#south america is down. north america mostly down. some of those tiny islands trip me up

[kittlyns]

Can't sleep so I'm coping by doing those geography quizzes on sporcle

[isobelewing]

SOMOS EXPLORADORES POLARES

“It’s backwards.”

That’s Garry from the New Zealand Alpine Club, neatly summarising the problem with the harness I’d tried on prior to a climbing session on Mt Ruapehu.

It’s been nearly a decade since I did any proper snowcraft and clearly I’ve become a bit rusty on a few key aspects.

Thankfully I’d got the humiliating backwards-harness display out of the way before our expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula to climb Mt Scott.

I was selected by the Antarctic Heritage Trust as part of a group of four: creator of award-winning film Paddle for the North Simon Lucas, RNZAF officer Sylvie Admore and that dude who lost his leg during Mt Ruapehu’s eruption in 2007 and now uses that experience to inspire and motivate kiwi kids, William Pike.

Today we arrived in Ushuaia, in South America’s Tierra del Fuego, the starting point of our voyage. Tomorrow we board the Akademik Ioffe with One Ocean Expeditions and sail for the Antarctic Peninsula.

We’re here to rediscover the spirit of exploration that pervades Antarctica’s history, and survives in the historic huts and sites dotted around the continent.

In attempting to summit the 880m peak named for Robert Falcon Scott, whose fateful Terra Nova expedition is one of the most widely-known tragic and heroic tales of exploration, we hope to continue the legacy of those hardy men and use our stories to stir adventure in the hearts of others, as the diaries of Shackleton and Scott have done for generations.

So I’ll take you back a few weeks to how I prepared for this trip, which starts with Garry on Mt Ruapehu.

We set off from Delta Corner Hut and spent the bluebird day brushing up on different cramponing techniques, honing my self-arrest skills (the first go resulted in my nose puncturing the snow rather than my axe pick – I can confirm it’s not as effective) and practising for a scenario you hope like hell you’ll never encounter in real life: trying to find someone buried in an avalanche using a transceiver.

I also visited Dome Shelter for the first time – the tiny A-frame perched above the crater lake where rocks rained down in 2007 and claimed William’s leg. (Watch my story on Newshub to get an idea of that terror).

A few weeks later I joined the Inspiring Explorers team in Christchurch where we travelled to Mt Cook to hone the specific skills we’ll need for our attempt of the heavily-glaciated Mt Scott.

Descending on Mt Cook’s Grand Plateau from the sky was a magnificent experience. The Plateau Hut was dwarfed by the scale of the Hochstetter ice fall and our helicopter was buffeted by strong gusts. For South Island iwi Ngai Tahu,  Aoraki is their most sacred of ancestors. They rarely scaled his slopes except to lay the bones of high ranking men or women.

The mountain was a place where spirits and “atua” resided and they regarded him with fear and deference – an attitude mountaineers would do well to emulate – Aoraki’s crisp white beauty is splendid, but the rumble of avalanches a constant reminder of his power.

We roped together in the fashion used for glacier travel – 10m apart in case someone drops through the often-thin layer of snow concealing a crevasse, and his companions either side can secure themselves in the snow to halt his fall.

I have a firm belief that the part of the brain responsible for maths is the same part used for knot-tying, because despite years of outdoor education learning the various types (and a refresher last year onboard a Navy ship) my fingers flounder with a mere figure eight. But after some patient instruction from our mountain guide Kev, I’m satisfied my teammates can rely on my abilities. A competition to rope up the fastest leaves me fumbling in the dust, but it soon transpires the quicker members of the group have compromised on technique, so my slow and painstaking approach wins out. There is nothing wrong with being the tortoise.

Kev picked out one of the less threatening crevasses – one without too much of an overhanging lip and which is about 15m deep. We built a snow anchor by digging a t-shaped slot in which a snow stake is inserted, and the rope tied on. I was first and I swing my legs over the ledge. There’s some slack in the rope so I drop a metre or two but our anchor holds solid and soon I’m dangling in the calm of the crevasse. The walls are crystal blue and down to my right turn a darker shade, gaping into the glacier’s depths.

An unintentional crevasse tumble will be much more unpleasant and most likely a longer free fall, but I’m confident our preparedness, combined years of experience and solid teamwork will serve us well when we reach Mt Scott.

The question I’ve fielded the most in recent weeks has been “Are you nervous?”

