Digest: High-End Homes, Mexico’s Long-Awaited Train, and Affordable Surf Town Buys

In this week’s digest:

• The World’s Most Expensive Homes
• Mexico’s Long-Awaited Train Finally Takes to the Tracks
• Live by the Best Surf Beaches in the World from $155,000
• What Slow Travel and Real Estate Have in Common

First some news from Panama…

New videos to show you from Playa Caracol…

In June members of my Real Estate Trend Alert learned that this unique beach community where we’ve had some exceptional deals was entering its next phase.

That’s when the boutique hotel called Surfside opened at Playa Caracol. It marks Playa Caracol truly becoming the Pacific Riviera’s premier destination.

Here’s a new video:

These short videos are on the YouTube channel of Smart Money Homes.

Smart Money Homes have been helping and advising RETA members for years. They are the team that represent many of the developers with whom I negotiate off-market RETA-only deals. That includes the developer behind Playa Caracol.

Here’s another new video from Playa Caracol…

The developer Alfredo Aleman tackled this amazing stretch of beach with the same breath-taking vision and dynamic creativity he brings to all his projects.

In Playa Caracol we’re ahead of a billion-dollar Path of Progress roaring west of Panama City…bridges, roads, metros…big money, mega projects. This Path of Progress is connecting Panama’s Pacific Riviera to the city.

In 2023 the beach club at Caracol opened its doors. And the luxury Surfside Hotel heralds the next major phase of Playa Caracol…here it is on Booking.com!

If you’re one of our RETA group who got in at Playa Caracol then I heartily congratulate you.

In March 2020, RETA members had the chance to buy true beachfront condos in Surfside… completely frontline to the beach for RETA-only pricing from $214,300 for a two-bed condo.

In March this year, a similar condo in Surfside was listed at $280,000.

These are residential condos in Surfside. There are hotel units and one was listed at $330,000 in March 2024.

This is how we roll at Real Estate Trend Alert…

We get in ahead. Off market. And lock in major gains with incredible real estate deals.

We do it by following unstoppable trends…

(If you’re not yet a RETA member but want to get in on the great deals we have in Panama and beyond, all the details you need to join are here.)

Now to the business of reviewing the week!

Here are some of the topics we’ve been talking about this past week in Your Overseas Dream Home…

The World’s Most Expensive Homes

As an international real estate investor, my goal is to make money from the properties I buy. I share the best deals I find around the world here and with members of my Real Estate Trend Alert.

But that doesn’t stop me from poking around other real estate markets from time to time.

Like the super high-end property market.

Like many of you, I’ll read with interest about the $190 million Malibu estate that Beyonce and Jay Z bought last year that was the most expensive single-family home ever bought in California.

And we’ve all heard about George Clooney’s famous Lake Como villa. Said to be worth in the region of $100 million, the 7,300-square-foot luxury home made a cameo appearance in his movie Oceans 12.

But for me, this market that is pure entertainment. As an investor, there’s no money to be made from multi, multi-million-dollar homes. But that doesn’t stop me from keeping an eye on what is going on in that world.

And what a world it is! For a bit of fun, I asked my team to dive into his world of ultra-high-end, mega luxury homes and find the most expensive ones on the global market right now.

Its fair to say that all of the homes they uncovered have the wow factor…and the price tag to match!

So lets take a deep dive into how “the other half” lives… read more about the most expensive homes on the market around the world right now here.

Mexico’s Long-Awaited Train Finally Takes to the Tracks

There’s no doubt it was an ambitious project. A train line that would run for 988 miles all around Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The aim…to connect locations on the country’s ever-popular Caribbean Coast with lesser-visited destinations in this part of Mexico.

Plans for the Tren Maya (or Mayan Train) were announced in September 2018 by Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It wasn’t the first time a project like this had been proposed. Earlier versions of this train line stalled due to lack of funding.

But this one did get off the ground. And although there were setbacks (local indigenous communities objected to the plan as did environmentalists) the first phase of the Tren Maya opened in December 2023. Its rumoured to have cost in the region of $20 billion so far.

I’ve been watching the progress of this huge infrastructure project with interest. Mexico’s Riviera Maya has been on my real estate radar for years and members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group have done well here…regardless of the train.

A smart real estate investor knows that the best way to succeed is to buy the best real estate, at the best price. Projects like the Tren Maya are often promised. Sometimes they materialize…sometimes they don’t. And so any deal I run the rule over needs to stack up regardless of any proposed ambitious projects.

But, like I said, the Tren Maya did materialize. And after the many years of hype about it, I thought it was time to send one of my scouts to ride the train to the Yucatan’s most popular destinations.

You can read his full report here.

Live by the Best Surf Beaches in the World from $155,000

When it comes to finding the best beach towns around the world, surfers are the ultimate pioneers.

