Lief and I recently welcomed two-dozen global property pros to Panama for the Global Property Summit.
We look forward to this event more than any other. It’s our chance to shop the world’s best property investment opportunities at one time in one place with the help of the experts we trust most.
It’s also a chance to reminisce.
Over the past two-and-a-half decades that we’ve been pursuing this investment strategy, how many times have we been able to double our money… a friend asked over cocktails one evening.
Doubling your money would qualify as a straight-up win.
How many have we had?
The first was a pre-construction buy in Estepona on the Spanish costa.
Next were three apartments we purchased in Buenos Aires a few months after Argentina decoupled its peso from the U.S. dollar.
We sold our house in Waterford, Ireland, for four times what we’d invested in it.
We doubled our money on a beachfront lot in Nicaragua…
And on an apartment in Lagos, Portugal.
We flipped an apartment in Bucharest for a near-double—a 90% return—in nine months.
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Currency, for example, can compound a return… or erode it.
The Colombian peso has lost so much ground against the U.S. dollar since we made the investment that, while our apartment in Medellín is worth far more than two times what we paid for it in Colombian peso terms, it’s not quite a double in dollars.
Lief and I like to count money in the bank not projections. Still, we recognize that we hold other investments that are doubles on paper…
Including the apartment on Avenida Balboa that we call home when we’re in Panama City…
And the apartment on rue de Verneuil that we call home when we’re in Paris. It’s worth three times what we paid for it according to the French notaires’ latest report.
Four lakefront lots we own outside Granada, Nicaragua, are worth more than twice what we paid…
As is the land in Nova Scotia that is the site of our next family project. As I reported recently, we’re planning to build a log cabin on the Mclean Island property we bought 20 years ago and visited for the first time earlier this month.
There were losses too
With the help of friends and colleagues in town for our property summit, we remembered losses, too.
We lost everything on two apartment rentals in Newcastle, England…
And on a rental house overlooking Nicaragua’s Lake Apoyo.
Less dramatic were losses in the Philippines, Thailand, and San Miguel de Allende.
Profits aren’t guaranteed and you definitely can’t count on a double when making a property purchase overseas. We’ve had our share, but they’re hard to come by.
At this year’s Global Property Summit, we were turned on to one.
Lief and I are scrambling to act.
I’m speaking of a preconstruction opportunity in Montenegro.
Lief and I visited Kotor in 2006.
I could tell you this UNESCO-protected walled city is beautiful and charming but that wouldn’t do it justice. This is a fairy tale town of stone on the Adriatic that you must see to appreciate.
We’ve remembered our too-long-ago Montenegro adventure fondly and have wished for a reason to return.
Now we have one.
“Values in Kotor have doubled over the past three years,” our man on the ground Alper told us over lunch.
“And will double again in the next three.”
Alper presented attendees of last week’s conference with details of a specific opportunity he is certain is bound for triple-digit appreciation. It’s also a home-run rental play. You can get the full details on it here.
Lief and I are looking at our calendars to identify when we’ll be able to get on a plane to see about locking in a position.
We’re Kotor bound again and looking forward to it.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
