Best Places In The World To Retire

In San Miguel de Allende, for US $100 a foot, you can build a nice house with masonry construction, nice tiles, cantera stone, fireplaces, stainless steel appliances, and tall ceilings. This will also include the hookups for gas logs for your fireplace, and main heating, but no ductwork; our homes here generally do not have central heating or air conditioning. Landscaping would be extra, but it’s not very expensive. 

 

Construction costs in San...

In San Miguel de Allende, for US $100 a foot, you can build a nice house with masonry construction, nice tiles, cantera stone, fireplaces, stainless steel appliances, and tall ceilings. This will also include the hookups for gas logs for your fireplace, and main heating, but no ductwork; our homes here generally do not have central heating or air conditioning. Landscaping would be extra, but it’s not very expensive. 

 

Construction costs in San Miguel de Allende have gone down, but my quotes provide a nice buffer. I always like to have people be pleasantly surprised, because building can get expensive if you start adding stuff, and people can get disappointed when they have a number in mind.

 

I often quote in dollars because most of my clients are Americans or Canadians. Even at a 15:1 pesos-dollar exchange rate, US $100 will get you good construction in San Miguel de Allende. I’m usually advising people on building and expectation, so I want people to be happy with their estimates in their heads on the price of building a home in San Miguel de Allende. I think they could get less than $100 a square foot easily, especially with the current exchange rate, but at the same time, importing materials from the States can be quite expensive when you have to buy them using pesos. There’s an exchange of what you want versus the exchange rate between dollars and pesos.

 

In San Miguel de Allende, you need to hire an architect who’s registered in this area. In order to build in San Miguel de Allende, you need to submit plans to the government and have these plans approved. Before the project is done, the government will come and inspect the property, and give you a terminacion de obra (work termination paper) to say that the construction is done, that it meets with the standards, and that it matches what was submitted, and they sign off on that.

 

In building a property in San Miguel de Allende, you’ll be working with the builders who are generally very good. The construction in San Miguel de Allende is also very straightforward because it’s firm land, and the construction is masonry, so they use bricks and reinforced concrete, which are solid. The quality of finishes is something that you need to work out with your builder. The construction techniques guarantee that you’re going to get a pretty solid house, though.

 

(Tuscan-style home, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, pictured.)

The economy of the Algarve is mainly focused on tourism, which is the main economic driver here. There is a little bit of agriculture in particular with the production of local fruits such as oranges, carobs, almonds, etc. There is some fishing, including offshore aquaculture or what we call “long line fishing,” cultivation of oysters, mussels, etc. There is also some tuna aquaculture in the Rio de Tavira. There is no manufacturing industry here but there is a little bit...

The economy of the Algarve is mainly focused on tourism, which is the main economic driver here. There is a little bit of agriculture in particular with the production of local fruits such as oranges, carobs, almonds, etc. There is some fishing, including offshore aquaculture or what we call “long line fishing,” cultivation of oysters, mussels, etc. There is also some tuna aquaculture in the Rio de Tavira. There is no manufacturing industry here but there is a little bit of the service industry.

 

Then of course, there is the public sector. There are a lot of public sector employees who work in the municipalities, tax department, and public services in general. Generally, tourism and the public sector and a little of agriculture are the economic drivers of the Algarve. 

 

The economy right now is better than it had been 9 years ago. Tourism has been growing year after year. Tourism here includes the activities related to expats and anything else that involves people visiting the region or ultimately moving here, typically not full time initially but part time until they understand whether this is the place for them or not, and then becoming permanent residents. That transition phase is something that is included in the tourism numbers.

 

In the World Travel Market in London, the Algarve is again the Most Requested Region in the World. Tour operators in the UK are moving a lot of the traffic from North Africa and the Middle East to southern European places like the Algarve, which has been particularly popular. From the tourism, sector, the Algarve is doing very well and this has been boosted by the new legislation called the Non-Habitual Residency, which means that people can come and live and even retire in Portugal tax free. This has increased the demand for the country of Portugal and specifically for the Algarve.  

 

(Olive you, Portugal. I love you, Portugal graphic by Jet Metier, pictured.)

Depending on where you live here in Cayo, you can rent an apartment between $500BZ and $800BZ (US $250 and $400) per month.

 

If you have a budget of $400 US ($800BZ) a month, you could probably get a small two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a small kitchen that has a small refrigerator, but not TV and not air-conditioning, located downtown.  

 

(An apartment and its own separate entrance from the main house, Cayo,...

Depending on where you live here in Cayo, you can rent an apartment between $500BZ and $800BZ (US $250 and $400) per month.

 

If you have a budget of $400 US ($800BZ) a month, you could probably get a small two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a small kitchen that has a small refrigerator, but not TV and not air-conditioning, located downtown.  

 

(An apartment and its own separate entrance from the main house, Cayo, Belize, pictured.)

There have been Jews in Nicaragua for a long time.  Many of the more prominent family names in Nicaragua are Jewish.  In San Juan del Sur, there is a small Jewish community. I just read about it recently so I don’t know much about it.  For instance, I don’t know if they have temples there. In Managua, there’s also a Jewish community that has been around for decades. There’s a rabbi who comes here every year from another country for some of their important celebrations. That’s what leads me to believe that the Jewish community in San Juan del Sur is maybe from the US or that they speak English. Unlike in Managua, the Jewish community there is made up of younger people.