In this week’s Your Overseas Dream Home Digest…
- Escape the Chaos with an Overseas Bolthole from $29,500
- 6 Questions Ask Yourself Before Buying Overseas
- Homes in Europe’s Top Christmas Market Towns from $110,000
- Your Questions Answered: How to Find a Reliable Lawyer in Portugal?
My scout, Ciaran Madden, has boots on the ground in Uruguay…
He arrived on Monday and spent the first part of his trip in the capital, Montevideo.
He’s been blown away by what he’s found…
Montevideo is a walkable, modern, prosperous city dotted throughout with leafy plazas and set along a stunning coastline with glistening in-city beaches.
Earlier this week, I recorded a video call with Ciaran for members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group to get his initial takeaways from Montevideo. Check it out below…
My scout on the ground in Uruguay, Ciaran, and I had a chat last week about his initial thoughts of the capital of Montevideo. Click here to watch.
As we discussed in this short video, Ciaran was busy this past week meeting insiders and catching up on the latest developments in Montevideo…
He dug into opportunities in the Old Town (where you can get small apartments for less than $100,000)…he explored an area of the city center that’s emerging as Montevideo’s Soho…and he toured the capital’s most affluent suburb, Carrasco—a place that’s been attracting wealthy foreign buyers due to its international schools, expansive villas, 5-star hotels, and tennis and polo clubs.
And Ciaran’s got more planned…
Ciaran shared this photo in our team’s internal WhatsApp scouting group of Plaza Independencia in the center of Montevideo. This plaza is the best known and most important in the country. On one side is the office of the president.
As I write, Ciaran’s moving on from Montevideo along the coast to the resort town of Punta del Este.
This has long been renowned as the most prestigious beach destination in all of Latin America, but as Ciaran’s found, it’s now evolving into a true city…a result of so many professionals moving permanently to their homes there during the pandemic.
Ciaran is due to meet with brokers and developers 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 pull 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 affordable…for the moment.
I’ve been tracking the evolution of this coastline since the earliest days of my Real Estate Trend Alert group.
Now, we’re getting the latest.
Stay tuned. Updates on 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.
Another photo from Ciaran…this one of Montevideo’s most popular in-city beach, Pocitos.
Escape the Chaos with an Overseas Bolthole from $29,500
Imagine having that perfect getaway pad… a bolthole if you will, where you can escape the chaos of the world, kick back and relax, and feel safe while enjoying better weather, lower cost of living, and a slower-paced lifestyle.
Back in 2008, I bought a property like that, a condo in the mountains of Ecuador. The world was in financial turmoil and I figured it would be the perfect place to ride out this particular storm.
This was also the year I founded my Real Estate Trend Alert group so as it turned out, I didn’t have time for relaxing in the Ecuadorian highlands and I ended up selling my condo.
But the idea of a bolthole overseas is one that is still incredibly appealing.
The tranquil towns in Costa Rica’s Central Valley are the perfect place to look for a getaway pad overseas.
This week, I asked my team to look for pocket-money boltholes in countries that feature heavily on my international real estate beat. And they came up trumps…
They found homes in the Central Valley of peaceful Costa Rica…on Spain’s lush Green Coast…in one of Italy’s most beautiful towns) officially designated so by the Italian government)…and in the ever popular Chiriqui Province of Panama.
And most of these homes came in at under $200,000. In fact, they found a property, that admittedly needs some work, for an incredible $29,500.
Read more about what they uncovered here.
6 Questions Ask Yourself Before Buying Overseas
It’s a big world out there, so if you’re just starting on your international real estate journey, choosing where to buy can seem daunting. With so much to choose from, where do you start?
Every week I get emails from readers asking me about where they should buy? And answering those questions isn’t easy.
Where you buy, how you buy, what you buy…these are all very personal considerations. For example, the climate I like (not too hot, not too cold), might not be what you like. What I consider to be too far from home, say a six-hour plane ride, maybe be acceptable to you.
So, the first thing I always tell people to do before investing in an overseas property is to profile yourself.
Figure out what kind of real estate investor you want to be. Determine exactly what you want from your overseas property. Explore your financing options and choose the one that suits your situation best.
To help you get started, I’ve compiled a list of 6 factors that you should consider before starting your investment journey. Obviously there are many more factors to be considered, but to me, these ones are a good place to start.
You’ll find more in my full article here.
