Expat Community > Belize

Olorin
Joined 2014
Posts: 39

Placencia Due Diligence

9 years ago

Since folks on this forum provide lots of helpful advice I thought I would share our recent trip to Placencia where we went there specifically to do some on the ground due diligence. Flew into Belize City, and made the drive down the Hummingbird Hwy (specifically to see this part). We spent a bit over a week there. Have been twice before to AC and spent time there. So here are some brief thoughts on what we found that I thought I would share:

1) Road to Placencia--not bad, and have seen worse in the US. Definately a plus to be able to drive directly down into Placencia (vs. being on AC where a boat trip would be necessary)
2) Access to stores--went to various grocery stores and found in Placencia not bad choices or prices. Stopped in some also in Belize City and Belmopan, and also not bad. Nothing like the US for sure, but not bad choices and availability. Some things cheaper than US (like local foods), but generally packaged stuff would be cheaper in the US (but not terribly higher priced)
3) Restaurants--absolutely wonderful restaurants there. Both "local ones" where you could buy food/drinks relatively cheap, to very nice restaurants with great food. Very impressed with quality, choices and prices of restaurants there.
4) Beach--was a very nice beach all up and down the penisula (much better than beaches in AC). Most properties nicely set back from beaches (not built on top of them) and generally very good conditions on all beaches (did a lot of walking up and down lots of beaches). Plus in Placencia you also have the lagoon on the backside which somewhat doubles the "water frontage" area you have access to.
5) Views--I found the views of the ocean and beaches great. As nice as many places I've been to. And because you have a main good road running right through the penisula, you don't have all the boat and foot traffic in front of you all day long on the beachfront and water front (basically very peaceful and great views if you sit on the beach, with not a lot of back and forth 'traffic". The views out the back of the lagoon and Maya Mountains also were great. Was very impressed with this part
6) Facilities like banks, scuba shops, specialty shops like coffee, bakery, fishing, ice cream, etc. Seemed to be lots of choices, mainly in the village. Village itself is pretty crowded (but not terrible), but it seems nicer the more north you go (like Maya Beach). So live north, and go to village for anything when you need it
7) Real estate--very nice homes going up everywhere. So depending on what you are looking for, lots of extremely nice homes going up (which should keep up real estate values since a vested interest in not letting things get run down). If you are looking for "cheap" real estate/homes, probably will get hard to find. But if you were thinking of having a home, should be good to have lots of other nice homes around already to support the market. Clearly there seems to be a wave of improvements and homes and overall real estate investments going on, that I would assume momentum would cause to continue.
8) Hotels--lots of nice choices, from small boutique, to "cheaper" type hotels, to really nice ones. No big resorts really (other than The Placencia which seems an odd ghost town somewhat).
9) Marinas--several very nice large ones. Lots of nice boats and sailboats docked, so was surprised at how many nice boats there were overall (which I take to be another good sign for investment coming in to support this)

Just some overall thoughts I would share. Was very impressed with the area, and will keep doing homework, but anyone with thoughts (concurring or shooting down) my initial on the ground experience would be appreciated.

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Placencia Due Diligence

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