so we've been living in Playa del Carmen for several months now and we couldn't
help but notice everywhere on Fifth Avenue advertising condos being built or for sale
that are quite affordable you know compared to prices in U.S Canada and Australia yet
when you go online and look for rentals they aren't exactly cheap so that got us
thinking is this a good place to invest or is there something we're missing [Music]
and before we get into it guys if you're planning on traveling to Mexico or anywhere in the world
you are going to need travel insurance we've been using safety Wings since the day we left Australia
back in 2021 and thank God we did because two weeks into our trip we both contracted Dengue
fever and we were bedridden for about two weeks we had to have a nurse come to our room and give
us IV drips every day our bill was actually up in the thousands and it's actually pretty hard to not
get stressed out when that bill starts climbing up thankfully safety Wing took care of everything
the process was really simple we just kept all of our receipts and uploaded them to our claims
file and within 30 days we were fully refunded since then we have not gone a day without being
covered by safety Wing whether you're a digital Nomad like us or just traveling for a period of
time safety Wing Nomad insurance has an option for you starting from just 42 dollars a month
you can sign up for nomad Insurance before you you depart or at any part in your journey you can also
subscribe to continuous coverage and travel to multiple countries with one policy also after 90
days abroad you're covered for brief visits back home for up to 30 days 15 days for U.S residents
so if you're planning on hitting the road or traveling abroad anytime in the near future
consider using safety Wings we will leave the link in the description for you alright now into the
video according to recent studies the Riviera Maya and Playa Del Carmen in particular is one of Latin
America's fastest growing communities according to the National travel and tourism office of the
United States Mexico is by far the most popular travel destination for U.S citizens with almost 40
million residents visiting the country each year so the main International Airport for Playa Del
Carmen and this whole area is Cancun International Airport which is around 70 kilometers away from us
this airport ranks 10th in terms of international passengers worldwide and is the second busiest
airport in Mexico in Mexico City the Riviera Maya area is known for its white sand beaches blue
turquoise Waters coral reefs and surrounding rainforests Playa Del Carmen's downtown area
revolves around Quinta Avenida a busy pedestrian through Affair lined with shops clubs and
restaurants the weather is hot year round with the summer and winter breaks being Peak seasons for
tourism it is especially busy here during November till March which is like when everybody from the
northern states of the us come down because it's so cold back home and especially over Christmas
and New Year's it gets really busy here so I recently sat down with the local real estate
developer named Adrian who told me that investing in this area isn't just about tourism because
there are a lot of hospitals and universities in the area Adrian explained to me that many of
the developments will end up being filled with long-term renters such as students nurses and
doctors who relocate to the area from northern states University the rope and if you go like
100 meters away you will have some universities and you will see that right now player government
and Cancun are becoming a hub for studying because it's much cheaper than going into the us or going
to Canada and it's cheaper than going to another city here in Mexico especially for master degree
um special studies Cancun and quintanaro which is the state where we are right now are stronger
because of Tourism but as Dubai and other famous cities you start with one resource
and you end up diversifying in this case they are Diversified with Offices here we will have
some offices on some commercial spaces also around the a project and a hospital in this case we will
have a hospital here and also a university right now projects are being developed with a hotel with
the university with a hospital because that's why people come here that's why people come to
Mexico that's why people come to Mayan Riviera they don't just go to the beach they also want
service they also want to be in tranquil Adrian and his company are working on a development in
the area called Naomi which is a combination of retail and Residential Properties there will also
be a hotel adjacent to the apartment buildings which will help provide services to the apartments
by the way we're not affiliated with Adrian's company at all he was just good enough to sit
down with us because we wanted to speak to a local developer to better understand the industry prices
for condos and apartments in Playa del Carmen are mostly reflected in US Dollars that's because they
are targeting U.S and Canadian residents you can find studio apartments here that are as low as 150
000 US dollars that are within walking distance to the beach we had the opportunity to have a
look at one of our favorite residential buildings in Playa del Carmen to see how
much bang you actually get for your buck what the colors are there it's really nice wow
thank you is it only U.S citizens and Canadians who come by here or
yeah actually everyone can buy here but there is a little Mexican relative you cannot buy
15 kilometers from the border to the inside of the of the country in the borders and in
the oceans and the ocean yeah yeah you can buy but the only thing is that you have to
have a transform with a bank yeah it will be really like your partner everything is
going to be under your name but uh you're gonna have to have this you're you have to have this
partner per se which is divine the bank is the partner yeah is it easy to do yeah it is 2500
