Why invest overseas?

10 feb 2008
By Miroslav Milanov From www.ezinearticles.com

For centuries bricks and mortar have been regarded as a solid investment. These days that may be investment not just in you home town, but maybe investment in overseas properties, such as a ski chalet or a beach front apartment.

There are some types of investment that can bring quick and easy rewards, such things as stocks and shares. But these types of investment required skill, judgement, a lot of professional advice, and even more, good luck.

Property on the other hand, has proved itself, time and time again, decade after decade, to be this steadiest and strongest long-term investment. Historically, the investment in bricks and mortar grows at a rate of 100% approximately every seven years.

So those are all good solid reasons, to take your money out from under the mattress and buy yourself a little house that you can rent out, and in the long term make a very good return from.

But there are other reasons why people invest in property apart from pure economics; it's good to have a good solid investment. But if you do buy yourself a little house in Birmingham, UK, or Birmingham, Alabama, it does not have the same exotic and exciting feel to it.

Large numbers of people now combine their economic investment dreams, with far more personal and emotionally rewarding dreams, if you buy yourself that house in Birmingham. Do you really want to go and spend an exciting three week holiday there?

This is perhaps, the main reason why people are turning to overseas properties, such as beach front apartments, to fulfil these financial and personal dreams.

Just the thought of owning your own property, in some exotic tropical island getaway is so many peoples idea of heaven, and over the last 30 years more and more people are making these exotic dreams become reality.

The advantages of owning, wonderful beach front apartments somewhere like the Caribbean are easy to imagine. Number one for most people would probably be the very pleasant winter climate, while your friends freeze at home in January, you could be sat by the pool, sipping fresh fruit juice.

Purchasing overseas properties, is now so much easier than it was even 10 years ago, many countries, such as the Dominican Republic, are now fully geared up to deal with foreign investors, making it pretty straight forward to own beachfront apartments.

The most expensive part of nearly any holiday is the cost of accommodation. Once you have purchased your own property, you no longer have those high costs; you can visit to a couple of weeks, a couple of months, or the rest of your life.

The cost of living, particular in the winter months, in many of these exotic getaways is often far less than your usual expenses at home in your own home country. Things like fruits and vegetables, alcohol, electricity, eating out and sports, such as golf, and tennis, often cost a fraction of what you would pay at home.

And of course, a round of golf on a beautiful sunny, warm January morning, followed by a cool beer next to the club pool, is better value in its own right. Not just financially.

Many people purchase those whose properties with a view to retiring, and spending the rest of their days in the sunshine. For many older people the climate in warmer parts of the world is far more agreeable to them, especially those suffering from a number of complaints from arthritis to asthma.

For people of any age, the thought of sitting on your own, beach front apartment balcony, and watching the sun go down over the ocean, is paradise on earth, and now, so many people are finding their own little slice of paradise.

It is no wonder that with there now being a firm hand on the political reins, many international companies have been taking the plunge into this Land's warm investment waters by building some of the finest real estate opportunities in the Caribbean along some of the country's 350 tantalizing tropical beaches!

In the shape of superb leisure and vacation complexes, often offering World class golf courses, the Caribbean real estate investors of this new millennium have shrugged of the false start of the 1990's. Now there are superb and eco-sympathetic developments set in tropical greenery a stones throw from almost deserted beaches, lapped by the Caribbean Sea, or maybe the Atlantic Ocean!

Now is the time for those with a yen (or a dollar, euro or pound - come to that) to invest in a vacation dream villa – to consider seriously this “precious gem” of a country. For it may offer the last 'bargain priced' real estate opportunities in the Caribbean. But if you are wondering why such a rosy outlook is predicted for future property values then consider this...

There is currently a program of millions of dollars being undertaken to refresh and renew existing, as well create brand new, travel infrastructure across the country. This means that some of the finest parts of the Island, hitherto hard to reach and difficult to develop, are finally becoming genuinely accessible for the FIRST TIME.

With property value increments already in the region of 20% per year – now is THE time, if ever there was one, to venture into the Caribbean real estate market! You could invest in a vacation apartment, or buy a beautiful detached villa in a high-class a gated-community, or maybe an alpine lodge in a wonderful mountain town would appeal? Whatever your preference the opportunities are there for the taking, and now is the time to 'do it'...if you do not want to be one of those saying “IF ONLY?”, yet again, in a year or two's time!

But, I hear you yelling, “Where is it that you are talking about?!” Why, the Dominican Republic of course...still an almost undiscovered gem, and possibly the last real opportunity to get into true Caribbean real estate investment, at the just the right time!

By Al G Smith - author and co-developer, with his wife, Dominican born, Ruth Ramos de Smith and her sister Esther Ramos of www.visiting-the-dominican-republic.com a premier website resource featuring articles, contacts, information and links for anyone visiting the Dominican Republic on vacation, for business, or seeking that perfect Caribbean investment property. The site includes plenty of information about Dominican Republic holiday resorts, too!