We’ve just finalized the dates for our brand new series of 3-Day Nicaragua Property Tours. We’ll be running tours on:

• May 20-22 2011
• June 17-19 2011
• July 29-31 2011, and
• August 12-14 2011

Click here for the details or complete this form to receive a full itinerary. We cover all your in-country expenses for two nights and three days. As we keep the tours small and personalized, they fill up quickly. So reserve your place as soon as you can. We hope to see you soon in beautiful Nicaragua.

Survivor involves two “tribes” competing against each-other for rewards and immunity. The last remaining contestant wins US$1 million dollars in prize money. The Survivor crew will be here for several weeks as they are filming two episodes of the show in San Juan del Sur.

San Juan del Sur is buzzing and it’s practically impossible to get a hotel room. A typical series of Survivor airs in over 100 countries and is seen by around 15 million Americans per week. So that’s 15 million Americans learning about Nicaragua and San Juan del Sur.

San Juan del Sur is already the top tourism hotspot on the coast of Nicaragua. And with Survivor, it’s status on the world tourism map will only increase.

We’re running real estate tours in the San Juan del Sur region in June and July showcasing the best deals in the country. Check out this page for more details.

Right now, visitors to San Juan del Sur can only reach the shore by a local boat. The new plans being discussed with the Florida-Caribbean Cruise association include a new dock so that passengers can disembark directly at the port. The facilities at the port itself would also be improved with “restaurants, souvenir stores and other attractions” according to the press release.

“This project will represent a very significant investment, the decision has been made to initiate the design of the development as soon as possible which will transform the port into one of Central America’s most attractive sites” expressed Mario Salinas.

Property investors and developers in San Juan del Sur are excited by the news. It’s not hard to understand why. Improved infrastructure and more visitors are good for real estate values and rental occupancy rates.

60 cruise ships visit Nicaragua on average between the months of October and May. This is up 62% from 2007. INTUR and the Government hope to bring this number to 100.

The Government continues to take steps to attract tourism to Nicaragua and raise awareness of the country as an investment destination. In the last months we reported on improvements to the residency and retirement scheme, the new Coastal law regulating development on the coast and a recent promotion trip to the American Association of Retired Person’s (AARP) event in Las Vegas aimed at attracting retirees to invest in real estate. This initiative with the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association is another to add to the list.

We’d love you to visit Nicaragua and see the progress being made for yourself. Join us on one of our free real estate tours and get to see the country up-close and in person. On tour we visit the best real estate deals in the country over an intensive three days. One of the stops is San Juan del Sur, the key real estate hub on the Pacific coast, and we will be sure to point out any visiting cruise ships…

Click here to learn more about our Nicaragua real estate tours.

Getting in front of the right opportunities.

The right opportunity may mean a motivated seller. It may mean a developer who is pulling out all the stops to woo buyers. It may mean a breaking, first-in opportunity. And it will always mean a great property.

We’re seeing two trends in the Nicaragua real estate market right now. The first is buyers with more negotiating leverage than they have had in years. The second is sellers contacting us with tremendous deals on properties they have for sale.

The next step is obvious. We’re putting buyer and seller together in our brand new 3 day Your Future Now tours.

Click for more information and the dates.

Nicaragua was well represented. Around a dozen real estate developers attended together with ProNicaragua, the investment promotion agency, and INTUR, the National Tourism Board.

The event was a great success according to the developers who attended. They were able to showcase opportunities for Nicaragua real estate investment as well as share insights on living in Nicaragua, its cultural life and key tourism attractions.

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization that helps people over 50 improve their quality of life. With 35 million members in all 50 states it has become one of the nation’s largest membership organizations for people over 50.

So, for developers wanting to attract the boomer generation to Nicaragua, the event was the right place to be.

Roll on Orlando@50 Sept 30 – October 2, 2010.

It’s no coincidence that our 3 day Your Future Now Real Estate Tours feature the finest master-planned communities in the country. After all, the tours are designed to make you a smarter investor by showing you the very best deals, backed up by top brands and master-developers who keep their promises long after today’s sale.

So you can imagine how excited we are to announce that December is the opening month for a brand new Oceanside Golf Course … and that tour participants will get to play a hole.

But there’s more:

The owners have agreed an exclusive offer, just for participants of our December 4-6th and 11-13th tours.

It goes like this: Play a hole-in-one and you get to own a casita for half price! If you miss on your first shot, you can have a second opportunity in exchange for a $10 donation to the Hope and Development Charity to try the shot again.

Feeling lucky?

Leveraging sun+beach+golf in a course that’s designed right

As you stand at the tee, lining up your shot you’ll realize that you don’t have to wait any longer for your dream investment. The golf course is already open, the ocean is right there and you can get both, right now, at remarkably affordable prices.

