Good opportunities exist for entrepreneurs who are willing to make a long-term investment in Nicaragua's emerging tourism industry, especially along the Pacific coast between Managua and Costa Rica. With the construction of the Pacific coast tourism highway – La Costanera – Nicaragua will be even closer to northern Costa Rica’s Guanacaste, and Nicaragua hopes the development and tourism boom there will carry across the border.
There are currently a total of nine major tourism attractions and 20 residential development projects on the coast, which, in the words of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure’s planification director Ernesto Téllez: “Make you forget you’re in Nicaragua.”
The tourism developments are, from north to south: Masachapa, Pochomil, La Boquita, Casares, Huehuete, Astillero, Brito, San Juan del Sur, and Ostional. Nicaragua’s Pacific coast attracts 646,000 tourists annually, and the numbers will continue to grow.
“There is enormous potential in this cluster of tourism,” said Téllez, who is overseeing the Design and Planning state of the Costanera. “The new highway will continue to help development along the coast.”
Real estate agents estimate that property values on the Pacific coast will increase by 50% after the tourism highway is finished in 2008. Real estate values will only continue to grow as more development goes up on the coast.
There are some 20 development projects up and down the Pacific coast, with special interest seeming to be focused on Tola Beach, known as the Nicaraguan Riviera. The projects range in progress from ready-to-move-into, to the pre-planning artist rendition stage. The group of projects has recently formed the Tola Development Association, which can be looked up on the internet at www.rcalvet.com.
Coastal development has exploded in the last five years, and continues to grow, with plans to build two more tourist marinas and two 18-hole golf courses.
Make sure you do you homework before investing in Pacific real estate, and inquire to see whether or not the development project has title insurance.
There is also continued development in Granada, Laguna de Apoyo and Mombacho Volcano and Managua. |
