Discovering Serenity

Coastal Law: update

We were in Managua this week talking to several top lawyers and developer marketing consultants about the coastal law under consideration in the National Assembly. Among those we had very fruitful conversations with: top consultant Raul Calvet. We were told that, contrary to news reports last month, nothing significant is likely to happen on this front until next year, at best. Americans and other foreigners from other democracies may appreciate the reason we were repeatedly given: this is an election year, where politics, posturing and jockeying for position takes precedence over substantive policymaking. We'll continue to relay any new updates as we get them.

Cute (and we do mean cute) story from Corn Island

Canada's contender for Miss Universe 2008 is giving Corn Island a higher profile. Her Miss Universe video features her on Corn Island, a place she's fallen in love with. We believe this is just the beginning of the celebrity attention the islands will be getting over time, and (we expect) it will eventually mirror the experience of Costa Rica and Panama, especially if plans to open the islands to direct international flights come to fruition.

Miss Universe Canada in Corn Island (computer translated from Spanish)

Discover the Corn Islands...mon'.

AP: The Great Anxiety, The Great Unraveling

This Associated Press article summarizes better than anything we've read recently the extent of "The Great Unraveling" that appears to be taking place...

Associated Press: The Great Unraveling

He's one chart (click to magnify) illustrating the dramatic change for the worse world events have taken over the past few years:

....and it's not just about oil. This highlights why more Americans should consider other options they might not have considered before (see, among many other posts on this blog, such as "To Americans who want neither 'choice' " and "Matagalpa birdsong").

Source: WRTG Economics

We encourage you to read more of this blog and to visit our website.

There are other options. There is another way.
Discover Serenity.

Matagalpa bird song

This is the sort of birdsong residents wake up to in Matagalpa. If any of our dear readers is familiar with the name of this bird please let us know. Click the following link to hear beautiful birdsong:

Download birdsong-morning-matagalpa.MP3

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New Nicaraguan coastal law could be on its way

The typical real estate agency in Nicaragua is doing a disservice to its potential beachfront buyers by not informing them of uncertainties recently raised by the country's renewed consideration of a new coastal law governing development along its oceanfront.

As you might have noticed while navigating our website and blog...we're not the typical real estate agency.

Below are links to two articles we hope you'll find helpful, one from the Miami Herald and a follow-up piece by NuWire:

Miami Herald: Pending legislation on coastal land

NuWire: Nicaragua's Coastal Law

Serenity, as always, is available to consult clients on such policy issues and to refer you to top lawyers and political insiders who can provide more detail and analysis of these developments. In the immediate term, the wrangling over the potential new legislation adds uncertainty. In the long-term, it could offer much-needed clarification and settlement of property rights and terms for property development along the coast.

Any concrete developments from the government on this legislative front will be reported immediately on our website and to all of our clients considering beachfront property. Discover Serenity.

To Americans who want neither 'choice'...

These are unnerving times for many Americans disturbed by the possibility of either a "President McCain" or a "President Obama." Many Americans are dismayed by all options. Many have lost faith in government and in their own political parties. Many people worldwide, including Western Europeans, have lost faith in the capacity of their own governments to meet basic obligations and responsibilities, confront serious long-term financial, social, environmental and security challenges and make the responsible and difficult choices we used to expect of adults. They've grown tired of the unending parade of self-serving opportunists -- politicians and parties -- who spend more time looking out for their own short-term interests than for the well-being of the general public they pledged to serve. Our message to all of you, whoever you are, wherever you are and whatever your political leanings: Don't look to someone else. Take matters into your own hands. Empower yourself. Do more to insulate your family, your life and your future retirement from the nonsense of politics and misgovernance. Serenity has attractive options that can help you look out for yourself -- no matter who gets elected -- including options you might not have considered before. We can tell you about possibilities that can help you build greater security against the many big unknowns and great disasters to come. Consider this: a second home on a Central American beach, running partially on solar and wind, can be a pretty good hedge against the future nonsense. Vote for your Serenity in '08.

CNN: Nicaragua safer than U.S.