Homes in Europe’s Top Christmas Market Towns from $110,000
With the holiday season in full swing, over in Europe the famed Christmas markets are now open, serving up dollops of Christmas cheer, mulled wine, and festive music.
Some of Europe’s most famous Christmas markets have been around in some form since the Middle Ages, when they were set up to give people the opportunity to stock up on winter supplies and festive goods like food, handmade crafts, and gifts.
For the month of December, many of Europe’s cities are turned into magical winter wonderlands. You can own in these cities from $110K…read more here.
Today, these same markets have evolved into month-long celebrations of all things Christmas. Though they still retain some of their medieval charm with wooden stalls, traditional food and drink, and locally produced handicrafts.
This week I asked my team to look from homes in cities around Europe that are home to these extravagant festive markets…homes where you are steps from all the Christmas action.
They uncovered great-value properties in cities like Nuremburg, home to one of Europe’s oldest and most famous markets…Budapest with its distinctly Hungarian events like traditional baking demonstrations…and the more under the radar Polish city of Wrocław, where they found an apartment in the city center for an incredible $110,000.
Read more about homes in Europe’s Christmas Market towns here.
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 some questions I’ve gotten from a readers recently…
Eros P. asks: Hi Ronan, thanks for all your great work. I am interested in buying a place in Caminha, Portugal. Do you have suggestions for a lawyer?
Ronan says: Hi Eros. Caminha is a great choice for buying in Northern Portugal. I ranked the town, located on Portugal’s northern border with Spain, as my top investment destination in Europe for 2024 and…spoiler alert…I’ve done so again for 2025. (RETA members will be getting my full 2025 Real Estate Index very soon.)
Two of my team members scouted the area earlier this summer and I was keen to get back here to follow up on what they uncovered. Real Estate Trend Alert members got their full scouting report. Not a RETA member? Join now and you’ll get instant access to that report.
This is a place with immense potential…and I was eager to see how quickly it’s changing.
When I visited in the fall, the weather was glorious (75 to 85 F). The area around Caminha looked amazing…explosive green gardens and glistening white-washed homes. The historic town center of Caminha was buzzing with activity, as were the beaches. And all throughout the region, I saw signs of gentrification and rejuvenation.
Caminha is a charming, historic town in northern Portugal that offers some of the best-value real estate in the country.
This visit confirmed my thesis on northern Portugal—this region is on the cusp of a major transformation…and now is a good time to get in.
To answer your question about a lawyer, when you become a Real Estate Trend Alert member you get access to my rolodex.
In The RETA Rolodex, I share contacts. These are people I talk to regularly, visit in person, and maintain a relationship with…brokers, developers, attorneys. They’re familiar with RETA, they understand our how group works, and they’re on hand to help RETA members.
You’ll find the full contact details for my lawyer in Portugal in that rolodex.
This is just one the many benefits of being a RETA member. These contacts are a valuable asset when it comes to scouting real estate and performing your due diligence. You can do it without having a network of contacts on the ground, but it would take more legwork, and a lot more time and effort.
If you’re not yet a RETA member, you’ll find all the details for joining here. And when you become a member, you’ll get access to that rolodex as well as a library of research reports, email updates, access to the RETA concierge team, and of course, you’ll be the first to hear about member-only deals.
Ronan McMahon, Founder, Overseas Dream Home & Real Estate Trend Alert
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 for 2025, drop me a line here.
Your Daily Dream Home
Saint Jean de Sauves, Vienne, France
This charming two-bedroom stone house has a living room with wood-burning insert, kitchen, conservatory entrance, and two shower rooms. A sheltered terrace and 9,700 square feet garden with fruit trees provide outdoor living space.
There are also extensive outbuildings including a cellar, garage, workshops, and barns.
The home is in the countryside with countryside with views of the local church, less than two miles from a nearby village with schools, shops, and medical facilities.
The house is in Saint Jean de Sauves, a small rural village in the Loire Valley, where gentle hills and fertile plains unfold in an ever-changing tapestry of wheat fields, sunflower meadows, and woodlands. During the summer, vast fields of sunflowers paint the countryside in brilliant yellow.
The village’s location offers easy access to the Loire Valley’s historic sites and bustling market towns. Visitors can also enjoy cycling along the river between medieval villages, touring Renaissance castles, sampling world-renowned wines, and exploring ancient troglodyte caves carved into limestone cliffs.
