Best place in DR to buy land

I was wondering where is the best area to buy land if you want to be near the beach ?

Thanks,
Katia

For me the best place to buy land is La Romana, the most beautiful part of the DR. But you can also search for some SOLAR neer Santo Domingo or near other parts with beaches.

Re: Best place in DR to buy land *PIC*

Without a doubt the Samana Peninsula has some of the finest beaches and prettiest terrain in the Dominican Republic. And as it is a developing area, land values are rapidly imoproving and practically any land purchased here will see a nice increase in value and therefore a good investment.

HI Katia. I agree with Andy, although think I would choose Las Terrenas or Las Galleras myself.

the best place for me las terrenas but its very expensif the room, house, appart, rent restaurant or hotel is its a crazy expensif price. but boca chica to its nice the price its better you can rent something commercial and very cheap price or bye something.

I don't think buying land in the DR is an investment,if you are going to live there,and you want to own your own house thats one thing,but i will bet you when(and if) it comes time to sell you will find they don't sell as quick as they do in the US or canada,and so some people take a loss just to get rid of it.....jim

Or overinflate prices to the uninitiated telling them that they are getting a good deal.

People tend to loose all sense of reality in tropical countries. Good advice is do your homework first.

We have to agree with Andy that Samana Peninsula is has the prettiest beaches and terrain. Lots of building and remodeling going on there. Now that we know the Peninsula, we wouldn't dream of going anywhere else ... especially a little village called Las Galeras - you talk about beautiful beach, view, etc.
It's the "most"... Ed and Mame

Oceanfront land on Florida's east coast in metropolitan areas can run in the thousands of dollars PER SQUARE FOOT. The last I heard, in Daytona Beach it was $1,000usd (or more) per running foot, and that was 7 years ago. So far, the most expensive I've seen anywhere on the Samana peninsula is about $100usd PER SQUARE METER. That works out to about $10usd PER SQUARE FOOT. Good investment? You're darn right. Waterfront property is ALWAYS a good investment,... especially in our tropical Paradise.

Jim & Andy

You're both right.

You'll probably pay less for property in the DR than in Miami (but what about Georgia?), but the plain fact is that property isn't really worth anything until you sell it.

I personally chose to build in Montecristi (not on the beach, right in the city). If I ever need to sell the place I will take a big hit, but I don't want to sell so I'm satisfied. I definately wouldn't (purely) speculate with land, but if there is someplace you would like to live, you have to define your own set of "value."

Andy, I don't understand. I thought you and your wife wanted out of the Dominican Republic, and were out as soon as you could unload your property.

How long have you been trying to sell your property in Samana?Isn't it true that you have been unable to sell your property/business even at a break-even price or slight loss compared to what you paid years ago?

Weren't you advising us just 6 months ago that you were getting screwed over by locals and corrupt officials in Samana almost on a daily basis, even being physically threatened, and that your only recourse was that you had one friend in a high place?

Haven't there been attempts at locals "stealing" part of your property which have been very costly and stressful for you to defend?

Why the change of heart?

Things are a lot different now and even though other parts of the DR aren't in such good shape, this past year has seen living in Samana a lot better with the new government. Most of the corruption and problems we had are history now that law and order has been restored.

Yes our place is still up for sale (after less than a year on the market) and at a reasonable price that will insure a tidy profit. No, it isn't true that we can't sell even at the original investment price. I don't know where you got that idea. In fact we've turned down twice the amount of money that we have in it. And when the right buyer comes along, we'll sell and retire back to Florida. And yes, we will still live part time in the DR so I can take care of Samana.Net, you know the one, Jim,...the site with the "million hits" (not visitors).

Re: Invest? Don't Invest? Invest? Don't? ...

Well, here is what gave me that idea. These are direct quotes from you:

"In view of what has happened to us in the last year with the boat, the taxman (thats another story), refusing to allow us to publicise our Pizzeria/live entertainment on the public beach in front of the Casa Marina Bay Resort, being sued wrongfully by an employee and now this, I think I can legitimately advise anybody that is thinking of INVESTING IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC,...NOT TO AS IT WILL RETURN YOU NOTHING BUT TROUBLE! "

"Tom, We had to leave Las Galeras and flee to Santo Domingo Tuesday night at 10 pm as we heard that the crazy French bastard and his Domonican Bitch was going to have us arrested first thing Wednesday morning"

"Now, all I want to do is sell our hotel and return to the United States, a place that is by no means perfection, but one where as an average citizen, I don?t have to fight the government every day just to survive, much less prosper."

