Investing in property in Bavaro? My and your thoughts ...

From what I read, you talked yourself out of it. I don't personally like that part of the DR, but that is just me.

government. What government? There is no government in the DR in the normally accepted definition. Dominicans enter "government service" to get rich as its a great opportunity to steal.

rubenpriego said:

Hi there guys. After being some time living here, I was just wondering, is it worthy to invest in properties in Bavaro?

My thoughts:

PROS
Cheap prices compared with Europe
If you earn in euros, cheaper then, as euro is again strong against dollar
Close to beach
Not much taxes in the investment.

CONS
Low quality materials
Finishings not very good ones
Good quality materials all imported, so expensive ones
Apartments degradate very quick here due to quality of materials and weather conditions
Having to update and fix many things as years go by (more than living in Europe)
Many roads or paths in Bavaro unpaved
PLENTY of trash everywhere (in roads, paths, empty lots, ...)
Area susceptible of natural disasters (hurricanes, floodings, big storms, maybe earthquakes ...)
due to last cons, apartment insurance very high compared to Europe (three or four times more)
Currently, prices of renting (dont know why), decreasing a lot unfortunately for investors
Big % to discount to your rent income due to broker and property manager fees (if you use them)

Thats all I think, so, investing in this area, worthy or not ?

Cheers.

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For my taste PC lacks the sense of community and varied activities.
If money matters rental is cheaper, if you factor in purchase price, taxes, monthly maintenance costs, electricity and interior repairs.
Rental also gives you mobility choices.

rubenpriego said:

what it is amazing is that one of the jewels of the country, bringing so much money to the government, is in this conditions. Im tired of walking through trash, smelling water, rats, unpaved roads, dark paths at night ...
this is unbelievable ....

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There you have Latin life!
You can have a luxury mansion.
Next door is abandoned land,trash, or derelict buildings and bad unpaved roads.
Dirty beaches if not attached to a resort.

where in punta cana do you guys hang out? sounds well different to the PC i hang out in.
if all that stuff is as you describe, and bothers as you guys type, why the heck do you live there? don't you have any chance to live somewhere else where all stuff is as you would like it to be?

as for the asked for recommendations of purchasing property, forget about it.
the prizes are falling since years, heck, the rental mrates are dropping drastically since years.
compare the price of a property to purchase and the costs of renting such place, then you will see that purchasing would be the stupiest thimng to do.
rentals are dead cheap, even in the best areas and fully furniched, once the furnichure or the building show to much of use, just move to the next rental. it also leaves you flexibel to change the area when ever it pleases you, without the need to wait for years til a buyer for the by then worn down property been found, to sell for much less than it was purchased.
rent a place and leave the responsibility and costs for the maintenance to the owner.
there is no trend to be awaited any soon that property prices would rise any soon, such investments are not worth the bucks spent.

Mike

Pros (contd)
Safer than the rest of the country
No apagones
No traffic jams
No noise most of the time
Children can walk to school
I can do most of my errands on foot/bicycle
I can walk/cycle without fear of being mugged


Cons
Not that much to do compared to a big city - more cultural events would be nice
Supermarkets and most restaurants are overpriced

Chirimoya said:

Pros (contd)
Safer than the rest of the country
No apagones
No traffic jams
No noise most of the time
Children can walk to school
I can do most of my errands on foot/bicycle
I can walk/cycle without fear of being mugged


Cons
Not that much to do compared to a big city - more cultural events would be nice
Supermarkets and most restaurants are overpriced

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But you're close to Playa Macao and that's worth something.

Come on, Bavaro is the most boring place, not only in DR, but on the planet! If you have an alcohol problem then you might beable to sustain the bordom level, if you don't then get drinking because there is nothing else to do unless you have a job to go to.

It's what you make of it - if you have family, friends and hobbies there is enough to do.
Yes, it would be good to have more cultural events and entertainment laid on, but it's a price worth paying for not having to deal with the stress, noise, pollution, crime, traffic we had to endure when living in a big city.

and no real dirt roads, unless you rent/buy at a residency which does not have their streets paved, yet.
of course the negs have to be pointed out the same as the pros, so a new visitor to the area can decide which portion gets by his/her preferences the most weight, to be worth it or not.
so that's the point where visitors then can decide to live with the "negs" or to research an other country where the own preferences are built in a pos way.
the streets and their conditions in punta cana improoved during the last couple years by a 1000% and all into a pos direction. are they perfect? of course not, they never will be perfect, but they are paved, sidewalks are build all around the area, street lights are mountedstep by step all around, crime rate is lower than most/all 1st world countries i visited.
if someone decides to live in Sankietown(El Cortecito and central Bavaro) without a Car, yes, then i totally agree that activities are rare, then it would be just Barhopping around the Hookers and Sankies and the openly present drugs/junkies.
even big in size, punta cana is a piece of countryside on the oceanfront, for many things you still need to visit a City to find the stuff, but on this point the same as with the road conditions, it is changing since a couple years and still in progress, the big supermarkets already started to be present in the area and more competitors will follow.
Trash, total agreement, it is a DR thingy, education in case of trash handling will be a long one before real effects can be seen.
as for usually basic services, like electricity, phones, internet, water, plummers, carpenters etc etc, they are just a phonecall away and darn chep compred to back home, but yes, of course i see that the quality is often well below the more expensive quality for the same thing back home.
Tourist prices in punta cana are only present when frequenting the typical Touristy locations/Bars/Restaurants/Shops, once settled in with some more specific knowledge about the whole area gained you get the things in PC for the same prices they would cost in Higuey, not for everything but for many things, at least for the daily needed basics for life. yes, it takes some time to come around and find the best locations for specifics, we all had a long learning process on that i guess, at least i had, specially at the beginning without any knowledge to speak spanish.

