On Wednesday, December 10 at 1 p.m. ET, I’m opening an incredible new Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) members-only deal in Tamarindo, the most iconic and sought-after beach town in Costa Rica.
With this deal, I expect gains of $307,600 three years after delivery and annual rental income of $63,920. And a key reason for this is the “moat” you’ll find in Tamarindo.
Today, I want to spotlight the investment idea of moats and how they work because this is one of the most powerful concepts in real estate investing.
Maybe the best way to explain this idea is by zipping across the Atlantic to a little island in the Mediterranean…and talking about what happened when Napolean invaded it.
Sunset gatherings on the beach—this is Tamarindo, two miles of golden sand.
In 1798, French forces led by Napolean Bonaparte invaded the island of Malta, just south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. In less than a day, the French swept across Malta and its sister island Gozo, capturing everything except the capital city, Valletta.
At that time, Valletta was one of the most defensible cities in the world.
Set on a small peninsula, the city is surrounded by a large network of towering walls and fortifications. They made the city virtually impregnable. Facing the prospect of a long and bloody siege, the two sides agreed a truce.
Later, after viewing the fortifications up close, Napolean reportedly remarked “I am very glad that they opened the gate for us.”
Fast-forward to the present-day and Valletta is a major tourist destination…as well as an expensive and sought-after place to own real estate.
Malta welcomed a record 3.6 million visitors in 2024, a massive 19.5% increase on the previous year. And many of these visitors go to Valletta. That’s a lot of visitors for a city of 5,000 people.
Hemmed in by the sea and those extensive fortifications, it’s Europe’s smallest capital city in terms of both size and population. Just over 5,000 people live within the old city, which spans only 0.25 square miles. This small space is packed with so much history—some 320 historic monuments—that the entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
All of this makes new development enormously challenging in Valletta…even impossible. There’s simply no space.
And there are strict rules on any renovations to protect the rich history. Combined with the city’s incredible beauty and desirability, these factors have pushed real estate in Valletta to huge valuations.
Small, dated, two-bed apartments sell here for around half a million euros. Renovated two-bed condos with harbor views can list for well over €1 million. Townhouses go for even more.
In this sense, Valletta exemplifies why the analogy of the “moat” is such a potent idea for real estate investors.
Valletta was built on a peninsula and is hemmed in by walls and fortifications. There is no space to build and even if there was it would be hugely challenging due to the city’s UNESCO World Heritage site status.
What is a “Moat?”
The investing concept of a moat was popularized by billionaire Warren Buffett and refers to an enduring competitive advantage that can protect your investment and supercharge profits. At the core of Buffett’s success is finding companies with economic moats. Take Coca Cola, one of Buffett’s investments. Coca Cola has a moat—its iconic brand recognized the world over, which has helped it dominate the soft drinks market.
GEICO is another successful Buffett investment. One of the biggest insurers in the American market, its massive advantage over competitors is on cost. By cutting out middlemen and selling insurance directly to consumers the company can charge less than others—a moat.
Once you start looking for moats you find them everywhere. Economic moats used to be largely related to economies of scale, think Standard Oil.
Today new moats have emerged.
The network effect is a powerful one, think Facebook or Amazon. Amazon realized that the more suppliers and customers in its network, then the lower the prices it could offer to buyers. It created a virtuous circle.
You can achieve the same kinds of competitive advantages when you buy the right kind of real estate.
If you look at the most expensive real estate in the world, it all has two things in common: It’s in short supply and it’s in high demand. Take the New York real estate market.
Valletta and New York are prime examples of places where limited supply has collided with high demand and real estate prices have consequently exploded.
In August this year, the median list price for a home in Manhattan was $1.4 million. The reason it’s so high is not because the quality of homes is better there than anywhere else, it’s because there’s such huge demand to own in one of the world’s biggest economic hubs.
Look around the world and you can see the same patterns of limited supply and growing demand emerging in new destinations. And by identifying those patterns now, we can buy ahead of them…
The “Moat” in Costa Rica
Costa Rica is one of the world’s most beautiful destinations—a land of stunning beaches, verdant jungles, cloud forests, rushing rivers and incredible wildlife. By the mid-1980s Costa Ricans realized that foreign visitors would come in droves to experience all of this. So, authorities there began cranking out tourism promotions with slogans like “Costa Rica, it’s only natural.”
These efforts have been wildly successful. Costa Rica is the original eco-tourism destination. In 2024, it attracted 2.66 million visitors—huge numbers for a country with a population of just 5 million.
The Costa Rican government understands that it must protect the natural environment if it wants to sustain and grow its tourism industry. So, over the years, national and local authorities have enacted a whole host of regulations to restrict development. These policies have been immensely successful.