CNN reports that a global index of peace sponsored by the respected Economist Intelligence Group ranks Nicaragua safer than the U.S. On a peace scale of 1 (most peaceful) to 5 (most violent), Nicaragua is 1.92. It's higest sub-ratings are earned for its respect of human rights, very low odds of terrorist attacks and armed conflict, as well as treatment of foreigners and property rights. It's one thing to see numbers like that. It's another thing to experience the reality for yourself. In Leon, for example, female university students brag about how safe they feel walking the streets alone after a late Friday or Saturday night party. There is violent crime here and elsewhere in Nicaragua, as there is everywhere on this planet, but when it happens here, it's the talk of the neighborhood and the talk of the town, which highlights how rare it is when it happens -- and how special this place is. The comparisons are even more compelling when looking at specific Nicaraguan cities such as Leon versus specific U.S. cities such as Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles and New Orleans. Discover Serenity.

"The Thin New World"

The International Living publishing group deserves credit for this nice perspective on today's multi-faceted turmoil. What the author says about Mexico being a sanctuary from it goes even more for Nicaragua, the safest country in the region:

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"As oil prices rise, the costs of food production, processing, and transportation rise as well. Suddenly the connection between what we eat and how it’s grown, packaged, and delivered becomes painfully real...The number of mouths to feed on the planet keeps multiplying without check, but corporate farmers are now eying the higher profit margins that come from filling gas tanks instead of stomachs. After all, we desperately need alternative fuels…look what the price of oil is doing to the cost of food!"       

What is Corporate Farming’s answer? Quit growing food all together...plant biofuel crops instead. After all what good is food if you can’t afford to drive your car to the store to get it?

      

As I write, food riots haven’t yet started in Asia, but  parts of Africa and the Caribbean are already  burning.

      

"I watch all this from my little corner of Mexico, where there hasn’t been a ripple yet, although everyone here is very sensitive to the price of corn. Corn is one of the Three Sisters of Latin American nutrition…the other two are beans and squash. When you put these three things together with some avocado, tomato, chili pepper, and a bit of chicken or goat, you have the basis for advanced civilization…the Three Sisters have made it possible for this part of the world to eat well despite largely marginal farmland since the time of the Maya Empire.

      

I don’t eat any more corn than I used to, but even if the price of corn goes to the moon, I figure I can still live here for about half what I lived on in the U.S. when I add up my savings on health care, electricity, and taxes. And since I live in a neighborhood with shops, stores, and restaurants, I can get almost everything I need within walking distance, so I’m not sweating the price of gas too much, either.

      

And spending less on all these things means I have more left  to spend on food, at whatever price.

      

For me, this makes my little corner of Mexico the perfect place from which to watch the modern world’s ongoing crackup…the war in the Middle East, the U.S. presidential election soap opera, the meltdown of the global credit shell game…and the coming of the Thin New World."

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The affordable Caribbean

Nicaragua offers the most affordable beachfront in Central America -- and the Caribbean. According to a recent article by the Global Property Guide, the best one can hope to get for a prime beachfront lot with a house on it these days is $1,300 to $1,500 per square meter in places like Jamaica, Aruba and the Dominican Republic.

They forgot Nicaragua's "ya-mon" Corn Islands, where we're offering tranquil beachfront within 10 minutes driving distance of downtown and the airport for much less. In fact, we're offering one parcel of 4.75 acres  with at least 20 meters of beachfront available for $14 per square meter. Add a $300,000 house to that and the per square meter cost rises to only $29 per square meter. Nuff said.

Discover Serenity...mon.

Enhancements

Our website is constantly refined with enhancements designed to give you the best property search experience possible. We've recently included a search engine that allows you to search the entire website for keywords of interest, a comprehensive metric conversion calculator, a currency calculator and more...and there's more to come. Much more. Discover Serenity.

Rest in peace, Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins, a pioneer in promoting tourism to the Jinotega region and a great friend to the Serenity team, recently passed away this month, succumbing to cancer.

When we found out in December about his three-year battle with cancer, we had reserved hopes that he might prevail against the terrible scourge that has taken and continues to take so many. His perseverance and good spirits in the face of his illness were an inspiration. The entire Serenity team is saddened by his loss and sends its deepest regrets to his family and his surviving wife.

You can find out much more about Tony and Jinotega through Tony's many posts on the Nicaliving forum (where he travelled under the alias "Jinoturistica") and on his Jinotega tourism website, which we hope will survive him. May others find the adventure, happiness, independence and serenity Tony found in Jinotega.

