Hi. If your living in Belize and working online in other countries , you dont have to declare any biz interests. Keep any income outside Belize

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…have to take exception with that. Nobody wants to be taxed to death (I know well I'm Canadian). However I would be happy to pay about 10 times the property tax on the house we own in Belize.
If you decide to do business in a country and profit, then some should go back….

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Hi Steven
First most people go to Belizte when it is cold in North America. Than the beach areas like Placencia or the Cays are busy. In summer time they are slow. You will have problems to rent out property in summer in general. And if you can you get a lot less than in winter time.

I was researching real estate for a while in Belize and IMHO it makes no sense to buy. You can rent cheaper. In developing countries you should at least yield 10% on a property investment. This is never the case in Belize, and I was looking at many houses. I give you an example. A house that is listed for 500k you can rent for 1500 a months. So annual rent is 18k. Even if you buy the house for half the listing price it is still a bad investment for a developing country.

The next problem is that it is nearly impossible to sell. Out of all properties I was looking at one sold so far and the deal did not close yet. And I have been in Belize for 5 months now. At some RE agencies you can see when the properties were listed and many hit the market in 2014 or 2015 and still are not sold.
I can not guide you on the long term price changes as there is no database and I have not been around long enough.

If you can work from online and you are lucky enough not to have a US passport than you can go to Belize and not pay any tax on income earned outside of Belize.

Good luck with your research!

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…I look at it a bit different. I am at the point where we decided we are going away every winter. It looked like rent would be about 10,000.. being into real estate we decided to buy a place in Belize instead of rent. We bought a 4 unit building. We "free" rented one of the units to an expat to watch the place. They also manage and rent the other units for us. The property tax is nil. Renting just one of the apartments for a few months covers the other expenses. Best is we have a winter get away that pays us to come visit.

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Hello Todd,
if you spend 10k in rent for a winter season in Belize you can live in some of the resorts aswell. Not the high upper class ones but in general.
Of course in your calculation there are no additional costs for you but you have not factored in the opportunity costs.
I have been doing property business on caribbean islands for a while now and Belize is not a place I persoanlly would buy in.
May I ask in what area you bought? How do you adversite is? Airbnb? VRBO? If so send me a link please. I am curious

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I believe most expats would be more than willing to pay more property tax., certainly I would. The key is trying to ensure its goes back into roads, schools and hospitals.

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…
I'm for sure not any expert in investing in the Caribbean.. I have done well at it in Canada though.
One thing I have learnt is that buying is always better than renting.
We bought in Corozal because it is cheap,safe and close to Mexico if you need to make special purchases.
You are right, I'm sure there are better monetary investments.. but we saw this as more than just that.. After years high stress work I am looking forward to laid back Corozal. We are not touristy at all.. so it is a fit for us.
We have not had to advertise to rent it. It has been word of mouth with the many expats in town and also local real estate agents get a referral for getting us a tenant.
We are also lucky to be in the position where I don't really care if it is rented. I just want someone there to take care of it.
The rent is a bonus.
We have a cottage here in Canada; 3 hour drive to a hospital, dirt road, taxes $5500 and no rent coming in.

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Well Canada. That is not comparable at all. It s easy to have inflated property prices in a market like Canada as they have an established credit system where people with a medium or even low income job can get a mortgage with like 10% down payment and like 3% interest rate.
In the Caribbean it s very hard to get financing. I know banks that do it with 50% down and than interest rates are between 7 and 12% in USD.
I was looking at Corozal too. It s a lot cheaper than Placencia or the Cays simply due to the fact that is has no sandy beach.

And a lot of people lost money there. If you go a bit outside of town like to Consejo there is every third house / lot for sale. Or on the way to Mexico on the right side are lot s of nice properties that are abandoned already.

It is still smarter to rent. In Corozal you get a 2 or even 3 BR house for like 300, max 400 USD a months.

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PUDGE / MIKZZ:

You can make money with real estate in Belize, especially if you are on Ambergris Caye. I have a condo there, keep it rented and have used it myself as well and it basically cash flows itself, allows me a few months a year to use it (we now basically live there in the off season) and it is increasing in value.

If you look at the exit strategy, you can really make some long term money.

although depending on how much time you want to spend there yourself, renting is very affordable in Belize, even on the Cayes.

On this forum, you see many people saying how expensive the Cayes are, but compared to what you spend in the US or Canada, it's till CHEAP!

Feel free to contact me directly and I will send you my private contact info to discuss if you like. I have a few people that I have helped to invest and/or buy and they have all done very well.

I am NOT a realtor or affiliated with any property, just so you know I'm not looking to "sell" you anything.

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Brad it always depends with what you compare it too. Ambergris is a lot cheaper than most other Caribbean islands like St Kitts, Cayman, Providenciales, Grenada, etc..
I just stayed on Ambergris for 2 weeks so I did not dig deep into it. It has definitly more value than the mainland which has no beach and last months Ambergris was packed with tourists. Same as Placencia.
I will go back in summer to see how it will be than.

So far I was only looking further into Corozal and Placencia regarding the property market.

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I was only comparing that our vacation property in Canada costs a ton of money. Our vacation house in Corozal brings income in.
We rent bachelors for $500USD and a 3 bedroom for $800USD . It is very nice though. We have not had a problem renting it.

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Hi Brad, we lived on AC for 16 yrs, i agree its expensive compared to mainland Belize, but as you say in reality its not expensive compared to USA and even cheaper compared to Europe. The only thing that got me upset was paying 6 times the price of a bottle of wine i would by at Sams , and decent beef, was difficult to come by. We owned a beach bungalow the only one north of SP before the bridge and made a very large profit when we sold. But it took 14 months to sell. and a drop of $75k usd . We never had problems letting it. But i most certainly wouldnt buy anything at this moment , when its likely the $bz could be devalued soon, S&P downgraded Belize to CCC- today . At the moment its a watch and wait time

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Well saying that AC is cheaper than Canada or USA isnt exactly correct:
Charmin 12 roll ...
San Pedro Belize – 8 roll $24.30
San Ignacio Belize – $26.95
Playa Del Carmen Mexico – $1.52
Prescott Arizona – $5.97
Houston Texas – ultra strong $7.99
Mississauga Canada – $ 8.80
The Belize prices are in BZ dollars so cut in half and its still higher at 12$ or so. Everywhere else is USD
Conclusion: dont get dysentery on the Cayes. Cayo neither actually
The prices for Monterrey Jack are 1.7x higher on AC then Toronto. You are SOL with cool ranch Doritos which is 2x more on AC. Now you can say I can do without that. But why?

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Hi Allan, i agree with much that youb say, ive worked hard all my life started , owned and run two high tec. companies, lived all over the place, loved the Caribbean, St Lucia being my favourite, but now in retirement i want comfort at my finger tips, the best meds i can get, great theatre , entertainment and a place my extended family can travel to cheaply and easily to, quite simply, Belize is no longer that place. Belize is a great vacation destination, full stop, if it rings your bell, then stay there. Simple choice.

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bobbyvee , good response… I guess I see Belize through the eyes of a early retiree at 45. I do not have the same worries as a 65 year old. Hopefully Belize will be there in 20 years..or I go back to Canada.

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Yep it really is horses for courses.

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Is your property in Belize vacant at the moment? I am looking to move to Belize in August after I finish my graduate degree. I am a 38 year old disabled veteran receiving disability pension. Please let me know any details regarding the property if it is available.

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