one bit .Soon America will be come just as crime ridden as central America.

Stucky

“The writer of this article fails to mention anything of substance.” —– Snake Pliskin

Snake — damn, that’s a sweet name — 10,000 Atta Boy’s to you for telling the OTHER side of the story.

Caveat emptor

bb

Stucky , snake was my name when I was in the Junior Marines. My weapon was a semiautomatic flame thrower. I was a bad , bad ,bad ass.Now I just an old degenerate fart like you.

Stucky

Admin

ummmm, thanks.

Here I thought Snake Plisken was his real name. fuckmedead. In my defense, I’ve never seen Escape From NY, or LA.

llpoh
llpoh

Yep, moving to an area where coups, death squads, hatred of gringos, corruption, etc. are well-rooted seems like a great idea to me. Not. Fuck that.

SSS

Can’t believe Casey put that crap out. Nicaragua is a fucking socialist shithole run by a fucking Castro-worshipping communist shitbag. Daniel Ortega is a cold-blooded killer who is twice as bad as Anastacio Somoza ever was.

“Only people I ran into down there that were worth a shit were the Kuna Indians, and most of them lived on an island separate from everyone else… and for good reason.”
—-Billy

Been to the San Blas Islands (part of Panama on its north coast), where the Kuna live. Gentle and friendly people. Matriarchal society where the women wear the family wealth in the form of gold jewelry. Many of the men work on the mainland to support their families. The women make molas, which are primitive pieces of art sewn out of bits of cloth and very popular with tourists. We have several mola pictures hanging in our hallway.

Personally, the only place I’d think about is Guatemala. The central part of the country is the “Land of the Eternal Spring.” Beautiful countryside with year-around weather to boot.

Stucky

IF I ever scooted, the country MUST be English or German speaking. At my age, I don’t want to be a fish out of water.

I have two friends who rant and rave about Costa Rica. One, even has a condo there. He makes it sound like Paradise. I’ve read that English is the official language of Belize. It looks like a pretty place.

Bernardo

This guy is so clearly a douche bag real estate agent. British accent probably works on unsuspecting foreign investors. Nicaragua is an amazing country to visit but don’t buy the rosy-colored view of this foreign dirt-peddling alien who has a vested interest in anything he can HYPE. He’s obviously one of these people that doesn’t know how to make money by building anything valuable to humanity, only by capitalizing on the most recent “trend”. Disgusting dude who is more cocky than he ever will realize.

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