Yep, I am nervous that we won’t get the weather window we need to complete the climb. I am nervous I’ll suddenly forget how to tie an alpine butterfly knot. I am nervous my comparatively limited abilities may frustrate my companions. But mostly I feel anticipation, excitement and a massive sense of pride to share the company of three individuals whose achievements are an inspiration and whose stories reflect the kinds of attitudes of the early explorers: pluckiness, resilience, determination and an urge to discover.

As Sir Edmund Hillary said: “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

To reach great heights in any pursuit, we must conquer self-doubt, fear and nervousness, and any good adventure should push us to the edge of comfort.

And if nothing else, we’re going to have some great yarns.

[charlesccastill]

Top 6 Best Overseas Real Estate Markets for 2019

Paris, France – Live and Invest Overseas, a resource for overseas travel, investment, real estate and retirement, announced the release of its top places to buy real estate in 2019.

“This past year we’ve positioned ourselves for profit from townhouses on the coast of Brazil and long-term care homes in the U.K. From turnkey rentals in Colombia, Portugal and the Dominican Republic, and from an ignored but important Panama City niche pre-construction market to organic agriculture in Panama, a truffle farm in France, and a teak plantation in the Darién,” said Lief Simon, Director of the Overseas Property Alert for Live and Invest Overseas.

“The good news is that some of these top opportunities of 2018 remain available as we turn the corner to 2019. As we look ahead, here are six markets you should have on your radar.”

Brazil

“I’ve made two investments in Brazil—one in agriculture in Fortaleza, which is on track to begin paying out in 2019 and, this year, in a pre-construction coastal townhouse in the same Brazilian state,” said Simon.

Both are yield plays. The projected rental returns for the townhouse are in the range of 18 percent.

The Brazilian real remains historically weak against the U.S. dollar, meaning Brazil remains especially attractive to dollar buyers.

Fortaleza is a particular market of focus because it’s an emerging international tourist destination that is significantly undervalued.

One concern has been access. Historically, to get from the United States to this region of Brazil, you had to fly hours south and catch a connecting flight back north. Brazil is a big country.

Now many new direct flights make the Fortaleza airport much more easily and much less painfully reached from both North America and Europe.

Thanks in part to this improved access, the area is receiving growing numbers of foreign tourists.

“My French chiropractor mentioned during my most recent visit that he just returned from a kitesurfing vacation on this Brazilian coast,” said Simon. “Still, though, in-country tourists make up much of this market, and the townhouse development I’ve reported on – and invested in – this year targets local weekend visitors.”

That coastal community has sold out. However, the developer is looking for more land so he can build more townhouses. The demand is there.

Belize

“This year I added two Belize investments to my portfolio, one in the Cayo District, in the country’s rain forest interior and the second on the Caribbean coast of Ambergris Caye,” said Simon.

In Cayo, a developer with an extensive track record is creating a tiny home neighborhood in his self-sufficient community. These efficient little cottages work both for full-time living and as rental properties.

“Comfortable rentals, either short- or long-term, are not easy to find in Cayo, and I believe these tiny cottages will be in high demand,” Simon continued. “And the cost of entry is appealing, at less than $100,000.

“Using a conservative 50 percent occupancy rate, the yields for this hit my target of five to eight percent net per year before taxes. However, this purchase also plays into my long-term lifestyle plan. Kathleen and I like the idea of being able to spend a couple of weeks in Belize every year, one in our cute little self-sufficient cottage in Cayo and the other in our 5-star beachfront hotel unit on the sandy coast of Ambergris Caye. In fact, the hotel unit we’ve invested in comes with four weeks of personal use, meaning our kids could spend a week or two here each year, as well.”

The hotel unit isn’t a time-share or fractional ownership. It’s full ownership of a unit that will be part of a brand-name property. Net rental return projections for this investment hit double digits once the hotel is fully operating.

Word continues to spread on all this country has to offer, and tourism-related industries are enjoying the growth that reality suggests.

The hotels and restaurants tourism subsector grew by 17.2 percent through the third quarter of 2018, thanks to a 15.3 percent increase in overnight visitors for the period. As the number of direct flights to Belize increased, the number of visitors from the United States rose by 16.2 percent, while tourist numbers from Europe were up 22.7 percent and the number of Canadian visitors increased by 56.7 percent.

Cruise traffic, likewise, expanded substantially. The number of cruise visitors to the country through the third quarter of this year increased 55.5 percent.

Panama

“I’ve been bullish on Panama for property investment for almost 20 years. This country’s real estate markets have seen ups and downs over that time, of course, but mostly ups,” said Simon.