In their search for the ultimate wave, surf enthusiasts often uncover hidden gems along less well- known coastlines around the globe.

Their innate sense of adventure, the thrill of riding the earth’s best waves in places that are not crowded with everyday tourists, and their desire for cheap accommodation, often puts them ahead of the curve when it comes discovering the best beach towns.

But as with lots of locations around the world that see prices rise once they’re discovered by the mainstream tourist crowd, real estate prices in the U.S.’s most popular surf towns are eye-watering. The median price for a home in the likes of Santa Cruz, California or Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina is well over a million dollars.

But overseas, it’s a different story…

So I asked my team to find affordable homes in surf towns outside that U.S. The prices are far lower than what you’ll find in the U.S. and the surf breaks are just as good (if not better). They found homes in Europe, Central and South America that will appeal to anyone with an interest in riding the world’s waves.

Check out what they found here.

Questions and Feedback

Have a question or comment? Share it here. Here’s one I got from an Overseas Dream Home reader…

Julie W. asks: Hi Ronan and team, I’m planning/hoping to spend some time doing slow travel and I would like to start getting an idea of what’s out there.

Ronan says: Hi Julie, thanks for getting in touch. I love the idea of slow travel. Not only does slow travel allow you to really dig deep into a place and find out what life is really like there, it can also be a lot less stressful than flying.

Plus, it’s a bit of an adventure. For instance, at the start of the summer when it was time to me to leave my beachfront condo on Portugal’s Silver Coast and head back to my home in Ireland, instead of flying I took a 30-hour ferry journey from Bilbao in northern Spain to the port of Rosslare in the southeast of Ireland…

The ferry was quieter and more civilized than dealing with airports…no heaving passport lines or tedious security checks. Instead, I stayed in a luxury cabin, enjoyed the amazing food on offer, and watched schools of dolphins swimming alongside the ship.

And with slow travel, the world is your oyster…which can sometimes feel daunting when you’re trying to plan a trip. Where to go when you can go anywhere…

Well, much like when you’re trying to decided where you should buy the real estate that suits you, it’s a good idea to profile yourself. There are a number of questions you need to ask yourself:

Why are you doing this (slow traveling/buying real estate)? What do you want to get out of it. In relation to real estate, you’d ask yourself if you want to buy a property to live in it, or do you want it to generate income?

How are you going to finance this? If you’re slow traveling and have a set budget, perhaps you want to stretch it so you are longer on the road, in which you’d base yourself in less expensive countries/locations (maybe southeast Asia, Greece, lesser known parts of Spain, France, or Italy). As a real estate investor, you need to be clear on if you’re paying cash, in which case you can buy pretty much anywhere, or will you need a mortgage? There are places on my real estate beat where North Americans can lock down attractive bank financing, for example in Portugal

What is your level of experience? If this is your first overseas trip, or your first time visiting Europe/Asia, it might be wise to choose locations where it’s easy to do things like get around and communicate with the locals…at least for the first part of your trip until you get your “traveling legs.” It’s the same with real estate investing. The level of experience of an investor should match the type of investments they are making. New investors will be best-suited to—and more comfortable with—some of the less complex investments.

Then there’s considerations like climate. Do you like the hot weather of the tropics or do you prefer the four distinct seasons that somewhere like Europe offers with cold winters and hot summers?

Do you prefer mountains or beaches? Perhaps your more of a big-city person and want to explore the buzzing metropolises of the world? Or maybe you’d like a mix of all those things?

How far away from the U.S. do you want to be…if you have family members or circumstances that mean you might have to return home in a hurry, you don’t want to be exploring the remote jungles of Peru!

All these same considerations are relevant when you’re looking to buy property overseas too, especially if you plan in spending time in your overseas home.

Julie, if you’re looking for some inspiration and tips for planning a slow travel trip, our friends over at International Living have a wealthy of information on their website that may point you in the right direction. Best of luck with your planning…and happy travels!

Ronan McMahon, Founder, Overseas Dream Home & Real Estate Trend Alert

P.S. Have a question or comment about any aspect of buying or owning overseas? Share it here. All questions and comments are welcome.

Your Daily Dream Home

Arentorp, Vara, Sweden

$142,000

This two-story home begins with an entrance hall featuring underfloor heating. The ground floor includes a kitchen with birch cabinetry and a dining area. There’s also a living room with a bay window and patio access. Two bedrooms and a full bathroom complete this level, along with a combined laundry and mud room.

The first floor boasts a family room with balcony access, two additional bedrooms, and a small toilet. Underfloor heating extends to the bathroom. The home features a mix of parquet, tile, and vinyl flooring throughout.

Vara is a small town located in the southwestern part of Sweden, known for its agricultural importance. It has a flat landscape with lots of countryside and open space. As well as a school, shops, and other amenities, Vara has a golf club, tennis club, gyms, and numerous hiking groups.