A global pandemic with no end in sight. Cold weather just around the bend. If I’m working from home, and my home can be anywhere, why not steps from the beach?
“It’s a question I’m hearing a lot these days,” said Michael Simons, the enthusiastic owner of Tres Amigos Real Estate in Papagayo, Costa Rica, whose ‘Tank Tops and Flip Flops’ video blog is a perennial YouTube standout. “Our borders were closed for five or six months at the height of the pandemic. But from the day we opened up to Americans in September, I’ve had a client in my car every day for two months and waves of buyers just keep coming in.”
Why not, asks Simons, when Costa Rica’s beaches are nothing if not a small piece of paradise?
“We are the safest country in the world,” he said. “No crime. Great schools. Beach weather year-round - and $200,000 can buy you a piece of it just a block or two away from the shore. Why wouldn’t you want to work with your toes in the sand and the sound of the ocean in your ears?”
About a third of Simon’s clients are pulling up stakes to buy a primary residence there, he said. Another third are ‘snowbirds,’ eager to purchase second homes they can retreat to as often as possible.
“And the last third,” said Simon, “are investing in property now and hoping to become one of the other two thirds.”
An expansive beach-close or ocean view home with all the amenities, he said - the kind you might pay $10 million for in, say, the exclusive enclave of Malibu, California - will set you back just a $1 million or so on the laid-back island - although many, if not most, are all cash sales.
“That is not deterring the wave of people who want to live and work in a bit of paradise,” said Scott Cutter,” co-owner, with his brother, Todd, of 2CostaRica Real Estate in the island’s San Jose Province. “I sold a beautiful, 2,700 square foot, ocean view condo this morning for $505,000 cash to a woman who will be working remotely from here.”
Another buyer - a couple from Florida, he said, frustrated by months of quarantining, are now elated to finally be purchasing a home they first saw early in the year.
But not all beach-loving Americans are going as far as Costa Rica, a five-hour flight from most American hubs, to make their work-from-paradise dreams a reality.
“While the rest of the world was shut down to travelers as a result of COVID-19, Americans could still come here, no passport needed, to the U.S. Virgin Islands,” noted Nick Van Assche, broker for the Island Living Collective in the idyllic islands of St. Thomas, St, John, and St. Croix. “They are still coming, and demand for property is soaring in this fourth quarter.”
The U.S. Virgin Islands, 40 miles east of Puerto Rico in the northeast Caribbean Sea, are still recovering from hyper-active hurricanes suffered earlier this year. The end result is hard-to-beat prices for pandemic-weary mainland buyers.
“Many buyers, especially those who have vacationed here in the past, are now pulling the trigger,” he said. “We just sold a gorgeous, totally renovated condo on St. Thomas for $600,000,” Van Assche said. “You can buy a beautiful four-bedroom home with an ocean view for $1.5 to $2 million, all at conventional financing.”
And while short-term vacation leases are typical on the islands, he said, long-term leases are now the norm as more workers are taking advantage of the opportunity to work remotely in a dream destination while still on American soil - or sand, as the case may be.
Closer to home, there is a rush on property in Naples, Florida, said Lori Fowler, an 8-year veteran with Coldwell Banker Global Luxury Team in the sugar-sand beach community.
“We’ve traditionally been a seasonal resort town,” Fowler said. “COVID put the lid on that this year. But we offer big city amenities along with our small-town beach ambience. As soon as people realized they could work here virtually with their toes in the sand, properties began flying off the shelves.”
So much so, she said, that inventory can’t keep up with demand.
“I have one listing at the moment, an amazing golf course home, for $5.2 million. “Supply is lagging way behind demand.”
In the balmy sands of Palm Springs, California, a desert community where Canadians typically flock to escape cold winters, the pandemic is keeping people away, noted Paul Kaplan, who leads the boutique Paul Kaplan Group.
“But people know they can get a beautiful two-bedroom and den home here with mountain views for $300,000,” Kaplan said. “These days, buyers from San Francisco and other cities are trading their $5,000 a month mortgages for an $800 a month mortgage here. Why wouldn’t they want to work remotely in a dream destination where the sun shines every day of the year?”
Why, indeed?
Hello from Paradise!
