Salon Inmobiliario Punta del Este

Over 100 brokers and developers participated in SIPE 2011 at the Conrad in Punta del Este.

Of all the takeaways gleaned at the 2011 Salon Inmobiliario last week in Punta del Este, we were most impressed by the 2010 summary confirming our long-held belief the smart money is moving north of Punta along the Tango Coast of Uruguay from Maldonado and increasingly into Rocha. One of the highlights of the four-day Real Estate Expo held at the Conrad was the presentation made by Tourism Director Horacio Di­az confirming the northern migration of deals, developers and dollars.

In 2010, the value of all real estate sold in Maldonado reached US$1.279 billion, a 53% increase over 2009. Of that US$1.279 billion, just over US$580 million were transactions taking place in Punta del Este, another 53% increase over 2009. The “Rural Zone” north of Punta encompassing oceanfront destinations like Manantiales, La Barra, Garzon and the beaches surrounding Jose Ignacio ranked number two with sales of US$263 million in 2010, a record-setting 158% increase over 2009 for a two-year total of US$365 million.

The other highlight of the event was the pro-Uruguay, pro-development speech by Vice President Danilo Astori. InvestBA has chronicled the positive outreach of the Mujica administration to the developer community, and Astori’s comments were further validation of their shared foreign investment policy goals. “The national project for Uruguay is a project of openness to the world,” Astori said. “It’s a bet on the promotion of the real estate sector, whose numbers we are celebrating today as proof of its formidable growth and expansion.”

For more information about investing in Uruguay, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

Punta del Este Land

Aerial view of a 155-acre Maldonado estancia that InvestBA is listing for US$2,500,000

With less than 60 days remaining before the beginning of High Season, current land and homeowners in Punta del Este will have something else to celebrate as they ring in the New Year: Appreciation.

A new study from Uruguay’s Tierras y Proyectos (TyP) shows three important trends in the average price of land in Punta del Este: it started rising in 2005, it picked up speed in the last two years and it really began to surge over the last six months (April-September). ON24 summed up the report’s findings like this,“The price of real estate in Punta del Este seems to have momentum and has climbed significantly in recent times.

The upward trend is reflected in the new report which analyzes the evolution of land prices in terms of sales price per SF, total land available for construction and total volume of investment in the Uruguayan city.” The report credits the surge in 2010 prices to the large number of investors, mostly Argentines looking for safe harbor, buying land in and around Punta del Este to convert into small and mid-size multi-family projects.

The last TyP Report in March pegged the average price per SF of available land at US$294.62 per square meter. The new survey shows the average price has climbed to $347.02, a 17.8% increase in only six months reflecting the dwindling supply of Maldonado coastal land with a good combination of location, views, natural surroundings and beach proximity. (Full Story in Spanish)

For more information about real estate opportunities along the Tango Coast of Uruguay, contact us directly and download the latest issue of InvestBA Privada.

New Construction in Maldonado

Local officials anticipate another record year of residential construction in Maldonado, Uruguay

The Uruguayan coastal state of Maldonado, home to popular beach side destinations like Punta del Este and Jose Ignacio, is poised for another record year of new residential development, according to state development and tourism officials.

In an interview with El Pais, the Director of City Tourism for Maldonado Horacio Di­az says in January and February, developers submitted approval requests for 170,000 m² of new residential construction. At the current rate, Maldonado forecasts 400,000 m² of new projects will be submitted for approval by year-end 2010. If that forecast is valid, the increase in new construction requests would exceed 2009 by 14.2%.

In 2009, developers submitted approval request for 350,000 m² of new construction, of which Maldonado approved 290,000 m² or 83%. Contrary to popular belief, most of the new construction requests in 2009 were for single-family homes (63%) vs. multi-unit dwellings (37%), of which only 10-12% were high-rise condominiums.

In the same article, El Pai­s points to the report we shared last month regarding the dynamic nature of the Maldonado real estate market vis-a-vis Buenos Aires. Over a recent 12-month period, the ratio of total area: sales was almost identical for both Buenos Aires (200,000 km² : US$4.26MM ) and Punta del Este (20,000 km² : US$437MM).

For more information about Maldonado real estate opportunities, download IncomeBA and the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

Buenos Aires v. Punta del Este

Buenos Aires may have 300x more residents, but thousands of them own homes in Punta del Este.

The first round of the Copa del Mundo is over for local favorites Argentina and Uruguay, and both teams are safely through: Uruguay will face South Korea on Saturday, and Argentina will face Mexico on Sunday. Unfortunately, the only way the two teams would face each other would be in the World Cup final which seems highly unlikely.

So today Reporte Inmobiliario (RI) offers the next best thing: the Copa del Condo with Argentina’s capital city squaring off against Uruguay’s most popular beach resort. The Argentine journal sizes up Punta del Este in terms of total foreign investment, as well as its similarities and differences with Buenos Aires.

The Punta del Estate Real Estate Association says $934 million in transactions took place between March 2009 and February 2010. The majority of the deals were done in Punta del Este ($437M or 48%) followed by Maldonado ($175M or 19%), the Rural Zone ($128M or 13%), and La Barra ($45M or 5%). Over the same 12-month period, over $4.2 billion in deals were done in Buenos Aires or 4.5x as many as PdE, which shows how dynamic Punta’s market is when you consider BA has 300x the population.

Not surprisingly, the summer months (Dec.-Feb.) are the months when most deals are done in Punta del Este. In closing, RI says recent high profile lot acquisitions by U.S. investors will be one of the topics discussed at their July Conference. (Full article in Spanish)

Montevideo Aerial

Luxury projects are being built in Montevideo neighborhoods like Punta Carretas, Pocitos and Malvín

Earlier this month InvestBA reported on the recent gains in the Buenos Aires real estate market: closings up 37%, total value of all sales up 57% and median prices up 15%. Now the news from across the river is equally encouraging and offers more evidence of regional strength following a weak 2009 for both countries.

Uruguay’s National Statistics Institute released housing data for the first quarter of 2010, and the total number of closings is up 18% compared to 1Q09. The total dollar amount of all 15,015 real estate transactions in the first quarter of 2010 also rose 32% compared to 1Q09; yet, when adjusting from U.S. dollars to Uruguayan pesos the increase was a more modest 9.3%. (As evident on this XE.com chart, the U.S. dollar has fallen 18% against the peso over the past year.)

Looking at the most recent month of available data, the most real estate closings took place in Montevideo (34%), Maldonando (13%), Canelones (12%), Cerro Largo (6%) and Colonia (5%). The median price per square meter of all transactions in the first quarter rose 6% over 1Q09, while the Construction Cost Index (construction costs less land value) posted a modest 5% gain over 1Q09.

News was also positive for property owners in the Uruguay rental market, as average rental prices rose 6% in the first quarter to US$342. The three most expensive markets for renters were Punta Carretas, Pocitos and Malvín with median rental rates of US$418, $394 and $387, respectively. (Full Report PDF in Spanish)

For more information about investment opportunities in Uruguay including several estancias, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada and watch video tours of InvestBA listings:

Canelones Estancia – US$1,500,000

Punta del Este Citrus Estancia – US$2,500,000

La Paloma Waterfront – US$3,500,000

 

Bariloche

Mendoza

Uruguay

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