Interested in owning land on a tropical island?

Here is some information you will need to decide whether Roatan
is truly the best real estate opportunity in the Western Caribbean!

Three years ago, I told many people that Roatan was soon to offer incredible real estate opportunities. When houses in places like the Cayman Islands are selling for 1.2 million on a beach or up on a hill with a view, the same homes were $200,000 to $300,000 here on Roatan. In other words, these properties are very undervalued because Roatan was still unknown to the world. I also told you I could buy acres of land for $5000 to 20,000. Some of those same acres are now $30,000 to $200,000 on the beach or high on a hill with a great view.
Ok, maybe not this deserted island, but another property.

Here are some of the reasons why Roatan is going to experience one of the most dramatic real estate boom markets in the world. Roatan is still relatively undeveloped and unknown to the world up to this day. Three years ago, cruise ships started arriving bringing two hundred thousand people per year to our island. The first steps of the boom have occurred as a result from the people returning to see more of one of the few undeveloped paradise islands left in the world.

When I say undeveloped, we do not have tall high rise hotels. There are no neon lights or signs. No McDonalds or Burger Kings. Our island is plush, quiet and green. It is safe and will soon become one of the safest in the world. There are no traffic or stop lights. We are now getting our first stop signs. Basically, we are a one main road island going from east to west. We are 30 something miles long and two to four miles wide.

We have one of the best, cleanest and uncrowded white sandy beaches in the world. The water is warm and crystal clear all year round. Why haven't you heard of Roatan before? The divers who come here year after year will not tell others about it to protect what they know is the most alive reef with incredible numbers of exotic fish to be found anywhere.

The following are more concrete and tangible reasons why Roatan is the best investment in the Caribbean!

1. The Bay Islands will soon be named a "Free Zone."

Very few people know about our soon to become Free Zone status. Recently, I met the President of Honduras Mel Zelaya (pictured below) and had a very good private interview with him. I was one of the first to learn about his plan to make the Bay Islands (Roatan is the largest of three Bay Islands) a "Free Port."

What this means in simple terms is, within a couple of years, this still somewhat sleepy island that is presently changing right before our eyes will become one of the top destinations in the entire Caribbean. It will become the place where buyers around the world will come and spend their money on whatever they want and experience huge savings, tax and duty free. They will stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, dive and snorkel, fish and create a gold mine for the islands. When that happens, they will travel around the island and see the beauty of it. They will want to have their piece of paradise and look into buying property.

For us islanders involved with tourism, it means that there will be no income, sales or importation tax.

The "Free Port" status will put The Bay Islands and Roatan on the map to stay. If you talk to real estate agents now, they will readily admit that they can't believe how many sales they are making. If you are thinking of being a part of this boom, you still can. Just don't wait to much longer!

2. The most successful cruise line, Royal Caribbean, has just signed a 30 year deal with Roatan to take over the leasing of the dock. That means that beginning in the Fall of 2007, we will go from having 10 cruise ships a month to 30 or more. That also means that we will experience a never before seen growth in tourism that will increase the number passengers visiting the island from 250,000 per year to over one million per year. In our terms, this means that many more people will return months later take a much closer look at what they had just a few hours to admire before. Norwegian Cruise Lines has just requested that they be allowed to enter into a partnership with Royal Caribbean for Roatan

3. Carnival Cruise Lines and their sister companies Costa and Princess will be building a second dock and tourist community in two years. Ground breaking ceremonies with President Mel Zelaya will be November 15th, 2007. Being on the Board of Directors for "Canaturh - Bay Islands," the tourism Chamber of Commerce, I can report to you that we will have another 500,000 people visiting the island starting in 2008. If you do the math, we will grow from 250,00 people per year to a possible 1.5 million people per year discovering our island.

4. More and more international airlines are now making non-stop trips to Roatan. This means that not only is Roatan much more accessible than ever before, but it is only a few hours or less with Delta from Atlanta, Continental from Houston and Taca from Miami. Starting in December, Continental will start flying non stop from Newark/New York Metropolitan area right to Roatan. United, American and Delta Airlines are all planning to add more non-stop flights to Roatan.

5. Until one year ago, financing was never available to people wanting to invest here. That meant that only people with cash could be buyers. Now that has all changed. Financing is now available privately and with banks. Now all you need in some instances is just ten percent to control a property.

6. Just one of these reasons would be enough to assure a bull real estate market. Here is yet another. Richard Gere and Michael Douglas were both here in the last year. Temptation island had been filming there show here for years. In other words, Hollywood has finally started to hear about us.