"I know I can?t rely on the Dominican government to protect our civil rights. "

Those quotes are from messages you posted in Oct/Nov 1999, almost 2 years ago. I also remember you saying something about not wanting to have to take a loss on the property back then.

I'm sorry to bring up these bad memories, but when I hear somebody advising others to buy property in Las Galeras when they themselves have been trying to bail out for nearly 2 years and strongly advised others NOT to invest in the DR at all, I have to ask why.

On the hits issue, as some others mentioned, is a meaningless and outdated term. It refers sort of to the number of "disk requests" your page causes the server to make. It is also a misleading term, because some people that aren't so technical might think a HIT is somebody clicking or "hitting" your web page.

A million is VERY believeable number in the "hits" realm. For example, BocaChicaBeach.net was getting about 1/2 million in just a MONTH back when we were only 6 months old:



By the way, I'm glad things have worked out for you and Nicole, that justice has finally prevailed in your case, and that your site is doing well. I make sure to refer anybody looking for peace and natural beauty to Samana.net.

Re: Invest? Don't Invest? Invest? Don't? ...

Things change. Andy now seems to think this is a good time to invest in real estate. I take the opposite view. Twenty five years ago I was offered a large apartment fronting on Parque Anacoana in Santo Domingo for US$ 20,000 or RD 20,000. Same value at that time. I didn't want the headache of an offshore property so I passed. Today it is worth close to US$ 200,000.

Everyone that I know who has purchased residential property around Puerto Plata during the last 12 years, have either lost money or can't/won't sell for less than they paid.

With the current decline in tourism and the uncontrolled borrowing and spending by the present government, the climate for investment in the DR is high risk. Why not just start a Spanish company with three employees and get millions of dollars in fat government contracts with no tender process? Your guesstimate will be accepted.

I am glad that Andy feels that the current government has eliminated corruption in Samana. I wish that they had started the cleanup in Santo Domingo.

If like you say waterfront property was such a good investment in the DR, then every hotel and resort chain would long ago have bought up the land. The problem is that the investment environment their is very volatile.

Re: Invest? Don't Invest? Invest? Don't? ...

Every bit of the problems we had (what you posted) can be attributed to a local government that was rotten to the core. And oh yes, you forgot the trouble I had with my boat. Also, the Frenchman is dead as you know- he hit a truck with his motorcycle. I had more trouble from him than I did from Dominicans. And to give you a final update on the employee suit (since you didn't bother to report this in your chronology), as I reported then, the employee case was appealed (by the employee's lawyer feeling the $150usd award wasn't high enough nor were his lawyer's fees awarded) to the Appeals court in San Francisco de Macoris where the appeal was thrown out. Of course, part of the dismissal can be attributed to the professional skill of the lawyer from SFdM that we hired. As a result, no games were played in the court there. And the employee felt so guilty about the entire thing that she would not accept the $150 award and won't even show her face around town, even today.

Samana has changed considerably now that the "mafioso's" (that's what the local Dominican's call them) are no longer in power.
With the International airport at El Catey now under construction, area land values will skyrocket. Property sales here are good. In fact, one American couple whom I assisted in buying a lot and building a new house on it will be here in about 3 weeks to take possession of it. They are thrilled.

Finally, I didn't know I mattered that much for you to keep a full file on me. You must find me pretty interesting. Jim, I didn't know you cared. LOL

A piece of waterfront land was sold here recently for $2,000,000usd to a company that plans to put a 500 room hotel/resort upon it. Risky? I don't think so if people are buying at that price.

Does not make do much sense do name an amount of UD$ without the knowing the purchased surface.

Re: Best place "Hey Andy"

I will be in Samana the beggining of August. I am looking at some condos at Las Terrenas. Is this near you? How can we get together?

Tony

For every buyer, there is a seller. So somebody just "dumped" US$2,000,000 in property and got out.

New construction however shows promise. A 500 room hotel? It sounds like it's going to be one of the big mega-all-inclusives that your previously said kills small business in the area and causes property values in the surroundings to plumett.