Exploring Ambergris Caye

The beach "road"

The three main streets in San Pedro proper are cobblestone (flat, six-sided concrete stones) and everything else is hard pack sand. Most of the "roads" around SP are little more than cow trails with so many pot holes and ruts that you can't go more than 5 mph.  The driving rules are also interesting. Drinking and driving, I am told, is allowed (this explains a lot).  It seems that there is only one driving rule, "Don't go smackin' into shit." I felt safer in a tuk-tuk in Bangkok than driving through downtown San Pedro with tourists, bicycles and golf carts weaving in and out.  On the other hand, it is a tort lawyers dream come true – so many accidents just waiting to happen.

I drove to the far North end of the Island where it becomes mostly mangroves and lagoons.  At that point the "road" was about 5 feet wide and after seeing a crocodile run across the road in front of me, I found a place to turn around.   I'm adventurous, but I have my limits.

Prior to my turning back point, the road followed the beach for about half a mile and for good parts of this stretch the road is literally 2 feet from the water and maybe 2 feet above sea level. In a good Florida-style thunderstorm the waves must be splashing up on the road and maybe going over it.  The road turns inland and about 20 minutes further are several large condo developments with about 600 units total that range in price from about $250K to $1.5million.  Can you imagine spending that kind of money and then being stuck in town, unable to drive on the road to your home on a regular basis?

My impressions are that Ambergris Caye is a combination of Key West 40 years ago, third-world country, tourist haven and Wild West. Everyone is friendly and it seems very safe, but when it comes to business and real estate you need to be cautious and keep a tight grip on your wallet.  I have not done an in-depth market analysis and looked at only a few properties, so please take my comments with a grain of salt.  Remember, the whole point of this trip was not so much to find a property to purchase, but to get general impressions of whether or not this is a country I could retire to.

Condo project in progress

My Canuck real estate friend and I looked at a number of properties the next morning and I generally found that I don't have enough money to buy here.  There is almost no bank financing available and I have heard that a standard contract is 50% down with the balance at 10% over 10 years. Once you buy a property the overhead is pretty cheap: $200-$300 per year for real estate taxes; $500 - $1000 per year for insurance; and $200 - $300 per month for the homeowners association fee (if a condo), which typically includes water, sewer, garbage, common area maintenance and insurance, telephone, cable and internet. The last three vary a bit, but even at that you get a lot for the money once you buy.

Let me be clear -- I spent a whole two and one half days in San Pedro so I can scarcely be called a market expert, but these are my impressions. There are a few affordable (obviously a very relative word) houses or condos, but they tend to be on lagoons full of crocs and mosquitoes or they are older, wooden buildings (that I seriously question if they are made to withstand a good hurricane) and are likely to be eaten up by termites in a few years.  Those properties on or close to the Caribbean side tend to be of concrete construction and appear well built, but start at $175K for a one bedroom condo with no financing.  I am hoping to find better prices on the mainland.

I also stopped in a couple of hardware stores and grocery stores.  You can get just about anything, but prices for appliances and anything American are pricey.