California, Florida, Arizona housing prices: deflated, but still way overpriced

A Wall Street Journal analysis (subscription required) recently found that the bursting of the US housing bubble hasn't made homes in places like California, Arizona or Florida that much more affordable. It says these three states remain expensive and overpriced, by as much as 40% in California alone. The article finds that even though real estate prices have dropped sharply in these markets, they remain a staggering six times the size of average annual incomes in each state:

"In all three markets, the prices are well off their peaks when compared to incomes. But they remain far above historic averages...Even if house prices stabilized, it would take a decade or more for rising incomes to catch up...Even if house prices stayed exactly where they are, it would take around 10 years for rising incomes to bring the ratios back into any sort of alignment."

For those living in these states or considering residence or real estate investment in them, there is an alternative.  A much more compelling one. It's captured by two words:

Discover Serenity.

Find Serenity in The Corn Islands

You can find Serenity in the Corn Islands.

Forget Nicaraguan beachfront you might've heard about, such as San Juan Del Sur. It's the Corn Islands that offer the most beautiful, the most virgin, the most tranquil beachfront in the country and some of the most affordable real estate in the Caribbean.

They are second to none, offering Caribbean-style white sand and clear, intensely blue and turquoise waters.

It's another world, more like "Ya, mon" Jamaica than Nicaragua. English is more widely spoken than Spanish.

The real estate we represent in the area is picture perfect. The property values are extraordinary compared to the price of this kind of beachfront in other Caribbean islands like the Bahamas and Jamaica. The beauty and tranquility of this area must be seen to be believed.

The Los Angeles Times thinks so too. This is what they say of the islands: "The Corns are far off the travel grid, but the payoff is solitude, scenery and some of the best fishing, diving and snorkeling in the Caribbean, at bargain prices."

But solitude doesn't mean inaccessible. The Islands are very accessible by plane, reachable in less than two hours from Managua International Airport, which offers twice-a-day flights from two airlines daily. There are reports and rumors of plans to build a big new condo development on Big Corn, a new international airport in the nearby provincial capital of Bluefields and to retrofit the Big Corn Island airport and runway for international flights from Miami and Costa Rica. These would each be huge developments, bolstering the already excellent access and strong investment potential of the region.

Discover Serenity, mon.

Serenity available in multiple languages

Serenity can now be found in multiple languages including Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Arabic and, of course, English. Just visit our homepage and see the translation sidebar to the left. We welcome everyone from anywhere who seeks Serenity in Northern Nicaragua.

Descubre Serenidad
Découverte de sérénité
Entdecken Sie Serenity
Ontdek Serenity
Descubra Serenity
Scopri Serenity
Ανακαλυψτε Serenity
平静を発見します。
发现安宁。
평온을 발견합니다.
Откройте Serenity
  اكتشاف سكون.
Discover Serenity

Tourist Maps of Leon and Matagalpa

We've encountered many clients frustrated by the absence of good, comprehensive tourist maps of Leon and Matagalpa. So we created our own of Leon and Matagalpa (click the links). We've received so many requests for copies, we're making these images available to the public for free for a limited time.

Frequently, the only businesses that appear in widely circulated tourist maps are the ones that paid for it. Not in ours.

Our maps feature excellent tourist destinations and off-the-beaten-path attractions that, as far as we've known, have never received this kind of publicity -- for free. It's our small effort to encourage tourism here and to get some great destinations in Leon and Matagalpa the attention they deserve.

All tourist destinations in our map appear for free. There is only one condition: That they provide a good tourism-related product or service that is a good representation of what each city has to offer tourists.

If you have corrections or would like to make additions, let us know. If you're interested in obtaining a portable or wall-sized print, also please let us know. Discover Serenity.

Thank you, Debi and Gerry

We're flattered and deeply humbled by glowing compliments given to us by Serenity clients Debi and Gerry from the state of Arkansas, USA. We are committed as a company to doing whatever we can to help our clients find their own island of Serenity in a deeply troubled world.

Is HSBC planning to offer mortgages to foreigners??

 

Special thanks to Geoff Bramwell of Nicaprojects.com for all this:

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Nicaragua is becoming a hotspot for second and vacation homes -- and big financial institutions may be soonb to follow. We're getting rumors of plans by bigshots like HSBC to offer mortgages to foreigners, following years of mounting demand for such financing.

