Digest: “The Monaco of South America” and Affordable Villas in Italy

In this week’s Your Overseas Dream Home Digest…

• Own an Italian Villa for Less Than a Typical House in Colorado

• 4 Highland Destinations That are Perfect for Overseas Dream Homes

• In Case You Missed it: Special Report on Mediterranean Homes from €45,000

• Your Questions Answered: Is it Legal to Buy Beachfront Property in Mexico?

We’re putting boots on the ground in Uruguay…

Wedged between Argentina to the west and Brazil to the east, with Paraguay to the north, the tiny country of Uruguay rarely makes the headlines…it’s so safe and stable that it’s kinda boring!

But it’s an investor’s darling…a well-organized country and renowned safe haven where folks can cut their tax burden, enjoy banking privacy, and get easy residency options.

For a long time I’ve heard people compare little Uruguay to the world’s most famous safe haven, Switzerland. But these days I think of it more like “the Portugal of South America,” welcoming of foreigners and overseas investment, home to sweeping Atlantic beaches, pine forests and rolling dunes. A safe, stable and sophisticated place far from the world’s turmoil and troubles.

As I write, my scout, Ciaran Madden, is on his way to the country’s capital city, Montevideo, to begin a two-week scouting trip.

Ciaran has a busy schedule mapped out…

He’ll be meeting insiders in Montevideo to hear about the latest opportunities in some of the key areas of the city, including the upmarket beachfront residential neighborhood of Carrasco, the bustling Centro area, and the old town, Ciudad Vieja…

After Montevideo, he’ll be spending several days investigating the glistening coastal destination of Punta del Este…

Punta is the most prestigious beach resort in all of Latin America, a favorite of royalty, celebrities, and the wealthy from across the continent and beyond. Here, yachts crowd the marina and Ferraris roll through the streets. It’s often called “the Monaco of South America.”

Ciaran will be meeting brokers and digging into opportunities in Punta del Este and its surrounding towns…

Then he’ll be getting the latest updates on farmland investing. You can buy excellent-value farmland in Uruguay and then rent it out or hand it over to a farmland manager who’ll run it on your behalf. This means you could earn passive income from farmland without ever having to drive a tractor or put on boots (unless you want to)…

And finally, Ciaran will be digging deep on the incredible region of Rocha…

Located west along the coast from Punta del Este, Rocha is a place of remarkable and unspoiled natural beauty. Think cream-colored beaches, glistening lagoons, nature reserves, and boutique beach towns with fine dining, smart cafés, boho-chic designer fashions in shop windows…

The elite are turning their eyes to Rocha because it has the same pristine beaches and natural environment as you’ll find around bustling Punta, but it’s more low-key. This is emerging as a “Hamptons of South America.” But real estate prices are still highly affordable…for the moment.

I’ve been tracking the evolution of this coastline since the earliest days of my Real Estate Trend Alert group. I believe it’s home to the best opportunities in the country. Now, we’re putting boots on the ground here to get all the latest information from our contacts and insiders…

Stay tuned. Updates on all these opportunities coming soon.

In the meantime, if you have a question or comment for Ciaran while he has boots on the ground in Uruguay, share it here.

Own an Italian Villa for Less Than a Typical House in Colorado

Did you know the word “villa” dates back to Roman times? It means “a country house for the elite.”

That definition hasn’t changed much since those days. An Italian villa still conjures up images of large, palatial homes set in the rolling countryside with acres of land or maybe perched on the edge of a picturesque lake (think George Clooney’s villa on Lake Como).

Today, scores of Hollywood stars and the rich and famous own villas in Italy…multi-million dollar properties that exude charm, sophistication, and luxury. For that reason, many people believe that owning an Italian villa requires a movie star’s budget.

But it doesn’t…

If you look beyond the star-studded hills of Tuscany, or the rich shores of Lake Como, you’ll find villas for less than the price of many typical homes in the U.S.

My team found a stunning villa in the Umbrian countryside complete with nine bedrooms, a swimming pool, a 1,000-year old church (that has been used as a yoga retreat), and 9 acres of land…all for less than the median home sales price in Colorado.

