Uruguay Coastal Properties

As we’ve talked about, 2007 was the busiest year for tourism since 1996. (This is info we got from Telemondo.)

This year at our sister site, Coastal Uruguay, traffic is heavy on the Rental Page, 30 - 50 unique visitors per day. Piriapolis bookings and rental inquiries are above last year at this time by a wide margin.

This is coming to your attention because high season bookings are well underway. This is a good time to make your reservation.

In addition, airfares are still reasonable! We recently booked a direct flight from Miami to Montevideo for about $1,075 -  about 25 more than last year at this time. We noticed in 2007 that people who waited until October to book their high season flights paid around $500 more than we did. As I said, make your move soon.

In case you’re wondering what are good months to visit, here’s my take. There are several great months besides January (high, high season.) To me, December, March and April are the best months of the year. We’re happy to report that March and April were fully booked for several of us here in town last year. Also note that November has some very nice weather as well. Windbreakers are needed a few days of the month, but I’ve burned my hide off in November. (May has some decent weather for that matter.)

And don’t forget, prices are better during the other four ideal months here on the Coast.

February which is Carnival month, is a good high season bet because prices are very reasonable compared with January.

Stay Tuned!

Steve Bowman

I feel like it would be fun to let readers in on the behind the blogisphere curtain. On the business side of it, you may see the advantage of  advertising with us if you have a unique property you want to sell that can be identified in a few key words.

This article is an example. The sole purpose is to maintain our ranking with the search engines for prized terms like luxury property uruguay. While I’m at it, let’s not forget luxury homes uruguay, mansions uruguay and estates uruguay. Oh, I almost failed to mention luxury real estate uruguay, the one set of key words that bedevils us. It is our business to make sure this happens, so there you have it.

Like so many other bloggers, I used to spend a lot of time weaving key words into articles to accomplish what’s been done with about 200 words. No more. Now I do a brief post dedicated to key words once in awhile, and the rest of the time I can focus on a good article without thinking about Google for one second.

Does this work? Yes sir’ee! We have first page rankings for all the above terms but one. A static website could take years to accomplish the same results and a clean sweep of all these terms is not likely.

What does it take to get to the juncture you’re seeing right now? Nine months to a year of work, averaging two articles per week, with stuff worth reading, in a clearly defined niche. That’s all.

Stay Tuned!

Steve Bowman

According to Telemondo, 2008 was the best year for tourism since 1996. The 2009 visitors season is off with a bang as well! We have bookings for next year and inquiries about rentals are up quite a bit compared with last year.

We feel we’ve played a small part by making Piriapolis far more visible in the international market. Our sister publication, Coastal Uruguay, the virtual Coastal Chamber of Commerce, had a larger hand in the success. Of the goals targeted, none is more important than exposing the Coast of Uruguay to European and North American audiences, with the express purpose expanding the visitor’s season beyond the two months (at best) it’s historically limited to. I’m happy to report progress is excellent.

I’ve talked with several travelers from North America and Europe that visited Piriapolis because of these publications. Another thing I appreciate about these people is most of them choose to visit in wonderful times like November, March and April, months South Americans do not come. We’ve also had rugged individuals as renters in May, June and September.

As the tourist season expands, we feel with complete and absolute certainty, cultural, creative as well as investment opportunities in real estate will grow exponentially. This trend has played out many times, many places on earth with the same results!

Stay Tuned!

Steve Bowman

If you’re planning on doing business when you visit our Coast, which many of our readers are, here’s an important tip: Get a Uruguayan phone number!

A foreign mobile service may work in Uruguay, but to do business effectively within the country, you’ll need a Uruguayan phone number. While Uruguay is not a poor country, the average businessperson is not going to call your US number. Won’t happen. In addition, placing any volume of calls at all, could be really expensive with a US cell phone….hundreds of dollars.

There are two ways to solve the problem:

The first possibility is to buy a phone when you get here and hold on to it for future visits (less than US$80.) The second option is to bring an “Unlocked” phone with you. The advantage of owning an Unlocked phone is you can take it with you anywhere in the world and use with very little extra expense.

There are two options for an Unlocked phone. Option one is to unlock your current GSM phone, or, buy an Unlocked GSM handset. In either case, all that’s required is to place a Sim Card (the handset’s brain) from a Uruguayan service provider such as Ancel or Movistar, inside your device. The magic word is Unlocked.

