BUYING LAND IN BELIZE

Belize is a small country, about the size of New Hampshire or El Salvador -- which is a back-door-over-the fence neighbor.  El Salvador has 5 million inhabitants, and New Hampshire has about 2 million.  Belize has 300,000 if we count the unregistered aliens who sneak across the border to grow illegal crops and then get married and settle down here.  As a result, we have, per capita, more land than anyone else around (except maybe Canada.)  Much of this land is actually owned by the government (by default, I think) and they lease it out pretty freely.  By freely, I mean, sometimes they lease the same piece of land to two or three different people.  Hopefully, when someone buys land, they have a clear title, but there are some celebrated recent cases where two people have a legitimate claim to the same parcel of land.

I don't mean to be critical.  This has happened often in the United States, which is the reason that we have Title Companies which methodically trace the ownership of a parcel, and then certify that you are buying a clear title.

You need to do this in Belize, but it isn't quite as straight forward. Everything takes time.

As soon as you get here, Belizeans will start trying to sell you land. Rightfully, land is the basis of most great fortunes, and all Belizeans seem to covet a piece of ground that they can call their own. They expect that you will want to do the same.  Personally, I have been there and done that enough times that I don't feel the need to be a land baron any more, and I tell my potential real estate salesmen that.  "Really? - You don't want to own land??  Really??"  They don't understand it, and they will persist in trying to move you from the "interested" to the "buyer" category.

My advice:  Wait.  At least a year. (Incidentally, this puts off the "salesmen" very nicely.)

One of the local land barons had a lot of land for sale.  He had a development, with quarter-acre "marina lots" for sale at $40K US.  The plans are wonderful.  The view is beautiful.  However, during the last rainy season, almost all of the lots were under 6" to 2 feet of water.

As I suggested in "Belize, an Unfinished Work"  some houses are never finished because it turns out that they are being built on a part-time swamp.   You need to be here during the rainy season in order to check out the plot of land you're thinking about buying.  It can rain five inches in a couple of hours, and if it does this three days in a row, your lot may look like a laguna. (Espaņol for "Lake")  (Read "Fishing on Ambergris Caye" for an account of what happened to our house during Hurricane Bret, and then "The Keith Diaries" which describes our adventures on the lot during that hurricane.)

While you're waiting, check out not only your prospective lots, but your seller.  At least one active seller here in Corozal frequently sells the same lot to two or three buyers.  A friend of ours thought he owned four lots.  Actually, he has clear title to one (the one he is building on) but the rest of the property lines are disputed.

Just because there's a house, or part of a house, on the property doesn't mean there's a title.  The government hands out a 99-year lease with a number of conditions:  A house and some paperwork must be completed.   Eventually, the lessee may finish the house, but then, in typical Belizean "right now" style, they never get around to the paperwork.

For those of you who will never visit Belize, suffice it to say than Barnum was right, and you can go just as wrong in the stock market as you can in the land business!

Sr. Ric

New:  If you're considering buying and then building, you should visit the website of CJ Consulting for some good advice on building in Belize. 

Copyright, Sr. Ric, 2001,2002.  All rights reserved.