Here are some links to several sites that are calling Roatan the best investment in the caribbean, some say anywhere in the world! (cut and paste)

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/58/Caribbean_Frontier.html

http://www.overseaspropertymall.com/regions/caribbean-property/top-5-caribbean-islands-for-real-estate-investment/

http://magazine.continental.com/042007/content/explore/the-list.jsp

http://www.caribpro.com/Caribbean_Property_Magazine/index.php?pageid=115

U.S. citizens flock to Central America
Tuesday, September 7, 2004

Central American countries once embroiled in war have become hot markets to Americans seeking affordable beachfront property.

BY MARY JORDAN
Washington Post Service

ROATAN, Honduras - Jeff Sanders, 46, was a Type-A Washington policy wonk, working for the Office of Management and Budget and later the Senate before landing a job in the private healthcare industry. But last year the father of two small children did something radical about his long work hours: He quit and moved his family to this pretty Honduran island.

Now Sanders is surrounded not only by sand and surf but also by more people like him, as Honduras and other Central American countries once embroiled in war become hot markets for affordable beachfront property.

''We wanted an adventure in a different culture and to be on a beach,'' said Sanders, who now has a home on the Caribbean with a pool at a fraction of what it would cost in the United States.

Associations of Americans abroad, Internet sites for relocating U.S. residents, and real estate agents catering to U.S. citizens who want to buy foreign property all report rising numbers of Americans moving to Central America. Buyers are attracted by the cheap land and household help, the sunny climate, the easy flights back to the United States and the improving infrastructure.

MORE COUNTRIES

''What is interesting now is that people are showing an interest in countries other than Costa Rica,'' said Ruth Halcomb, who runs LiveAbroad.com, a website that links expatriates. Costa Rica has the largest and most well-entrenched U.S. presence in Central America. Now, Halcomb and others say Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador and Belize are drawing Americans.

Officials at the U.S. embassies in Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua said about 60,000 Americans have formally registered with them, but the actual number is far higher, and growing. For instance, in Costa Rica, 20,000 people registered, but groups of foreign residents there say the actual number is double that.

''The numbers are off the scale,'' said Roger Gallo, an American expatriate who lives in the growing U.S. community in Panama. Gallo, founder of an online magazine, Escape from America, said the interest in moving abroad skyrocketed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

''That is when it started going bonkers,'' agreed Steve Jazakawiz, 58, a lobsterman from Massachusetts who owns Rick's American Cafe on Roatan, a 30-mile-long island off Honduras' north shore. Almost every night someone is popping open a bottle of champagne, celebrating the recent purchase of property.

Americans here retain their U.S. citizenship but get a significant U.S. tax break because they live abroad. Honduras, like most Central American countries, does not tax them on income earned in the United States.

Sanders said the phone service is spotty, the risk of malaria prevalent and the hours-long waits in bank lines trying on anyone's patience. But all in all, he said, he would rather be catching mahi-mahi than testifying before a Senate committee.

LIFESTYLE CHOICE

Don Bradley, who studies retirement and migration trends at East Carolina University, likened the current migration to the phenomenon of North Europeans migrating to sunnier, more affordable Southern Europe. People describe the motivations pulling them as ''the climate, the pace of life, the lifestyle,'' he said.

These moves are no longer just for the hardy, he added, because global conveniences, from the Internet to cheaper air travel, are available.

Among those buying property overseas are scores of the United States' 77 million baby boomers, now ages 40 to 58, said Steve Slon, editor of AARP The Magazine.

Roatan offers $40,000 cottages, $800,000 luxury homes with private beaches, and much in between. Other parts of the Honduran coast, such as La Ceiba, are considerably less expensive. U.S. residents in Central America tend to cluster near the shore or in picturesque mountain villages such as Boquete in Panama, far from bigger urban areas and their crime and traffic problems. Though people usually move after their children have finished school in the United States, some real estate agents said younger Americans are also arriving, looking for bilingual schools for their children.

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Lorin and I are already investors in these developments.
Sunset Villas

Because of all these reasons, many more people will be coming to Roatan and most likely, return to buy real estate.

Pineapple Villas - French Harbour

The view from one of our units

Right now and for the next eighteen months, there is an opportunity to control as many properties as possible and sell them to people coming from areas where land may be as much as ten times more expensive.

First Bite

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Buyers are still able to afford to buy ocean and ocean view properties and acres of land they only dreamed of owning...right here on Roatan.

If you are interested in owning a piece of paradise before the property values skyrocket in the next two or three years, lets talk more about how we can help you be a part of it.

Should you decide to invest in Roatan real estate, know that I have four years of experience living here on the island, using the contacts I have made with land and condominium developers, real estate agents with proven and extensive backgrounds, lawyers, community and political leaders to protect and watch over our investments.
Bruce