Here’s the skinny on Locked/Unlocked. When you buy a phone from ATT, T-Mobile, or whoever, it’s Locked to work only on the supplier’s network (That’s why the phone is cheap when signing up for a new service.)

Unlocking your Existing GSM Handset:
If you have a fairly recent, or not TOO new/exotic, there are shops in Uruguayan cities that can Unlock your phone. (There are hardware only stores in most countries that can as well.) This is the type of cottage industry the people here do very well with. All that’s required is the software and a little knowledge. The cost is about US$25.

Buying an Unlocked GSM Phone:
Handsets can by purchased online or at wireless hardware retail stores. The specifications are pretty simple; you’re looking for a Quad Band GSM phone. (More bands are better but not really necessary.) A quad band device will function on the four frequency bands that cover about 85% of the planet. A nice handset can be had online for less than US$200. For instance, we bought an unlocked handset, plugged in the ATT Sim, and the service came right up. Mostly, it was that simple when we put in the Ancel Sim.

An Unlocked phone doesn’t “care” what service it’s directed to use.

The Last Piece:
The Sim card can be purchased online or in Uruguay. We bought a Sim card from Ancel in Montevideo for 50 pesos, about US$2.50. The online sites make a big deal (convenience) of buying the card from them before leaving the country….for about US$25. Based on a couple technical twists, buy the chip in UY.

You’re ready for business.

Stay Tuned!

Steve Bowman

Yep. Yes sir’ee. Inflation is indeed rearing its ugly head.

Here in Uruguay, the government claims the official rate of inflation is 8.5%. Yeah, sure. The tooth fairy gave them that number. Based on my by gosh and by golly assessment, in January 2008 prices were, on average, at least 15% above December 2007. Food prices up 20%, and other items like medications were up 35%. Building materials skyrocketed 30% from between Spring of 2007 and now. (By the way, inflation is an issue on a planetary level right now; it’s not just Uruguay.) However, this region is legendary for its insane inflation levels, 300%….. the sky has been the limit.

So what does that mean if you’re a prospective real estate investor? In moderation, inflation is very good for hard assets like real estate. When it goes to extremes, like what is happening in Argentina right now (23% so they say, ah huh), it always turns out ugly. The economic crisis of 2001 - 2002 in Uruguay and Argentina is one way the drama could unfold. For those of you that don’t know, the bottom fell out here. It was one nasty mother!

How the story will actually play out in a hyper inflation scenario is impossible to know, but as I said, the ending is never pretty. If you feel this is just a temporary blip, or it won’t get too far out of hand, invest! If you believe hyper inflation is in play, I’d leave my checkbook at home when you come to visit our beautiful coast.

Stay Tuned!

Steve Bowman

We’ve had a few inquiries about advertising unique properties on our site: estates, mansions…..luxury property.

If you have questions about how effective this may be, do a search for: luxury property uruguay, luxury real estate uruguay, mansions uruguay, estates, etc you’ll find we come on the first page, sometimes more than once.

All of this depends a bit on the day with Google. They have a problem giving up the luxury category for both real estate and property at the same time. Other search engines do not.

The same favorable results with another unique type of property will be equally effective because this is a blog. With an established site such as this, put up some posts about the property type and the search engines are attracted by the terminology magnets.

A few times each month, someone emails or calls to ask about moving to Uruguay to start a business serving the domestic market. Two words for you: Forget it!

Coastal Uruguay has covered this ground in vivid detail. This one article sums up the case against it: Trouble In Paradise.

I don’t want to rehash a well-covered topic; let’s just say as an entrepreneur, it would be hard to come up with a worse idea. What can you do here to make money? Well, lots of things as long as your customers are out of the country. For instance web, design, post production/media editing, exporting businesses, to name a few, can and do work beautifully from here. Uruguay is a platform from which to do international business.

Do yourself a favor and read this article; be sure to read the comments. The very last comment by a Uruguayan woman named Margarita is graphic and answers most questions.

Stay Tuned!

Steve Bowman

PS: Oh yeah. How could I forgot about real estate development? Developers from Europe and North America are doing quite well here.

After almost one full year of promoting the Other Four Perfect Months of the Year, we’re starting to see results. I’m really happy to report that the level of visitors coming to Piriapolis in months other the January is up dramatically.

