43rd ANNUAL NATIONAL AND AGRICULTURE TRADE SHOW OPENS - LoveFM

LoveFM

43rd ANNUAL NATIONAL AND AGRICULTURE TRADE SHOW OPENS
LoveFM
During the opening ceremony, Minister of Natural Resources and Agriculture Gaspar Vega told the nation that agriculture remains an important contributor to the Belizean economy, a fact that must not be lost on Belizeans from every walk of life.

Read More >>

The Post-Recession Development Market in Belize

 

As the post-recession real estate development market begins to unfold, it is revealing some dynamic parameters that, if taken advantage of, are expected to lead to enhanced stability, sustainability, and profitability in future resort community development endeavors. While the recession caused financial stress for many real estate developers and their clients, it also appears to have created an entirely new composition for both the supply and demand sides of the resort development market.

Pre-recession financial markets often allowed upstart developers who lacked experience, credentials and proper capitalization, to achieve financing that at least enabled them to get their projects to the initial sales launch stage. This led to numerous fledgling projects saturating the supply side of the resort market and when the "easy money" available for investments dried up, the projects crashed, too, and became part of a burgeoning "distressed property" supply. Meanwhile, the easy consumer credit terms led numerous speculative buyers on the demand side to participate in the second home or vacation home market, often leaving them in default when their ability to get credit disappeared.

-Geoffrey de Sibert

Photo credit: Copyright 2011. All Rights Reserved "CubaGallery."

An Introduction to Real Estate Development and Tourism

Real estate development is a fairly new industry in Belize. The first significant real estate development project was a vision cast for the Island of Ambergris Caye, a former Maya fisherman's village. San Pedro, the largest settlement on Ambergris Caye, began urbanizing in 1970 and grew into a thriving mixed-use resort community where real estate demand grew from the tourism demand generated through the nearby attractions such as the scuba diving and snorkeling on the barrier reef, visits to the numerous archeological sites, eco-tourism and sun drenched beaches. Today, Ambergris Caye enjoys the most tourist arrivals followed by Placencia to the south.

Placencia, located in the Stann Creek District of Belize, was named "Pleasant Point" by Spanish explorers who were taken by the natural beauty of this stunning peninsula and its grand lagoons. Placencia, once a rural fisherman's village, was put on the map after the legendary film maker, Francis Ford Coppola, completed Turtle Inn--a luxury 18 room eco lodge--and a municipal airport in 1983. Coppola was so taken by Belize and its environment that he built Blancaneaux, a former hunting lodge that he converted into a second luxury eco-hotel in the Maya mountains near San Ignacio. The notoriety of these two luxury lifestyle hotels immediately attracted the rich and famous to Belize as a cool, off-the-radar place to enjoy natural beauty and privacy away from the masses and over-built destinations. As Belize tourism began to receive favorable press in magazines and travel journals, both the affluent and the bargain travelers took notice and began frequenting the country, thereby creating demand for hotels, vacation villa rentals and finally, second homes and primary residences for those fortunate enough to make Belize their home.

- Geoffrey de Sibert

Photo credit: Copyright 2009. All rights reserved by Brandon Seils.