Read more about this villa, and another my team uncovered when they went looking for affordable villas in Italy, right here.

4 Overseas Destinations Where You Don’t Need to Worry about Hurricanes

Hurricane season officially finished yesterday (Nov. 30). And as we all know, 2024 has seen some of the most damaging weather events in a long time.

The “hurricane belt” is a strip of the Atlantic Ocean that experiences the most hurricanes and tropical storms, and covers most of the Caribbean and sweeps into the southern U.S. states.

As a result of the destructive weather over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten emails from a number of readers asking me about locations outside the hurricane belt in which to buy a home.

So this week, in response to a reader question, I identified four locations on my international real estate beat where you don’t have to worry about extreme tropical storms…

The spots I chose are all higher elevation locations…so the weather is more temperate.

Not only that, they also offer an incredible lifestyle, interesting cultures, world-class culinary delights, and stunning landscapes.

Take a look at the four locations I picked here.

In Case You Missed it: Special Report Detailing Mediterranean Homes from €45,000

If beaches are more your thing than highlands, then you’ll want to read the latest special report my team and I put together recently.

It’s called Dream Homes on the Mediterranean from €45,000.

Twenty-one countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa touch the vast Mediterranean Sea. And all along its beautiful coastlines, you’ll find incredible golden- and white-sand beaches, and stunning historic villages that offer laidback, stress-free living. And the cost of living isn’t the only affordable thing about this part of the world.

You can also pick up a home for less than $100,000. For example…

• A walk-to-the-beach home in a quiet corner of Greece’s largest island where natural beauty and rich history surround you, for only €45,000 ($48,400).

• A condo on Turkey’s famed Turquoise Coast, set amidst resorts and golf courses with incredible beaches close by, for $97,197.

• A fully furnished apartment on an Italian island famous for its stunning beaches, ancient temples, and quaint villages…for just $82,800.

You’ll find the details of these listings, and many more in the latest Your Overseas Dream Home report: Dream Homes on the Mediterranean from €45,000.

Read it here now.

Your Questions Answered

Have a question or comment for me or my team? A question about owning overseas? A destination you’d like us to scout. Share it here. I’d love to hear from you. Here’s a question I’ve gotten from a reader recently…

Jerry B. asks: I understand when a foreigner buys property in Mexico along the area near the beaches, that the buyer only owns the building and not the land. Is that the case?

Ronan says: Hi Jerry, thanks for a great question. The main restriction on foreigners owning land in Mexico is that you cannot hold property that lies within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the high tide line, or within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Mexico’s international borders, directly in your own name. However, there are legal ways around this.

In 1973, the Mexican government established the fideicomiso, or bank trust, as a way for foreigners to acquire land for residential purposes in these zones. This is a safe, legal, and extremely common vehicle for foreign ownership in Mexico.

The fideicomiso basically grants the title to a bank. You, as the buyer, can choose which bank you want to use from a list of banks approved by the Mexican government to act as trustees. Although the bank is the trustee of the property, it can only act on the instructions of the beneficiary of the fideicomiso. The beneficiary is the foreign owner. In this case, you.

As the beneficiary, you retain full control of the property. You can live in it, sell it, make improvements to it, mortgage it, pass it to your heirs, or rent it out. You can build on it if it’s a piece of land. You get to treat the property as if you owned it fee simple.

You can also name more than one beneficiary. A couple can therefore operate as co-owners. You can name an heir, too, so if anything happens to a beneficiary, the named heir takes over as a new beneficiary. That’s an added upside. It avoids the need for probate. It avoids the need to pay local inheritance taxes, too.

The bank cannot treat the trust-held property as an asset of the bank. And the beneficiary is responsible for paying property taxes and any costs incurred for maintenance, etc.

Fideicomisos normally run for 50 years. Then, once it runs out, you can renew it for an additional 50 years. The annual fee for maintaining a fideicomiso averages about $450.

Earlier this year, the attorney I and many members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group use to buy real estate in Mexico, Ivan Castillo, did a video Q&A to answer a number of questions, including what a fideicomiso is. Check it out below…

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

P.S. If you have a question about how the property buying process works in countries on my international real estate beat, ask me about it here.