In particular, March is booked in our rentals and the properties of our friends. Why is March such a good month to visit? First, the weather is fantastic; this is North America’s September. Second, prices for accommodations are about 40% less than January.

For the record, if you’re thinking about visiting here, November through mid April is pretty wonderful. My favorite months of the year are December and March for weather and good prices. February to me is the best high season month because rental prices are about 20% less than January and there’s lots to do; Carnival is this month.

Come on down! The water is great.

Steve Bowman

Coastal Uruguay, our sister publication, has advocated the importance of building Tourism and Travel for our coast line since day one, but not for the obvious reasons.

Coastal Uruguay is an ideal vacation playground in many ways. During the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, weather is pleasant, warm, the water cool and clean, the beaches pristine and unpopulated. Prices are pretty pleasing as well. As long as you avoid the somewhat inflated prices of January, a nice view or beachfront flat, not a hotel room, can be had for US$70 or less. Once restaurant, grocery and bar bills are factored in, which are about one third of EU or North America prices, what’s not to like?

When is the best time to visit? Anytime between November 15th and April 15 will most likely be good. The weather and prices are good to great.

I’ll spare you the details of, “What is there to do here?” You can get that anywhere. I’ll just highlight things that standout to me. As a sailor, I feel the windy/breezy conditions and the water quality make this one of the premier sailing locals on earth. The wide-open spaces in the unpopulated hills flanking the Coastal Corridor are ideal for horseback riding or cycling.

Moving on, there are two primary motivations for bring up tourism. First, the Coast of Uruguay is a well-kept secret, too well kept. Most tourism happens in January, with a fair amount in February. The visitors are primarily from Argentina and Brazil. So what’s the problem? Stores, restaurants and other businesses find it difficult to sustain their operations based on a ridiculous two month season. Next, the economic climate throughout Uruguay is morbid. Creative, entrepreneurs from the outside will most likely be involved if change is to come.

Both these maladies can be corrected with a vast expansion of the tourist season and number of visitors from the North.

If we’re unknown, no new visitors come, no new blood means the right expats, immigrants or investors with money and talent don’t enter the picture. This seems terribly obvious, but this is exactly what’s happening now. Why is this influx of talent/money from the north important? The South Americans that comprise the majority of the visitors now will not be the ones to help build a more prosperous Uruguay. The Uruguay of tomorrow will be designed and built by visionaries from the outside, working with, and hiring the young, educated, highly skilled young people of this country.

If the above hypothesis is accepted, the model for development is like this. Step one. The Season must be redefined at five months, and coupled with a dynamic tourism promotional program targeted at the EU and North America. This will help existing businesses, but more importantly, entrepreneurial visitors will become enchanted with the Coast and possible opportunities.

Step two. Some visitors will decide to live here or contribute in other ways. Many of these prospective immigrants/investors will not be interested in retiring. I’ve had a least 50 emails and a dozen phone calls from people on four continents asking the same thing, “What can I do there?” My answer is this: A business that serves the domestic market is a terrible idea. Forget it! Find a knowledge based service/product you can Export via the internet from Uruguay. This takes advantage of the countries low cost structure which includes hiring the highly educated, skilled, young workforce. There are dozens of Knowledge Exporting businesses that can be done from here.

If this simple sequence of events takes place, it will be magical for the Uruguayan people. If you’re interested in real estate, appreciation is a mere byproduct of an expanding middle-class.

The key to economic development and the real estate business is Tourism.

Does Uruguay have a plan to promote Tourism? None is evident. This is one of the risks I see in investment here.

Steve Bowman

In the past few months, several readers have expressed interest in beachfront or view rentals here on the Coast and Piriapolis in particular.

At this time, there are some nice view flats for rent in town including the possibility of occupancy in January and February. There are one and two bedroom flats in the $500 – 650/month range. The Rental page has a couple of options and there are a few more that we don’t have pictures up for yet. The term for these rentals is in the 5 – 10 month range. Shorter lease periods are possible but it can effect the rental rate.

If you’re wondering about one year leases, there are a number of reasons why leases for 12 months are not practical for owners.

Please email or call me if you’re interested. We in UY now so if you call, the number is 099 211 419. (Out of country the number is 99 211 419 – country code 00598.)

Stay Tuned!

Steve Bowman