Welcome to the good times

Even if you don’t get the hole-in-one(!), you can be sure that the properties we showcase on Your Future Now are available at a fraction of the price of similar properties in Costa Rica, Mexico or Florida. And best of all we cover your in-country expenses, including meals, travel and accommodation for the three days.

If you can’t make it in December, don’t worry. You may not get to play for a hole-in-one, but you will be immersed in the rich destination experiences that await you in Nicaragua. You’ll also see how you can live better, for less in Nicaragua.

The Property Tours run on the following dates:

• November 13-15th 2009
• December 4-6th 2009
• December 11-13th 2009
• February 12-14th 2010
• February 26-28th 2010

Why not reinvent yourself … your life? Our real estate tours are a perfect way to show you how, and they’ll give you all the information you need to make the proper decision. Join us and learn how you can live like a millionaire, without having to be one.

Great infographic from Reveal Real Estate looking at the international real estate market in Central America. The two takeaways for us:

• Nicaragua real estate is more affordable than Belize, Panama and Costa Rica across all categories, and
• Nicaragua has the greatest percentage of real estate developments with public information on social and environmental responsibility.

Check it out on the Reveal Real Estate blog.

Our Your Future Now property tours have been so successful that we’re adding more dates between November 2009 and February 2010 – to coincide with Nicaragua’s traditional high season.

The tours take place over 3 days, we co-ordinate everything from your airport pick-up to hotel accommodations during your visit to the country and you won’t have to pay a cent over the three days. Learn more.

That’s right, we cover all your in-country expenses, with no obligation whatsoever.

Here are the new dates:*

• November 13-15th 2009
• December 4-6th 2009
• December 11-13th 2009
• February 12-14th 2010 – Special focus on Green real estate developments.
• February 26-28th 2010

Benefits from joining Your Future Now property tours:

Cut great real estate deals on exceptional properties – Remember many of the deals we’ll be showing you are released specially for the tour. It’s the perfect way to leverage the current buyer’s market.

See more properties that you could on your own – Our tours are jam-packed and intensive. They’re designed to make the most of your most precious commodity: your time. We keep the tours small so that we can offer you a personalized experience.

Build your own network of experts, legal advisors and analysts – We’ve opened up our contact book giving you face-to-face access to the best investment and legal brains in the country. On tour we will also educate you on the process involved with purchasing property as a foreigner and the ins and outs of Title Insurance

Experience first hand how you can live a luxury lifestyle for less – Nicaragua has the cheapest cost of living in Central America. We’ll show you how you can live like a rockstar on a bare bones budget.

See for yourself opportunities for personal and business development – Whether you are downshifting or embarking on a new businesses abroad, the opportunities are vast and yours for the taking.

Leverage the Coldwell Banker experience – We’ve run dozens of real estate tours and helped hundreds of investors purchase in Nicaragua. Our tours are the result of the many years of experience that Coldwell Banker has in finding the best investment and lifestyle buys in the country.

Interested? Please complete this form for more details.

Comparison shopping

The key indicator to look at to determine where a market lies along a development curve is the cost of property. Problem is, it can be hard to get hold of comparative market statistics in Central America, particularly in areas where there is no functioning MLS.

So we turned to Reveal Real Estate, a market research organization focusing on international real estate in Central America. They have aggregated listing prices from real estate developments and master planned communities in Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica and Panama and put this information online. The chart below shows their analysis of median price per square foot for houses in 2008 across the four countries.

Nicaragua emerges as the lowest cost property destination across all categories, and second cheapest (after Panama) for ocean view houses. The 2009 data, which has just been released for Nicaragua and Panama real estate, backs this up with Nicaragua emerging as a cheaper investment destination across all property types. Costa Rica real estate and Belize property data will soon be released so we’ll run the comparison when it is available.

And it’s not just property values that are paving the way for early-in property investors, Nicaragua has the lowest cost of living in Central America. (Calculated using implied Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) conversion rate from the IMF.)

It’s a buyers market in Nicaragua

Right now it’s a buyers market in Nicaragua. The country is not immune to the global economic crisis. Developers are offering incentives and there have been some price reductions. But what’s clear is that Nicaragua is not experiencing the double digit declines we’re accustomed to seeing in headlines across the globe.

As noted by Reveal Real Estate, the key reason for this is the low levels of lender-mediated activity in the Nicaragua property market. With most property purchases being made in cash, foreclosures are very rare.

A second factor is the emergence of a new type of ‘lifestyle investor.’ These are buyers who are seeing their chances of retiring in, say, Florida unwind but they’re not ready to give up on the lifestyle they had planned for their retirement. So they’re looking at countries like Nicaragua where the real estate is cheaper and, crucially, the cost of living more affordable. And they’re getting in early by investing in Nicaragua real estate.