If you’re a regular reader, chances are you’re seriously considering buying property on the Coast. The question of the day is what area(s) offers the best environment for investing? Here’s our opinion on the specific spots providing decent investment opportunities. There’s more to the Coast than Punta del Este, by the way.
Let me introduce you to a compact area I call The Corridor. Punta del Este is the center of gravity for an area which extends from Piriapolis, through La Punta, to Jose Ignacio.
Below are two map links; the first is a graphic map, which illustrates The Corridor:
The second link below is a satellite view. The geography, towns and the density of population are more clearly defined.
(If you put your mouse cursor on the dots/boxes on the map, it will show the name of the town, area etc. Be sure to use the controls, upper left, to zoom in/out and change the direction of the view east/west & north/south.)
Here’s why we believe identifying this area is important. We always get questions about remote areas in Rocha, such as La Paloma, Cabo Polonio and Punta Diablo to a lesser extent. My take on it is this, if you want to live in splendid isolation, these villages are wonderful. Hum????? Not me. There’s little infrastructure and a social life would be nearly impossible for foreigners.
Here’s the investment rational for this zone. The Corridor is near a major international city, Montevideo. Piriapolis is less than one hour from the Montevideo airport and Jose Ignacio is less than two hours, basic criteria for mobile international investors fulfilled. So it’s like this, Piriapolis is the most beautiful place in Uruguay, not just the Coast, so it’s position is cemented. La Punta is the most developed, and is the center. Jose Ignacio is trendy, with the most cache, replete with Wall Street Journal articles praising it.
Going back to the satellite view you’ll see there’s little between Piriapolis and Punta Ballena, which is part of La Punta for all practical purposes, but untouched beach. On the opposite side of La Punta is La Barra. Between La Barra and picturesque Jose Ignacio, there is nothing but kilometers and kilometers of undeveloped, pristine beach.
Of these place, which offers the best value? Although I’m biased, I feel our home town of Piriapolis wins hands down. The Pira area has the county’s only mountains, best views in Uruguay, it’s the closest to Montevideo and is at the cusp of the Rio de Plata and the Atlantic. Therefore, the water quality is much better than the murky Rio. Last of all, property in Piriapolis is inexpensive in comparison as it is just now recovering from decades of neglect……it’s clearly a value play.
Investors and entrepreneurs for hundreds, if not thousands of years, have used a similar model to find opportunity.
Stay Tuned!
Steve Bowman
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March 5th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
[...] a recent article, The Corridor, I talked about the large tracts of undeveloped ocean front land outside of Punta del Este and the [...]