How much is it to build a house in Corozal?
Daryl Blomdahl
From my experience, the construction cost in Corozal would range anywhere from on a very low end about $55 a square foot for a base home. If you want something a little bit nicer it’s about $75 a square foot and if you want something really nice, upscale, with all the amenities and all the modern conveniences, it will cost you $100 to $110 a square foot. I can compare that to the Napa Valley, where I’m from, where it would be anywhere from $200 to $600 a square...From my experience, the construction cost in Corozal would range anywhere from on a very low end about $55 a square foot for a base home. If you want something a little bit nicer it’s about $75 a square foot and if you want something really nice, upscale, with all the amenities and all the modern conveniences, it will cost you $100 to $110 a square foot. I can compare that to the Napa Valley, where I’m from, where it would be anywhere from $200 to $600 a square foot to build. The cost to build in Napa Valley in Northern California, where I’m from, is about three times the cost as in Corozal, Belize. For example, I can build a 1,800 square foot home with 3-bedroom and 2-bathrooms in Corozal for about $50,000.
(Beach home, Corozal, Belize, pictured.)
Posted September 14, 2016
Tony and Beth McClure
The cost to build a house in Corozal is between $85 and $100 per square foot for all concrete and steel construction. This would include granite countertops but not air conditioning. Where we are out on the coast, where we’ve got that sea breeze and it’s just not an issue. The home would be concrete and steel, tile floors, probably 10-12 feet above sea level so you can take a little bit of a surge without having any issues. It...
The cost to build a house in Corozal is between $85 and $100 per square foot for all concrete and steel construction. This would include granite countertops but not air conditioning. Where we are out on the coast, where we’ve got that sea breeze and it’s just not an issue. The home would be concrete and steel, tile floors, probably 10-12 feet above sea level so you can take a little bit of a surge without having any issues. It would have a flat roof so that at the same time you’re building the ceiling for your top story, you’re building the floor for your vista deck.
Typically you want to overbuild and then just self-insure. You can probably build for less, but then you may have some misgivings about the ability of your home to withstand high wind. I would prefer overbuilding and then just self-insure and not have to worry about sustaining damage in the unlikely event of high winds.
The house would have nice fixtures. We’re off the grid so you’re going to have your own solar system and system for water. Your utilities would amount to whatever you pay for a satellite dish for your entertainment and Internet. There would be no landline, no electricity, no water bill; nothing like that. The cooking is done with Butane gas. I’ve been in several houses that are off the grid that are just as comfortable as anything you’d see in the States.
This price would include the solar system. No one I know has a backup generator. Everybody that I’ve visited has more than adequate power with his or her solar system. Relative to water, they actually have to pull water off of their system because in Corozal they get about 50-60 inches of rain a year, which is more than adequate to supply your water for your system. In southern Belize, they get upwards of 200 inches.
There will be some minor ongoing expenses for the solar system. At some point in time you’re going to be changing out batteries. I don’t know if the converter itself has a lifespan, but overall the ongoing expenses are relatively minor once the solar system is up, installed and running.
For people who may just be looking at Corozal as an investment and maybe not really ever intending to relocate there, in Corozal you pay virtually no property tax, so you could you’re your land without it costing any money per month. Also, Belize has no capital gains tax. Someone can go into the Corozal area, purchase property, have virtually no expense and sell at a profit at some point in time with a significant gain and not pay taxes on the gain.
If your home doesn’t have six feet elevation above sea level on grade, then you’re going to need to bring in soil and fill your lot. Your actual lot is 6 feet above sea level. And then you want the design of your house to give you at least another six feet, and that gets you 12.
While you’re looking, one thing that I’ll mention that is available – for those who may have some interest in Belize, or anywhere else for that matter, there is a method where you can pool funding out of your IRA or your (401K) and you can purchase and hold property in Belize inside of your IRA. So you could actually buy property with tax-deferred funds, and then as long as you don’t build on it and use it and live on it, you can leave it in your IRA. If you do want to develop it, then you’re going to have to pay all of the expenses and everything out of your IRA, which could get a little labor intensive because you’re going to have to be moving money into it to fund all of that. But for someone that just wants to say, “Hey, I may want to retire to Belize one day. I’m 50 years old now, I’ve got a pool of several thousand dollars out of my (401K), so I want to buy a lot,” you could do that. You’re not actually spending money, you’re just moving money. You’re just moving some money that you already have and it’s not a taxable event.
(Elevated house, Belize, pictured.)
Posted November 14, 2016
Stephen Honeybill - The Crimson Orchid Inn
In Corozal, a 2,400-square foot 3-bedroom and 2-bathroom house can cost US $200,000 - $250,000 (about $100 a foot). It can get you granite countertops and everything that you need. The cost of building in Corozal depends largely on who you’re getting to do the build. One thing that I always stress to people is you have to know and watch your builder. If you’re going to have something built here in Corozal, either you or someone that you trust...
