Dominican Republic: Punta Cana Yes or No?

[James Knecht]

With the Unites States market being so high and the fact that I travel to the Dominican Republic often a thought came to my head. What if I invested in the DR?? I live in Miami and everything here is out of this world expensive. Would love to here any stories from anyone if they have any experience in investing in the DR. Punta Cana appears to be booming and a good option. Thoughts?

[Mike Lambert]

@CJ Witmer

Banks will never finance a property in a foreign country because they don't have the necessary means, knowledge and willingness to go through a foreign legal system to repossess the property should the borrower default on his mortgage.

If you hear or read that somebody got a property financed by a local bank in a foreign country, this is because that bank took some local assets as collateral or gave an unsecured loan. Obviously, this is not a financing specifically for the overseas property and the borrower could use the money to do anything they want.

I'm into doing joint ventures with local partners and I use to lend big money to Latin American banks in my previous corporate career so I get access to the local banking system and so the investors who invest with me can benefit from the leverage that goes with it.

So what can you do if you want to invest by yourself? Seller financing if you can find any. An alternative would be to invest in pre-development properties if you can get developer financing. I've done it elsewhere in Latin America through my connections but I don't know if you can get it in the Dominican Republic. I'm actually working on a beachfront condo project where my local partners and I are actually going to be the developers and sellers and our plan is to include financing as part of the package, which I think would be a first in the Dominican Republic.

Regarding locations:

Las Terrenas: big yes; that's where I'm the most active in the country

Cabarete: yes but less potential than Las Terrenas I think

Sosua: no because of the sex tourism