Arenal Volcano is one of the many natural wonders that make Costa Rica feel unlike anywhere else. And the authorities are keen to preserve the country’s natural environment.
When it first started growing its tourism industry, Costa Rica was struggling with deforestation. In 1986, forest cover had fallen to 24.4% of the country. Today, that number is back up to 57%, which is pretty much the maximum given the need for roads, cities, etc. Costa Rica is the only tropical country in the world to have successfully reversed deforestation.
This was accomplished in part by making huge swaths of the country ineligible for development. Today, around a quarter of Costa Rica is protected land—national parks, forest reserves and wildlife refuges. And there are very strict permitting and licensing requirements on new development anywhere else. All of this creates a moat on new development here.
Of course, limited supply in itself is not enough to drive values up. There needs to be high demand too…and in the certain parts of Costa Rica, demand is exploding. There are several destinations in Costa Rica where you can tap into this opportunity. Top of the list is the northwestern Pacific coastal province of Guanacaste.
Known as the “Gold Coast,” this is a place of incredible natural beauty, with breathtaking beaches backed by lush jungle. It’s also one of the world’s true up-and-coming high-end havens.
From colorful toucans to sleepy sloths and playful monkeys, Costa Rica is a paradise for wildlife lovers.
Private jets line the runway of the region’s airport in Liberia.
You’ll find resorts like the Four Seasons, The Westin at Reserva Conchal, the JW Marriott at Hacienda Pinilla, and Secrets Papagayo.
A single night at these resorts can cost thousands of dollars. And new residential communities here, like the Waldorf Astoria, are selling branded residences for millions and even tens of millions of dollars.
Costa Rica’s Gold Coast is now established as a destination for the ultra-wealthy.
The best-known and most popular beach town on the Gold Coast is Tamarindo.
Before a surf movie put it on the map in 1994, Tamarindo had been almost entirely off the grid. But after The Endless Summer II came out, everything changed. The secret was out.
The 1990s and early 2000s brought the first wave of serious development—boutique surf hotels, the earliest eco-lodges. Then luxury ocean-view condos appeared. Gated communities took shape.
By the 2010s, Tamarindo had become a global name—the epicenter of surf culture, nightlife, yoga, fishing, and family travel. Its two-mile stretch of beach became one of the most photographed in the country. Now, it’s a place where wealthy folks happily spent millions of dollars on ocean-view condos and villas.
There’s a huge moat on development in Tamarindo. Limited supply and soaring demand mean prices here are high, particularly for those rare ocean-view properties within walking distance of the beach and town.
To give you just a few examples from new communities here…
For a three-bed condo in a community called Tamarindo 360, you’ll pay over a million. Over $2 million for the penthouse. In the same neighborhood is Air Homes, where you’ll find condos without ocean views in the region of $700,000.
These are the prices folks are paying today in this iconic beach town.
But my RETA members are about to get the chance to own here…at incredible off-market pricing that’s far, far less.
RETA members are about to get the chance to own in a boutique community perched on an elevated plateau above the famed beach town of Tamarindo. And the members-only pricing is mind-blowing. (Renders should not be considered final but give us a great idea what to expect.)
After at least 16 years of scouting this coast, I’m about to bring RETA members our first-ever members-only deal here.
This deal puts us in the perfect location in Tamarindo, with stunning ocean views and within the true golden circle of walkability. We’ll own a stroll to the beach…a stroll to the town…and with outstanding ocean-view amenities.
And yet, thanks to RETA’s group-buying power, the exclusive RETA-only pricing is incredible—starting from just $392,400 ranging to just $612,800 for the penthouse.
With this exclusive pricing and the incredible moats on development here, I expect gigantic capital appreciation—gains of $307,600 three years after delivery.
And there’s income…
Premium condos like these rent like hotcakes here, and I expect—with just a modest occupancy—gross rental yields of 16.2%.
But this is an exclusive, boutique community. And there will be only 31 condos available to RETA members.
This is the moat strategy in action—buying ahead of growing demand in destinations where supply is constrained.
RETA members, if you want in, be ready this Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET…
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. It’s important to note that there are other kinds of moats besides geographic ones…
The connections you make and the influence you can wield can be just as important as knowing where to buy. It gives you the inside track on what’s really going on and opens up opportunities that aren’t available to most real estate buyers. That’s why I spend months of the year on the road scouting and creating contacts.
Along with my RETA team, I spend more than a million dollars on travel and research every year. And it’s worth every cent because it allows me to bring RETA members the deals that I do…deals like the new Tamarindo opportunity.
RETA members, be ready this Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET when I open the deal…
