In this week’s Your Overseas Dream Home Digest…
- VIDEO: The Luxurious Panama Neighborhood Most Tourists Never See
- A $150,000 Cottage Near Sweden’s Surf Coast
- Your Questions Answered on Finding RETA deals in Northern Portugal
Greetings from Caminha…
I’m writing from my historic villa in the far north of Portugal.
When I first scouted this town in 2023, it was completely off the radar of the foreign tourists, expats and second-home owners pouring into Portugal.
That was despite everything it offered: a charming historic center, lagoon and Atlantic beaches, excellent food and Spain just across the Minho River.
But now Caminha is being discovered.
When my wife and I picked up our 5,000-square-foot villa just under two years ago, it cost us €410,000. Today, another home on the same hillside—one I consider a step below ours—is listed for just under €1 million.
Finding the “next places” is what my team and I do.
One of the biggest transformations I’ve watched unfold is in Panama City.
Twenty-something years ago, I got on a plane to Panama because I’d heard rumors about a place on a tear.
What I found was a tropical capital with an extraordinary location, a famous canal…and enormous ambition.
But the Panama City I first landed in is almost unrecognizable today.
The skyline has exploded.
Of the city’s 50 tallest buildings, 45 went up after the year 2000.
Entire new business districts have appeared.
Highways, bridges and a metro have been built. The airport has expanded into one of the great aviation hubs of the Americas. Multinational companies have moved in. International schools, hospitals, luxury hotels, restaurants and shopping have followed.
The economy has surged.
Now I’m preparing to bring members of my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group an exclusive new off-market deal here—beside a district that has undergone a remarkable transformation of its own.
In today’s digest, I take you to a Swedish surf town and answer a question on whether there will ever be a RETA deal in Caminha. But first, let me take you inside that Panama City district that’s like a “city within a city”…
VIDEO: The Luxurious Panama Neighborhood Most Tourists Never See
Thirty years ago, much of this part of Panama City was mangrove swamp, and the city dump sat here. Today, it has been transformed into one of the most desirable addresses in Latin America.
Glass towers rise above wide, landscaped boulevards. Multinational companies run their regional operations from here. Wealthy Panamanian families, diplomats, doctors and corporate executives all want to live here.
If I were buying in Panama City today, this is the first place I would look.
I’ve just released my video deep-dive on this “city within a city” in the new episode of The Ronan McMahon Report.
Click below to watch it now. And when you’re done, share your thoughts or questions in the comments. My team and I read them all.
In this new destination deep-dive, I take you inside the Panama City district that rose from a mangrove swamp and garbage dump to become one of Latin America’s most sought-after addresses. Click to view…
A $150,000 Cottage Near Sweden’s Surf Coast
Sweden probably isn’t the first place you associate with surfing—or affordable coastal real estate.
As part of his recent 600-mile scouting trip across southern Sweden, my scout Ciaran Madden spent time in Varberg.
Varberg sits on Sweden’s west coast, about an hour south of Gothenburg.
This isn’t a transformation story in the same way as Panama City. Varberg’s appeal is already well established. What stands out is the value that remains.
It’s a genuine year-round town where you can walk around the ramparts of a medieval fortress…take a sauna in an ornate bathhouse above the sea…and follow the waterfront to a broad surfing beach.
Its sea-bathing and spa tradition stretches back around two centuries. But this isn’t simply a summer resort. Ciaran found a lived-in town with a full range of services, restaurants and easy access to Gothenburg.
And the real estate value is compelling. For example, Ciaran found a small cottage listed for about $150,000.
Read more in Tuesday’s dispatch.
Your Questions Answered
Have a comment for me or my team? A question about owning overseas? Share it here. I’d love to hear from you. Here’s a question I got from a reader recently…
Karl V. asks: You’ve written that Caminha is being discovered. Could you bring RETA members a deal there or in other quiet towns in the north of Portugal?
Ronan says: I’ve been keeping my eyes open for an off-market deal in this part of Portugal that I can bring to RETA members. And I will continue to do so. But it’s challenging.
As of right now, communities here are small, which means developers aren’t building at a big enough scale for me to bring RETA’s group-buying power to bear.
Also the best opportunities are older resale properties. It would cost at least three times what I paid to build the home I bought.
This can create great one-off opportunities for individual buyers. It simply makes it harder for me to find a suitable RETA deal here.
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. If you have a question about buying real estate overseas or have suggestions for destinations my team and I should put on our scouting list, drop me a line here.