The 2008/2009 global real estate crash had a much less dramatic effect in Panama than in other countries in the region for two reasons. First, Panama enjoys a broader demand base. Second, there’s little leverage in play.

Prices in Panama City today are multiples of prices a decade-and-a-half ago. However, comparing apples to apples on a global scale, they remain a good buy on a per-square-meter basis and continue to generate a strong and reliable rental return.

That said, this is a dramatically different market from 15 years ago. Back then, you could have bought almost anything and realized a profit. In today’s boomtown Panama City, hustlers abound. You need to know where to look and what specifically to buy.

Portugal

“I made my first investment in Portugal in the summer of 2015. Looking back now, I can call this as the market bottom in the wake of the 2008 global property crisis,” said Simon. “You can still find properties on the books of banks and financial institutions in this country, but those kinds of deals are mostly history.”

Property prices in the hot spots of Lisbon now resemble prices for comparable properties in Barcelona and Rome. You can still find good deals in areas that haven’t yet been fully re-gentrified, but the best deals today are renovation projects.

This is increasingly true across the Algarve, as well, where renovation projects are the best buys. A property ready for rental today likely comes with a price tag that translates to a net rental yield of maybe five percent or maybe not even. While prices have risen, rental rates have not kept pace, meaning yields have fallen from the eight percent to 10 percent net you could have expected two or three years ago if you bought right.

The Portugal market requires more work today than it did a few years ago, but it’s worth it. The numbers of both tourists and foreign retirees choosing to spend time in this country is rising and will continue to do so. Some Portuguese aren’t happy, as the phenomenon is pricing the locals out of some markets. However, overall, this is a stable country with a strong economy.

Portugal’s coast isn’t nearly as overbuilt as the coast of Spain and won’t be, thanks to serious restrictions on oceanfront development. No new construction is allowed within 500 meters of the coast.

“A friend owns a house within that zone and couldn’t even add a pool house for her already existing pool. Construction up to two kilometers from the coast comes with height restrictions, meaning no towns like Benidorm, Spain, with high-rises at or even near the beach,” said Simon.

This means that existing beach properties will continually become more valuable.

Note that it’s possible to get a local mortgage as a nonresident for the purchase of property in this country.

Montenegro

“I’ve been watching the real estate market in Montenegro develop since 2005, when I made an investment in Croatia. I made the trip across the border south of Dubrovnik to Kotor more for vacation than property scouting, but, as happens for me often, once there, I was inspired to look at property for sale,” said Simon.

Kotor is a fairy-tale medieval town on a sparkling bay. Seeing its historic stone structures, one can’t help but wonder what they cost to own. Our research found that prices were lower than in Croatia, but the market was moving more quickly.

“Values in Kotor moved up fast and then took a big hit following the global real estate collapse of 2008. Two years later, Kathleen and I moved from Europe to Panama, and charming Kotor fell off my radar,” said Simon. “Now that Montenegro is on a path for EU membership and gaining growing stature on the world stage, Kotor is back in my sights. When I was paying attention back in 2005, the market was driven mostly by Russian and Serbian tourists. Today, Westerners are increasingly on the scene.”

The difficulty is that Montenegro is a small country and Kotor is a tiny city. Not a lot of inventory.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico isn’t technically offshore for an American (as it’s an unincorporated U.S. territory), but it’s on our list for 2019 thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The tax incentives were created to spur investment in U.S. Opportunity Zones in general and apply beyond Puerto Rico. However, in the case of Puerto Rico, the entire island is an Opportunity Zone, meaning you can invest anywhere and qualify for the tax deferrals created by the new tax law.

However, you can’t buy just any property and benefit. You must make an investment in new construction or a renovation, meaning this isn’t an easy or a straightforward opportunity for an individual investor.

Tax incentives aside, Puerto Rico is a good rentals market. Tourism has already begun to rebound, while other industries are still recovering. And, if your investment qualifies under the Opportunity Zone law, your returns benefit from the tax deferrals now available.

Based in Paris, France and Panama City, Panama, LIOS is the leading resource for people who want to live, retire and invest overseas. More info available at www.liveandinvestoverseas.com.

from boston condos ford realtor http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BostonRealEstateCondos/~3/o56XcD3vvqs/

[marilynngmesalo]

At least 56,800 migrants dead and missing worldwide in 4 years: Report

At least 56,800 migrants dead and missing worldwide in 4 years: Report At least 56,800 migrants dead and missing worldwide in 4 years: Report https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

JOHANNESBURG — One by one, five to a grave, the coffins are buried in the red earth of this ill-kept corner of a South African cemetery. The scrawl on the cheap wood attests to their anonymity: “Unknown B/Male.”