HSBC recently announced that they're preparing to offer mortgages on second homes and vacation homes in 35 countries by March 2008. HSBC completed a financial merge with Banistmo Bank of Nicaragua about April 2007. The Banistmo Bank signs were lowered and HSBC signs raised. HSBC also has a presence in Panama.

The following newswire explains:

HSBC Plans New Cross-Border Mortgage Product for Early 2008

HSBC has announced plans to launch a cross-border mortgage product - a pre-approved loan with an LTV of up to 60%, which is currently only offered to HSBC Premier clients (who are required to keep at least $100,000 in deposits and investments with the bank.)

The new "much, more open," middle market mortgage will be offered in the same 35 countries that HSBC's Premier service operates, which includes the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, and the U.K.

The UK-based bank hopes to take advantage of a recent trend in people buying second and third homes abroad as investment properties or retirement destinations.

A bank spokesperson noted that " complying with all the regulations has been difficult," and that it was too early to provide specific details of how exactly the product would be formulated.

Source: marketwatch, September 3, 2007

Meanwhile, the Leon area of Nicaragua has been getting good press in North America. An article that came out on October 13 2007 in the weekend "National Post", the Canadian national newspaper, alerted us to the growing tourism interest of Leon. It highlights various activities in the Leon area including lagoon swimming in a crater and volcano hiking. The originating article was published in the Seattle Times on August 17th. The article suggests moving beyond the normal route of Granada/San Juan del Sur and suggests that Leon, the third tourist area, is worth a good look.

Naturally we encourage that view -- we have been living it for over two years. Tamarindo Beach continues to be the best choice in the Leon area for ocean front living. With a large expanse of beautiful beach and well designed infrastructure, the future is bright.

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This is very interesting news. Many thanks, Geoff.

Debi and Gerry´s Excellent Adventure: Day 3

Debi and Gerry, a retiring couple from the Southeastern U.S., arrived in Nicaragua for the first time last Friday to join a one-week Serenity Tour. The tour investigates tourist hotspots, lifestyle, housing and retirement options in and around Matagalpa. They want a cooler climate, lower living costs (especially medical bills and drug costs) and a simpler, calmer life. They´re tired of long commutes and traffic congestion...and a nice view wouldn´t hurt. We wanted to run a daily diary of their experiences during the tour, but we´ve been so busy, we haven´t had a chance to report in until now.

Starting today, we´ll provide irregular updates on their escapades. Already, they´ve stayed at the area´s top hotel (Hotel St. Thomas)...

seen more than a dozen impressive properties with great mountain views, cool climates and natural scenery  (three of which were just what they were looking for)...

have meet with a top doctor from a local clinic, the vice-chief of police for Matagalpa...

the head of the region´s top eco-tourism resort (Selva Negra)...

 

and the local Dutch business chief of the incredibly scenic Castillo de Cacao (The Chocolate Castle factory)...

to discuss the area´s medical care, security, business opportunities and the experiences of other foreigners in the area. We´ll provide future updates of their trip, time permitting. Until then, check out the photos and click here for more shots of their experiences. Discover Serenity with Debi and Gerry.

Nicaragua's window of opportunity

Well, there's no getting around some of the negative news about Nicaragua's political situation lately. Here's a sample:

Bloomberg1
Bloomberg2
GoogleNews

No beating around the bush from us: It doesn't look great. But here's another perspective (and, yes, we're biased but we don't think that takes anything away from our view): this could represent an investment window of opportunity...if you, as an investor, can stomach the elevated political risk.

The fact is, Nicaragua was being heralded widely -- globally -- as the “next Costa Rica” and the “next Panama” in the world press before Daniel Ortega's presidential victory earlier this year. It's still getting praised in tourism articles across the U.S. and across the world.

Our hope is that as real estate prices continue to escalate in both Costa Rica and Panama, as baby boomers continue to seek warmer, cheaper, "old world" locales outside North America and Western Europe and as Ortega approaches the end of his five-year presidential term, that'll happen again.

Ortega 2.0 can't be Ortega 1.0. He was elected as a minority president to begin with.  He has even less support now then he did after the election (less than 38%). He faces a hostile legislature that has opposed him on a number of significant issues. Nicaragua is more dependent financially than it has ever been on the U.S. and the European Union. It will never receive as much support from countries such as Venezuela as it does from the U.S. and the European Union in both government aid and private investment -- and most Nicaraguans know this. And the proximity and success of Costa Rica, Panama, Chile and Uruguay are -- we hope -- powerful examples to Nicaraguans in and outside the government of the right way to boost growth, boost job creation and reduce poverty.

