“Do you want to know what our place in Gran Tulum was appraised for by the SIMCA Mortgage company that we have been working with…$504,000…purchase price: $219k…now there’s a story for you!!”
A nice text from a RETA member popped up on my phone yesterday as I was waiting for my flight to Portugal at Ireland’s Shannon Airport.
And indeed there’s a story behind it. The story of my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group.
It goes like this…
At RETA, we buy ahead of a “Path of Progress” event (a Path of Progress is anything that improves the accessibility of a piece of real estate and increases its value)…and we buy in a prime location from the best developer…
Factor in our group-buying power, which allows us to buy at exclusive, deeply discounted pricing, and you can get insane uplifts like this.
We’ve done it in Tulum, on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. This week, I’m tracking another Path of Progress, in northern Portugal…
The town of Tulum on Mexico’s Riviera Maya has some of the most stunning white-sand beaches in the world. Go back a few decades and Tulum was little more than a dirt road with some rustic accommodations. Today it’s a booming town with a brand-new airport. My RETA group was ahead of this transformation with some incredible deals.
Tulum felt like a world away from Shannon Airport. More than three weeks of unbroken warmth and sunshine in Ireland had been replaced by cool, showery weather.
Inside the airport though, it felt like the Irish summer was in full swing.
Cork (my home county) and Waterford (where many of my RETA team are from) were doing battle in the ancient sport of hurling. This is the world’s fastest and most skillful field sport…or at least, that’s what anyone sitting there watching it would have told you.
I was waiting to board a Ryanair flight (price: €67) to Porto…and then travel an hour north to Caminha. This town tops the RETA index of the best places to buy real estate in 2025. And it’s a place where I recently purchased a 5,000-square-foot historic mansion for only €410,000. My wife and I are getting cosmetic internal work done on our home—the kitchen, the bathrooms, and some internal color changes. I can’t wait to see progress and also to check in on our Caminha opportunity more broadly.
Flights were in danger of being missed! The departures lounge at Shannon Airport was gripped by the hurling on the big screen TV.
A schemozzle on the hurling field.
“Only handbags…” (meaning what appears to be a vicious melee isn’t serious), according to a man sitting nearby in a Waterford shirt. A Waterford player was cautioned by the referee…and it was back to business.
Most of the people in the departures terminal were gripped by the game, their eyes glued to the big screen. The players are amateurs—despite playing in front of a sell-out crowd of close to 50,000. A big group of American service men and women in uniform stopped and stared confused at the spectacle on the big screen.
A photo I snapped yesterday at Shannon Airport. Today is Memorial Day—a day to remember and honor those who served in the U.S. military.
Shannon Airport is extensively used by the U.S. military for stopovers.
Back in the day, flights from the Soviet Union to Cuba stopped here too. If you came out to the airport on spec you could get a last-minute flight to Havana for almost nothing.
More recently, Boris Yeltsin was so drunk he couldn’t get off his plane to greet the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) standing on the tarmac.
Back to Caminha… I’ve been doing research ahead of my arrival. And I noticed a home in my neighborhood that I have admired in the past is on the market:
This modern-style villa in Caminha comes with solar panels and has views of the Minho River.
This three-bed, four-bath villa is a few minutes’ drive from Caminha. Spanning 3,229 square feet, it boasts panoramic views plus a swimming pool, and is on the market for €575,000 ($655,000).
There’s still opportunity in Caminha…but already values are moving up strongly. And whereas supply was abundant two years ago, I’m starting to see a scarcity squeeze.
I’ve watched as the Path of Progress moved north to Porto, then north to Braga…now it’s barreling toward Caminha.
I bought here primarily for the lifestyle but it’s shaping up to be one of my best financial investments yet.
Here’s another couple of listings I found near my home that got my attention…
This four-bed villa spans 2,594 square feet. It’s in the center of the village of Venade, in Caminha. The grounds cover 21,753 square feet and include a large garden, a swimming pool, two granaries, a pergola and a vineyard area. It’s on the market for €570,000 ($648,800).
Uruguay has a vast pastoral interior. Farming is big business With classic architecture, this elegant, detached house provides plenty of space, both inside and out.here, and the sector is welcoming to foreign investors.
Another I found is this character-filled three-bed, two-bath house which was built in 1937.
It comes with a garage, garden and wine cellar. The property has a lot of potential if renovated. It’s for sale for €450,000 ($512,300).
This house in Caminha, spanning 4,068 square feet, has potential. It comes with a wine cellar and garden.
I’ll keep my eyes open. I’m excited to discover what else is on the market during my stay in Caminha…
Meanwhile in Shannon…a victory for Cork. And time for me to board my flight.
Stay tuned for my dispatches from Caminha. And don’t forget to follow along on my Instagram here.
Wishing you good real estate investing,
Ronan McMahon
Founder, Overseas Dream Home & Real Estate Trend Alert
P.S. We are playing with some new formats for our Your Overseas Dream Home Instagram account.
Check out this reel and please let me know what you think in the comments.