These men were migrants from elsewhere in Africa with next to nothing who sought a living in the thriving underground economy of Gauteng province, a name that roughly translates to “land of gold.” Instead of fortune, many found death, their bodies unnamed and unclaimed — more than 4,300 in Gauteng between 2014 and 2017 alone.

Some of those lives ended here at the Olifantsvlei cemetery, in silence, among tufts of grass growing over tiny placards that read: Pauper Block. There are coffins so tiny that they could only belong to children.

As people worldwide flee war, hunger and a lack of jobs, global migration has soared to record highs, with more than 258 million international migrants in 2017. That is an increase of 49 per cent from the turn of the century, according to the United Nations.

Far less visible, however, has been the toll of this mass migration: The tens of thousands of people who die or simply disappear during their journeys, never to be seen again. A growing number of migrants have drowned, died in deserts or fallen prey to traffickers, leaving their families to wonder what on earth happened to them. At the same time, anonymous bodies are filling cemeteries around the world, like the one in Gauteng.

LEVY: 'Irregular' migrants continue to flock into Toronto

SHOCK REPORT: 30,000 desperate migrants die in desert

Trump: Number of troops sent to U.S.-Mexico border could reach 15,000

In most cases, nobody is keeping track: Barely counted in life, these people don’t register in death, as if they never lived at all.

An Associated Press tally has documented at least 56,800 migrants dead or missing worldwide since 2014 — almost double the number found in the world’s only official attempt to try to count them, by the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration . The IOM toll as of Oct. 1 was more than 28,500. The AP came up with almost 28,300 additional dead or missing migrants by compiling information from other international groups, requesting forensic records, missing persons reports and death records, and sifting through data from thousands of interviews with migrants.

The AP’s tally is still low. Bodies of migrants lie undiscovered in desert sands or at the bottom of the sea. And families don’t always report loved ones as missing because they migrated illegally, or because they left home without saying exactly where they were headed.

The official U.N. toll focuses mostly on Europe, but even there cases fall through the cracks. The political tide is turning against migrants in Europe just as in the United States, where the government is cracking down heavily on caravans of Central Americans trying to get in. One result is that money is drying up for projects to track migration and its costs.

For example, when more than 800 people died in an April 2015 shipwreck off the coast of Italy, Europe’s deadliest migrant sea disaster, Italian investigators pledged to identify them and find their families. More than three years later, under a new populist government, funding for this work is being cut off.

Beyond Europe, information is even more scarce. Little is known about the toll in South America, where the Venezuelan migration is among the world’s biggest today, and in Asia, the top region for numbers of migrants.

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The result is that governments vastly underestimate the toll of migration, a major political and social issue in most of the world today.

“No matter where you stand on the whole migration management debate….these are still human beings on the move,” said Bram Frouws, the head of the Mixed Migration Centre , based in Geneva, which has done surveys of more than 20,000 migrants in its 4Mi project since 2014. “Whether it’s refugees or people moving for jobs, they are human beings.”

They leave behind families caught between hope and mourning, like that of Safi al-Bahri. Her son, Majdi Barhoumi, left their hometown of Ras Jebel, Tunisia, on May 7, 2011, headed for Europe in a small boat with a dozen other migrants. The boat sank and Barhoumi hasn’t been heard from since. In a sign of faith that he is still alive, his parents built an animal pen with a brood of hens, a few cows and a dog to stand watch until he returns.

“I just wait for him. I always imagine him behind me, at home, in the market, everywhere,” said al-Bahari. “When I hear a voice at night, I think he’s come back. When I hear the sound of a motorcycle, I think my son is back.”

———————————————-

EUROPE: BOATS THAT NEVER ARRIVE

Of the world’s migration crises, Europe’s has been the most cruelly visible. Images of the lifeless body of a Kurdish toddler on a beach, frozen tent camps in Eastern Europe, and a nearly numbing succession of deadly shipwrecks have been transmitted around the world, adding to the furor over migration.

In the Mediterranean, scores of tankers, cargo boats, cruise ships and military vessels tower over tiny, crowded rafts powered by an outboard motor for a one-way trip. Even larger boats carrying hundreds of migrants may go down when soft breezes turn into battering winds and thrashing waves further from shore.