In Corozal, a 2,400-square foot 3-bedroom and 2-bathroom house can cost US $200,000 - $250,000 (about $100 a foot). It can get you granite countertops and everything that you need. The cost of building in Corozal depends largely on who you’re getting to do the build. One thing that I always stress to people is you have to know and watch your builder. If you’re going to have something built here in Corozal, either you or someone that you trust implicitly must watch the job. It is important to have someone who can report to you everything that’s going on and can be given the authority to deal with the general contractor as the owner’s representative. You’ll get a more successful build that way and provided that the general contractor isn’t knee-deep in half a dozen other projects. The way to save money on any building project is to build correctly the first time, and to build it quickly.
I’ve been here in Corozal long enough to watch various builders build. There are good Belizean builders, there are good North American builders, and there are equally bad people. I’ve seen projects start, and because the owners weren’t watching, nothing was happening. In this case, they may say to me, “You’re there.; what’s going on?” and I have to tell them the truth.
You can’t lie to someone about the progress of their home, and if you have brought all of the right people into the job and they are dedicated to that job, you will obviously get a faster build than if they’re doing a little bit here one day, a little bit over there the other day, and every day of the week is somewhere different. Yes, they are working on that project, but they’re not working on it on a daily basis.
You have to be very attentive to what is going on, when it is going on. If, for whatever reason, you can’t be here during your build, you need someone to be taking pictures every step of the way and emailing you with a whole load of them every two to three days. If you, as the owner, see that something isn’t happening appropriately, you can pick up the phone and say, “Woah, stop. You can’t put that all there because I forgot there’s got to be something else there.”
If you stop something before an entire wall is built, for example, it’s on the first course of blocks in place and you realize that you did not make it big enough, you still have the ability to adjust whatever it is so that it will accommodate what you have intended it to accommodate.
Ideally, you don’t get into that situation. For example, the electrical plans are in place, but you forgot to put a plug behind a certain appliance that you use regularly, and you can’t have wires running along the floor so you need an outlet on the wall right there. If you’re paying attention, you can see that. There are a lot of people who can’t read a plan, so you can have someone show and explain the plan to them.
That is why having someone there or yourself to review the progress day by day is the most cost-effective way of building, because if you build something and later have to destroy and rebuild it, you spend three times the money.
(Bridal suite, Crimson Orchard Inn, Corozal, Belize, pictured.)
Posted June 28, 2017
Ed Parrish - Dumbbell Properties, LLC
When building a house in Corozal, you can go the Belizean route, which is what we chose to do. You can get the basic shell of a home that's roofed and dried in, but without windows and doors. This can be built on site or built by Mennonites and delivered if you don't go too large with it. These houses run about US $20 per square foot. Then you finish out the house to your own specifications.We bought one of the Mennonite houses. We got an 800-square foot home that has two...
When building a house in Corozal, you can go the Belizean route, which is what we chose to do. You can get the basic shell of a home that's roofed and dried in, but without windows and doors. This can be built on site or built by Mennonites and delivered if you don't go too large with it. These houses run about US $20 per square foot. Then you finish out the house to your own specifications.We bought one of the Mennonite houses. We got an 800-square foot home that has two bedrooms, two baths, a living area, and a kitchen area. We put this house nine feet above the ground on concrete supports. We put a concrete slab below that we have screened in, which we use as a party and visiting room where there's a full bath, shower and full kitchen.
Our house in Corozal is totally off the grid so we needed to add money for solar power. The cost to build our house, finished and operational, including the foundation, solar power, front porch, and all the stairways was about $65,000. The lot cost is excluded in this costing.
If you want to build a US style house and use all concrete and cement block construction with all the amenities, depending on the size of the house, the cost is going to be anywhere from $70 to $100 per square foot. This is a wide range, but there are Belizean builders who could do it for less. If you're going to hire an American contractor who is in Belize, your cost is going to wind up closer to the $100 per square foot range, depending on how fancy you want to get with the interior.
The $100 per square foot home would be somewhere in line with an American tract home. Even these homes these days are hard to get built in any kind of a populated area because you need to figure in the lot cost as well.
In the US, if you are going to buy a tract home in a subdivision, by the time the developer buys it and puts the roads, utilities, and everything in, he would price the lot at $25 per square foot on top of the cost of the house. $125 per square foot is the average number for construction in the US these days.
The $70 to $100 per square foot house in Corozal would be roughly equivalent to $125 square foot house in Dallas, Texas. In Corozal, a house that costs $100 per square foot would be all tiles. The wood would be amazingly beautiful and could be mahogany, teak, or mixed wood, which is different varieties of wood put together. Wood is used to create wall spaces, furniture, and all kinds of things. You could have some really nice touches for your house in Corozal that you couldn't get in the US for that kind of money, including cabinetry in custom-made, beautiful wood.
(Hardwood floors in the bedroom, Corozal, Belize, pictured. )
Posted September 15, 2017