Its called the Garapua Beach Resort and is situated on the Ilha de Tinhare, a pretty little island 60km south of Salvador in the Baia de Todos os Santos.

The island is considered to be one of the most desirable tropical destinations in the world and is the tenth most visited place in Brazil. With beautiful beaches and calm, crystalline, warm waters, Atlantic rainforest, mangroves and coconut groves that are home to a stunning array of flowers, colourful birds, monkeys and marine life. The island is home to a few small fishing villages, the largest of which is Morro de Sao Paulo, with beautiful colonial architecture and historical monuments.

This investment opportunity is in pre-launch with stunning prices for a limited period only, starting at an incredibly low entry level of only £50,000. As ever, Harlequin are still offering their 100% funding for only a £1,000 deposit so its also worth a look if you couldn’t raise finance last time around in the Caribbean, since prices start at about half of what we were looking at before.

Brazil’s property market is set to boom due to its rapidly growing economy. Also with the discovery of vast gas and oil reserves, thought to be larger than the Middle east, this has to be on the top of any savvy investor’s wish list.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in Brazil with a growth of over 20% last year. However, the vast majority of tourism is still home-grown and Brazilians make up over 90% of the tourist market. This proportion is changing substantially as more and more international tourists are considering Brazil
as their holiday destination.

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David Allcock and his partner Katie Richardson, from Nottingham, were initially keen to invest in the UK. However, the influence of the current recession on UK banks meant that options were limited and trying to find any sort of investment that would produce future monetary gain proved inconclusive.

They have therefore invested in two Fly to Let properties in the Caribbean. Allcock said: “We chose the Caribbean because tourism is undoubtedly their main industry and also because the Caribbean is still a growing destination. Five star developments in this region are in demand and more often than not there is an under supply of quality accommodation to cope with this demand.

“We felt confident that not only would our investment grow but that it would also provide an ongoing income from the generous rental programmes. Basically the Caribbean ticked all of our boxes.”

The couple’s first investment was a studio apartment at Harlequin’s Buccament Bay Beach Resort on St Vincent’s and The Grenadines. This flagship development is due to open next year. Three months after this initial investment they then decided to buy another studio apartment at Harlequin’s Merricks Resort on Barbados.

Allcock continued: “Overall, we have been delighted with the service and are happy that we have made the right decisions to safeguard our financial futures. Once both developments are completed we will automatically receive 10 percent of the purchase price on both developments for two years followed by an ongoing 50 percent net room rate share.”

Harlequin Hotels & Resorts investors are now using Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) to fund their purchases. Prices start from just £95,000 and investors will receive a rental guarantee of 10 percent of the original purchase price for the first two years, paid from completion, followed by a 50 percent net room rate share ongoing as well as being able to occupy their property for 30 days during the year without charge (except SIPP investors).

Source: Fly-2let.co.uk

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A representative at the foreign investment portal, Property Abroad, believes that the Caribbean hotspot offers the perfect tonic to global markets, which have been battered by the credit crunch.

According to Les Calvert, director of the website, a two-bedroom property in the resort of Sousa would cost an investor about £50,000.

He commented: “Prices are astonishingly low, even for near completed developments.

“When you consider the massively rising tourism to the Dominican Republic in the last few years and its continuing despite the credit crunch because of the low cost Caribbean holiday it offers, it becomes an incredibly buy.”

Mr Calvert added that tourism to the country grew by over one million last year and was forecast to rise again in 2009.

Read more here.

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Along with a booming tourism trade, St. Lucia benefits from a stable government and economy. It has a well-established real estate market, where buyers get a lot more for their money compared to more developed islands such as Barbados. Property prices in St. Lucia are currently 35-40% of the price in Barbados, a gap likely to narrow in the next few years.

A World Bank report has ranked St. Lucia, which benefits from good air transportation links, among the Top 30 places in the world in which to do business. Private property is well-protected on the island, where the legal tradition is based on British common law, with the highest court of appeal the Privy Council in London.

St. Lucia also gets top marks for its warm climate, stunning beaches, crystal-clear sea and charming people, making it a leading island destination in the Caribbean for North American, British and European visitors.

Read more here.

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• The World Tourism Organization named the DR the “Caribbean’s No. 1 Destination,” ending Puerto Rico’s 40-year reign.

• 25% of all travellers to the Caribbean pick the Dominican Republic as their destination, according to the Minister for Tourism.

• Dominican Republic recorded an 8% increase in visitor arrivals in 2008 and aims to reach 5 million by 2012.

Not only is the nation committed to maintaining its status as one of the most reasonably priced Caribbean destinations, but millions of dollars of investment are going into everything from golf courses to marinas and from upscale shopping malls to sports facilities.

Dominican Republic already has more golf courses than any other Caribbean destination, with courses designed by legends such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Nick Faldo. There are 27 courses either operating now, under construction or in the planning stages.

The Dominican Republic has seven international airports, more than any other Caribbean island, making travel easier than for other similar locations.

For investors, a combination of increasing tourist numbers, lower prices and occupancy rates that average above 85% in the most popular areas mean that rental property in Dominican Republic can produce excellent returns.

Read more here.

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We would love you to join us.   It’s only £25 to hang out with some of the smartest, most upbeat property folks you could ever hope to meet.   We hope to see you and enter you for one of our fabulous prizes which include a holiday and mentoring sessions with our speakers and so much more!

You can find out more about our Good News day and book here.

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I’m still as excited as ever I was by the opportunities to acquire property in the Caribbean, off plan, for just £1,000 down.   The whole thing can be 100% funded for you, no money down (apart from that £1k).

Previously we thought you would need to be able to raise finance, even though Harlequin would bear the costs of that borrowing for you, of 30% of your spend.   Until we discovered that if you had a mouldering and unloved pension lurking somewhere you might be able to use that instead.

Then we got excited about the possibility of taking control of our pension funds, putting them into a SIPP and buying Caribbean properties with them.   Hence using your SIPP to buy in St Lucia, St Vincent, Barbados or the Dominican Republic.

The reverse is also true.   If you don’t have a pension (and not many of us self-employed folks do)…

…then Harlequin presents one of the quickest and easiest ways I have seen of creating the sort of income you would want every month as an OAP.   Actually you can start to enjoy it in 6 years’ time if you wish.

You can’t enjoy it in 6 years’ time if you use your SIPP as you are not allowed to enjoy pension benefits until you reach retirement age but the point of this story is that you have choices.   Pension into property or property into pension?

The Money Gym is running an afternoon/evening presentation all about this on Thursday 20th November.   Click here to book.

If you can’t make 20th November, Maria Davies and her team are doing presentatoins all over the UK during November and their dates are listed on their website here.   Please say Hi to Maria and Kim and Mike from me.

Here’s the “joke” that ex Money Gym Gold client Victoria Butcher sent me last week from Harlequin where she now works:

• If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares on year ago, they would now be worth £4.95.
• With HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50.
• The same £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5.
• If you had bought £1000 worth of Tennants lager one year ago, drank it all, then taken the empty cans to an aluminum recycling plant, you would have got £214.

So based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle – and after £1000 worth of Tennants, who gives a damn?

(Just remember that a £1000 reservation fee in either of Harlequin’s investment opportunities Buccament Bay or Two Rivers over the same period would have given you £300k of capital growth!)

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