Greetings from booming Guadalajara, Mexico.
As I shared yesterday, I’m making a quick pitstop at my home here which I’ll use as a base for scouting the region. (If you missed it, you can read yesterday’s mailing on Guadalajara here.)
And in between the scouting, I’m also working to finalize one of my major projects of the year: my index of the best places in the world to buy real estate in 2026. This is a huge annual project untaken by me and my entire Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) team to identify the most opportunity-filled destinations on the planet.
Today, I want to wrap up things by sharing some notes from scouting I did before I left Europe.
In late October, I scouted this Roman-era city in northern Spain, known for its hot springs and ancient bridge…
One of the cool things about the places I’ve bought is that they have other great places nearby…
Take Cork, Ireland, for example. From my homeland, it’s a short drive to Co. Kerry, Dublin etc., and a short flight to many European destinations…Paris, London, and Rome are easy to get to.
Cabo is also a perfect scouting hub. When I’m there, at my condo in the Copala community inside the 5-star Quivira resort (where I bought alongside RETA members), it’s so easy to explore the surrounding regions…I love to pop in the car and head over to stunning Todos Santos or the wild and empty East Cape for the day, both less than an hour from Cabo…and if I want to go farther, the international airport has direct flights from across the U.S. and Canada.
Portugal too. From my historic mansion in Caminha, I have easy access to incredible destinations like Porto, Viana do Castelo, and Ponte de Lima, which are less than an hour’s drive away. Plus, the Galician region of Spain is just across the River Minho from my house in Caminha.
So, before I left Europe for the final time this year, I spent a few days scouting in northern Spain…
Here I am in the Spanish city of Ourense. It enjoys a mild climate, with warm summers, crisp autumns, and cool, misty winters. Average summer highs hover around 80 F, while winter days are often bright and brisk.
Why Ourense?
From my historic mansion in Caminha, Portugal, I can cross the River Minho and be in Galicia in minutes. On this trip, I set my sights on Ourense—a Roman-era city built on hot springs and golden light.
This city has been on my radar for some time.
The contractors who worked on restoring my historic home in Caminha were all from Ourense. They told me stories about the amazing beauty and low, low real estate values there. (You can still buy stunningly renovated historic homes for under €100 per square foot. And yet it’s so beautiful that renowned singer Julio Iglesias moved there.) I couldn’t ignore a tip like that, so I made a point to investigate it.
The Cloister of San Francisco in Ourense was originally part of a Franciscan monastery founded in the 14th century after a fire destroyed the first convent in the city.
Ourense is known as “the city of gold”—a nod to both its Roman-era prosperity and the thermal waters that are dotted across the city.
The historic center is a maze of narrow streets, Romanesque churches, and lively plazas filled with cafés and tapas bars. It’s just 80 minutes from my historic mansion in Caminha.
I enjoyed Ourense’s lovely Old Town, but in general Galicia lacks a little of the refinement and old-world charm that makes Caminha so attractive. That’s a function of its history. Galicia industrialized in a way that northern Portugal around Caminha didn’t. The money in that part of Portugal came from people returning with it from the colonies (mostly Brazil).
So Caminha doesn’t have the post-industrial legacy you can see in Galicia…northern Portugal stayed simpler but you will often see ornate and beautiful finishes thanks to fortunes made in the colonies.
A quiet moment in Ourense’s picturesque Old Town. Ourense has a thriving cultural scene, with theaters, wine bars, and easy access to the Ribeira Sacra wine region.
The Cost of Living
The cost of living is inexpensive. A day’s entry to the more luxurious thermal baths was €6.65 ($7.64).
A large coffee and a bottle of water set me back only €3.00 ($3.45).
Eating out is reasonable too. A meal for two set me back €13.20 ($15.17)…and it could have fed four. This part of Europe is so much cheaper than most of Latin America.
A street scene in Ourense, where history and daily life intertwine.
What About Real Estate?
Real estate too is inexpensive here.
Sitting in Plaza Mayor, the main square and heart of the city’s historic center, surrounded by important buildings like City Hall, I brought up the Idealista app on my phone, and checked out the three nearest listings to me. I found…
This four-bath duplex in the Old Town is on the market for €540,000 ($620,600). Built in 2003, it has 2,637 square feet of usable space.
And there was this ground floor apartment, a new construction, for €210,000 ($241,400). Boasting two bedrooms and two full bathrooms, it comes with a cellar and terrace.
The third listing was this three-bed, one-bath detached house, with a terrace and balcony, which is on the market for €60,000 ($69,000).
Ourense’s main square, the Plaza Mayor, where I sat down and checked out nearby real estate listings.
So there you have it. These are three very different price points. About €2,000 ($2,300) a meter gets you the top end here.
Is There Opportunity?
Ourense is a lovely place to spend time. But is there an opportunity here?
We’ll see…
It lacks some of the refinement I see in Northern Portugal but there’s definitely something special about this region. I plan to return I need to do more digging. But for now, Ourense is definitely on my radar.
Ourense has been on my mind ever since I learned about it from the contractors working on my house in Caminha. The whole team hailed from Ourense.
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. Tomorrow I’ll be reporting on the towns a short distance from Madrid, zeroing in on Segovia. And you’ll be hearing much more about the best places to buy real estate when I share details of my index. Stay tuned…
A final photo from Ourense…tomorrow I’ll be sharing more notes from my recent European scouting.