to open the trust fund the first time and then after that you have paid 900.31
700 square feet you have two bedrooms to buy this one is a lock of unit we
which means that you have an access an independent access so for business this
one is really good because you can just so you can rent it outside or the other one [Music]
so from what we've been told by local real estate agents here in Playa del Carmen there's not many
restrictions on vacation rentals at all vacation homes in Cancun average about 58 occupancy rate
while Cozumel has around about 57 rate the rest of the Riviera Maya including Playa Del Carmen sat at
about 53 occupancy rate last year so considering that apartments are rented out for about between
100 and 300 per night that seems like a pretty good return on investments so good there's also
plans to build a new airport in Tulum which will increase the amount of people that are in the
area it'll also cut down travel time for people coming from European countries considering they
have to deal with a lot more immigration and I just learned of the new trend system called
the Maya train it's already being constructed and is due to open in the next couple of years
the high-speed train will connect popular sites across the Yucatan and Riviera Maya which will
see an estimated 8 000 daily Riders so to help help us actually get a better understanding of
what it's like to invest here in Mexico we wanted to speak to somebody who's actually
done it themselves so we got on the phone with our friend Otis from Houston who recently purchased
his own property here in Tulum was it hard to get into the investment property in Mexico or was it
pretty easy it was no harder than it would be in the United States so the good thing is
realtor pretty much kind of has all the contacts of the different things that
you've had to set up like basically you have to start a company in Mexico
um you have to have a bank account in Mexico they wanted like passports for everything yeah make
sure you're not doing anything like you know like funneling money or anything worry about
that we've got our we've got our own personal tax accountant he hooked all of that up we've
got a lawyer he hooked all of that up and then you'll find that thing that you're if you're
outside of Mexico there's really only like three banks in Mexico that will do business with you
okay so as far as having a bank account there's really only like three places you can do it's not
it's not that expensive to set everything up including paying for like your tax people all
of that stuff you're maybe gonna understand about twenty five hundred dollars oh wow
yeah okay and then do they need you to have collateral like back in the home country like
a house or no absolutely not they don't even care really but they have just recently started and
actually our bank contacted us and they have just recently in the last since the first of this year
if you are an American or a Canadian citizen you can now get a loan through loans on houses now on
properties so the property has to be above 250 000 yep and it's a fixed interest rate
and it goes up to 25 years on the mortgage and the interest rates are between seven and nine
percent you obviously bought it as an investment property to use for short-term rentals um and
then you probably I'm guessing use it yourself when you want to come on a holiday or whatever
um I have not been able I've never even stayed in my own property yeah right
so it's obviously booked out all the time man you you get up you get pretty steady bookings
with it yeah our occupancy rate since having a place we've never had a month under 17 oh wow
you gotta really pay attention to Tom Lewis want to know that I've known this evening it's one of
those cities that if you bear have fairly good access to the beach you'll do pretty well I'm
noticing if you have like a studio it's a moon you're not going to make the greatest money on
it because there's so many of them they saying that they're having to rent their Studios for like
45 50 a night yeah and like there's nothing like that when we're 150 up every single night yeah so
we're going to invest I would say don't do studio in Tulum it would have to be one bedroom and up
so would you you'd consider it a successful investment then I guess very very successful
accessible if I had to complain about anything they're still building out like the second and
third section so stuff like getting your electric bill for your place your water bill for your place
it doesn't get sent straight to me they still send it to the Builder and they send it there
and the Builder forgets to give it to my house manager or doesn't send it to me just kind of
a little stuff like that that you kind of got to work out and get it taken care of from what I can
say just the the difference between the price of these condos that I've seen and even houses
and then the the right to rent them per night it seems to me like it's a no-brainer like you would
make your money back pretty quickly but um yeah so look obviously we are not real estate experts
by any means the closest thing that we've got to buying property is buying our 1975 Combi van yeah
but after speaking to Otis I feel like we are definitely on the right path of thinking this was
a great place to invest especially if you're from the US or Canada yeah it seems like it's very easy
to get Finance down here and if you're looking at return on investment I mean considering you can
buy a property for anywhere between 150 000 to 300 000 dollars and Otis was saying that he had a 70
occupancy rate at minimum I think it's pretty good I think we just have to start saving some money
so we can actually be in a position to invest here yes let us know your thoughts down in the comments
what do you think is it worth investing in Mexico have you invested already let us know down below
um and as always we will see you guys in the next video bye foreign [Music]