Mike

It all depends what you are looking for; having lived all my life in "BIG" cities in North America and Europe, "boring" translates for me into tranquility. Glad not to have the traffic, stress and rat-race all around me - been there, done that.
Maybe if I was a young hopper I would feel different.
Don't even miss a car, just sitting on the the patio with some music, sitting by the pool or on the beach under palm trees feels great - relaxation at it's best; If I want or need to go somewhere I take a taxi.

And like anywhere else in the world, life is better with some money in the pocket than without it.
I prefer to own because it is my place and I can do with it and in it whatever I want; of course I did my research before I bought to make sure it is the area I want to be in for a long time.
Sure it is cheaper to rent overall but it is not the same feeling as owning and life is just to short to worry about everything.

every3monthpuntacana said:

It all depends what you are looking for; having lived all my life in "BIG" cities in North America and Europe, "boring" translates for me into tranquility. Glad not to have the traffic, stress and rat-race all around me - been there, done that.
Maybe if I was a young hopper I would feel different.
Don't even miss a car, just sitting on the the patio with some music, sitting by the pool or on the beach under palm trees feels great - relaxation at it's best; If I want or need to go somewhere I take a taxi.

And like anywhere else in the world, life is better with some money in the pocket than without it.
I prefer to own because it is my place and I can do with it and in it whatever I want; of course I did my research before I bought to make sure it is the area I want to be in for a long time.
Sure it is cheaper to rent overall but it is not the same feeling as owning and life is just to short to worry about everything.

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I prefer to own too. And not only that when i'm not in PC, I have no intention of renting to any of these free loaders that posted above. The truth is I cant prove it, nor do I really care, but the expats who live here, I bet 90% of them cant afford to own either. But I thought Mike Fisher owned his Condo in Cabreza de toro? I know he can afford too, has a good business going. Nothing feels better than owning our own piece of paradise near the Beach and having all the things we want in our own condo in the Dominican Republic.. I never bought it to make money.
The majority who say "dont own in the DR" cant afford to anyways, not all, but the majority.

Contango said:

Nothing feels better than owning our own piece of paradise near the Beach and having all the things we want in our own condo in the Dominican Republic.. I never bought it to make money.

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Could not agree more

Contango said:

I prefer to own too. And not only that when i'm not in PC, I have no intention of renting to any of these free loaders that posted above. The truth is I cant prove it, nor do I really care, but the expats who live here, I bet 90% of them cant afford to own either. But I thought Mike Fisher owned his Condo in Cabreza de toro? I know he can afford too, has a good business going. Nothing feels better than owning our own piece of paradise near the Beach and having all the things we want in our own condo in the Dominican Republic.. I never bought it to make money.
The majority who say "dont own in the DR" cant afford to anyways, not all, but the majority.

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contago,
but hey, Man/woman,
now you out yourself as clueless about the area and the going rates.
to rent or buy is not simply a case of "i have or mi have not", it is simply a case of the market's real estates ups and downs, and since years the rents in PC are dopping as heck while the prices for purchasing property are compared to the extremely dropped rents much too high, i name it stupid to purchase, as the prices to purchase will drop during the next couple of years significantly more, so what you buy today will for years looooose value, before it comes back to what you paid for and then MayBe come even on a level above of what you paid for it the last years, hence actually to Rent is in PC the deal to go, riskfree and no guaranteed losses to expect, as the buyers market does guarantee such losses still and for an other longer while.
yes, i can afford to buy, i even did so more than once and of course i still own the properties purchased during the last 18 years, but as for myself and my family's personal preference, we do NOT like Bavaro at all, it is the place where we run our business, but it sure is not the place where we want to get old and live for the rest of our lifes, i sure will not raise my BabyGal daughter til college age in Bavaro, much too bad of a area.
we live at our actual place right on the beachfront since 6 years, RENTED, for just $600.- per month, heck, purchase anything right on the waterfront in PC, what ya pay per squarefeet of room plus own 24/ security guard at the door etc etc? just by far not worth to purchase. we also own several properties on valuable portions of Punta Cana, near the beach and off the beach including along the Boulevard/highway, they are just a little extra purse as one day they will bring a real value on sales, and we purchased them over a decade ago for great prices anyways.
our family's main residency is our Ranch, of course not located in nor even near Punta Cana, as i am a country boy by birth and prefer some nice local cowboy neighbours over any drugged in hookers seeking expat community in bavaro. even that the expat side names themselves the superior educated spezies, by my own taste and experience with them i prefer any uneducated local hillbilly neighbour as the by far superior valued neighbour, that's my personal taste and you can hang with your prefered spezies and purchase what ever you want or what ever you can afford to buy, that's just your thingy and has nothing to do with everybody's else's thingy. we are all different and each has his/her own taste/preferences

anyways,
a person coming to a new area where he/she did not testlive since a few years to try it out, purchasing houses right away, is in my personal opinion a very unexperienced person and a perfect client for the available local (expat run) real estate agents, as they always wait for exactly that clientel to cut their biggest deals, as they don't care that the customer will not gain any additional value to the purchase for many years/decades.

do yo8ur thingy for yourself,
but do not assume about others whom you don't even know, who most likely would not even be interested in knowing you or becoming a neighbour.

enjoy a great sunday afternoon,
it's very nice here aside the BBQ in front of the rented place on the own Beach, hey, the WIFI from up there is reaching the computers very well down here on da beach.

Mike