Colombia's Real Estate Future?

This new forum is about investing in Colombia and other Latin American countries.

When is the right time to invest and where?

What about Brazil, Costa Rica, Chili and Peru to name a few.

[John]

Here is an interesting news article (today) about Colombia's relationship with the USA and a comment or two about investment opportunities outlook by Colombia's president, Uribe:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050804/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

John [img]smile.gif[/img]

Is this new forum viable? Give us your vote...

Keep it or delete it?

[Dr. Detroit]

I wouldn't mind seeing it stay around a while.

Personally, I'm not enough of a businessman to gauge investment down there without losing my shirt, but if someone was into it and introduced ideas or plans on this forum, I would consider it useful info. We know the Latin countries are lagging behind and have to be developed much more, albeit at seemingly a snail's pace...

[Jamie]

While I have some experience and many stories on doing business in Colombia my lack of time prevents me from writing about this. I will however answer questions others may have on doing business in Colombia. I suspect some of the same issues would apply to all parts of Latin American. I have always been in supervision or management since graduating from college first operations and then staff and I owned a small business in the States for 7 years, I have an MBA and was a financial controller for and Aerospace company and a semiconductor company and while you read about the challenges of doing business outside the States nothing really prepares you for the way things really are.

[ribman56]

I think it is a good thing to talk about doing business in Colombia. I own a BBQ business and I am working on selling BBQ sauce in Cali. I found that the people are open to new product.Let's keep this going.

[kbeckerman]

Colombia's economy is growing at about 3.5% and unemployment is currently at 11% down from 20%. International Investment has increased considerably since Uribe has been president. They still have a long way to go. Mexico's GDP is about 28 times larger than that of Colombia.

[abrutha]

i tend to believe that the colombian economy will continue to grow, up until a certain point

at that point there will need to be a structural shift in the country, the people and the culture, in order for it to continue

examples may be the economies of spain and portugal 20(?) years ago with their entry into the EU,
current examples may be the transformation going on in those countries now seeking EU membership

[Jim]

I know lots about Costa Rica, having lived there for seven months. It is much safer and more secure than most other LA countries.

I think the only major investments individuals make are land / housing investments, many of which are for their personal use and also starting their own businesses. One of my options when I move to Costa Rica will be having my own business which is one of the few ways a gringo can legally earn money in CR.

Like in the US, most small businesses fail in Costa Rica. If someone has something they have succeeded at in the United Staes it might work in CR or Colombia. Many Gringo CR businesses cater to the large expatriot population which lives in CR. This forms a base for their enterprises and they can also sell to Costa Ricans.

lets tlak businees shall we, In my opinion I have been doing business in Colombia for the last ten years and I have seen the economical growth and again inmy opinion realstate is the way to go.

I will give you an example I bought some land in a place called Guatape a few years back for about 40.000 dollars and sold it recently for 80.000 dollars that should give you guys an idea obviously you need connections and a lot of research.

I call this city that I live in a DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH its what Costa Rica was ten or twenty years ago