Well-heeled Canadians, turned off by an uncertain political environment in the United States, are heading even further south for vacation real estate investments this winter, reports the Globe & Mail.
The peso has dropped some 15 per cent against the greenback since Donald Trump’s victory in November while the Canadian dollar has strengthened. Although most Mexican properties in oceanfront areas favored by Canadian buyers are priced in U.S. dollars, real estate experts contend it is an affordable market for Canadian investors.
“I don’t think that we’ve ever been busier,” Charles Tibshirani, a Canadian lawyer who moved to Mexico eight years ago, told the Toronto newspaper. “Real estate transactions are multiplying and multiplying.”
After opening a law office in Playa del Carmen three years ago, Tibshirani says his three Mexican offices handle about five to six closings a week – 50 percent involving Canadian investors. Some clients leave deposits of upwards of 80 percent on US$400,000 properties that are at least a year away from being built, the Globe & Mail reported.
The newspaper listed the Yucatán Peninsula and Los Cabos as “Mexican hot spots.”
Tibshirani, owner of The Playa Times, advised spreading out your risk as a home buyer.
“Don’t put all your money into one property that’s worth a million dollars. Instead buy four or five at $200,000 or $250,000 and you are going to get a much better rate of return,” he said.