It is our view (and yes, hope) that investor apprehension created by the current situation has opened a window of opportunity for smart, forward-looking investors with a five- to ten-year time horizon to get in “before the herd” -- before the end of Ortega's term and before what we anticipate will be the resumption of the real estate investment boom that preceded Ortega's presidential election victory. Because at the end of the day, regardless of her politics, Nicaragua remains a beautiful and a nice place to live and life in the "First World" isn't getting any less stressful, costly or abrasive...and, frankly, dangerous.

We've come across estimates from global real estate analyses earlier this year that Nicaragua as a whole may be as much as 68% undervalued, given its level of economic freedom and its business climate (as measured by the Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom). In other words, adjusting statistically for what Nicaragua offers investors compared to other countries – as far as property rights, tax burden, transparency, government spending (as a share of the economy), inflation, trade, labor, financial and business regulation policy --  Nicaragua is only 32% of the average cost of countries offering similar business climate characteristics.

This isn't to take anything away from what skeptics are saying. Don't get us wrong. We're only providing broader long-term perspective.

We only wish to raise the possibility that Nicaragua now may represent an investment opportunity similar to that of Mexico in 1994, Argentina in 2001 and Eastern Europe in the early 1990's represented -- that Nicaragua itself represented in the early 1990's -- during and after political and financial crises in those regions. Those crises eventually gave way to fantastic real estate booms. The situation now may be similar -- not in degree (the situation now isn't as grave, so the rebound would not be as big), but in direction and character. The political risk in Nicaragua now may be far less than it was back in the early 1980's.

Wishful thinking on our part? Maybe. We have no idea what will come next. We're just supplying some food for thought.

For all the political heartburn, it's still a beautiful country with a beautiful people -- a great place to live with enormous untapped investment potential. For a brief summary of that potential, click the following link for our Why Nicaragua page. It's our expectation -- and yes, hope -- that this potential will be realized.

Yet Another Positive Tourism Article on Nicaragua, but...

Check out this New York Times article. It's the latest in a series of positive tourism stories on Nicaragua over the past few months.

We like what it had to say about Nicaragua:

"After a war-exhausted citizenry voted out the Sandinistas in 1990, the conservative governments that followed promoted a consumer economy and courted foreign investment aggressively enough that in the last three years or so, a tipping point has been reached. Tourism, once the dessert option in Nicaragua, is now the main course, and one of the country’s chief sources of hard cash. Understandably so. Packed into an area the size of Louisiana are some of the best aspects of the entire Central American isthmus: huge tracts of forests teeming with endangered species, like in Costa Rica; the kind of sultry colonial cities you’d find in Guatemala; and unsullied surfing beaches as good as those in El Salvador.

But we take issue with what it says and what it doesn't say about Granada and Leon:

"Nowhere are these pleasures more centralized than in Nicaragua’s Pacific southwest, in and around Granada. There’s a local expression: “Granada is Nicaragua; the rest is just mountains. Founded by the conquistador Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba in 1524, Granada is the oldest city in Nicaragua — although Leon, to the northwest, vies for the title (it was founded the same year). "

Leon is the older city, and Leon is "better preserved" as the author later writes. Though, as he also writes, Leon's "touristic comforts are still in an early stage of development," that's the opportunity. Leon offers more for the buck -- in lifestyle options, venues and real estate value -- and investment potential than Granada. For instance, a spanish colonial that might cost $300,000 in Granada could easily be $150,000 up here. And Leon is a genuine city -- a university town with a middle and working class. Granada is...well, it's Disneyland. A beautiful affulent center of just a few blocks surrounded by abject poverty and absent (not just dilapidated...absent) infrastructure just blocks from the center in almost every direction.

That's some of what we see, and why we're up here rather than down there. The North (referred to as Occidental and North-Central by Nicaraguans) has a lot more to offer for a lot less than Granada, or San Juan Del Sur for that matter, including beaches and mountain views at very affordable prices. We see more people becoming aware of this, including a recent surge in foreign visitors who had previously bought property in Granada. Discover Serenity.