Two shipwrecks and the deaths of at least 368 people off the coast of Italy in October 2013 prompted the IOM’s research into migrant deaths. The organization has focused on deaths in the Mediterranean, although its researchers plead for more data from elsewhere in the world. This year alone, the IOM has found more than 1,700 deaths in the waters that divide Africa and Europe.

Like the lost Tunisians of Ras Jebel, most of them set off to look for work. Barhoumi, his friends, cousins and other would-be migrants camped in the seaside brush the night before their departure, listening to the crash of the waves that ultimately would sink their raft.

Khalid Arfaoui had planned to be among them. When the group knocked at his door, it wasn’t fear that held him back, but a lack of cash. Everyone needed to chip in to pay for the boat, gas and supplies, and he was short about $100. So he sat inside and watched as they left for the beachside campsite where even today locals spend the night before embarking to Europe.

Propelled by a feeble outboard motor and overburdened with its passengers, the rubber raft flipped, possibly after grazing rocks below the surface on an uninhabited island just offshore. Two bodies were retrieved. The lone survivor was found clinging to debris eight hours later.

The Tunisian government has never tallied its missing, and the group never made it close enough to Europe to catch the attention of authorities there. So these migrants never have been counted among the dead and missing.

“If I had gone with them, I’d be lost like the others,” Arfaoui said recently, standing on the rocky shoreline with a group of friends, all of whom vaguely planned to leave for Europe. “If I get the chance, I’ll do it. Even if I fear the sea and I know I might die, I’ll do it.”

With him that day was 30-year-old Mounir Aguida, who had already made the trip once, drifting for 19 hours after the boat engine cut out. In late August this year, he crammed into another raft with seven friends, feeling the waves slam the flimsy bow. At the last minute he and another young man jumped out.

“It didn’t feel right,” Aguida said.

There has been no word from the other six — yet another group of Ras Jebel’s youth lost to the sea. With no shipwreck reported, no survivors to rescue and no bodies to identify, the six young men are not counted in any toll.

In addition to watching its own youth flee, Tunisia and to a lesser degree neighbouring Algeria are transit points for other Africans north bound for Europe. Tunisia has its own cemetery for unidentified migrants, as do Greece, Italy and Turkey. The one at Tunisia’s southern coast is tended by an unemployed sailor named Chamseddin Marzouk.

Of around 400 bodies interred in the coastal graveyard since it opened in 2005, only one has ever been identified. As for the others who lie beneath piles of dirt, Marzouk couldn’t imagine how their families would ever learn their fate.

“Their families may think that the person is still alive, or that he’ll return one day to visit,” Marzouk said. “They don’t know that those they await are buried here, in Zarzis, Tunisia.”

————

AFRICA: VANISHING WITHOUT A TRACE

Despite talk of the ‘waves’ of African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean, as many migrate within Africa — 16 million — as leave for Europe. In all, since 2014, at least 18,400 African migrants have died travelling within Africa, according to the figures compiled from AP and IOM records. That includes more than 4,300 unidentified bodies in a single South African province, and 8,700 whose travelling companions reported their disappearance en route out of the Horn of Africa in interviews with 4Mi.

When people vanish while migrating in Africa, it is often without a trace. The IOM says the Sahara Desert may well have killed more migrants than the Mediterranean. But no one will ever know for sure in a region where borders are little more than lines drawn on maps and no government is searching an expanse as large as the continental United States. The harsh sun and swirling desert sands quickly decompose and bury bodies of migrants, so that even when they turn up, they are usually impossible to identify .

With a prosperous economy and stable government, South Africa draws more migrants than any other country in Africa. The government is a meticulous collector of fingerprints — nearly every legal resident and citizen has a file somewhere — so bodies without any records are assumed to have been living and working in the country illegally. The corpses are fingerprinted when possible, but there is no regular DNA collection.

South Africa also has one of the world’s highest rates of violent crime and police are more focused on solving domestic cases than identifying migrants.

“There’s logic to that, as sad as it is….You want to find the killer if you’re a policeman, because the killer could kill more people,” said Jeanine Vellema, the chief specialist of the province’s eight mortuaries. Migrant identification, meanwhile, is largely an issue for foreign families — and poor ones at that.

Vellema has tried to patch into the police missing persons system, to build a system of electronic mortuary records and to establish a protocol where a DNA sample is taken from every set of remains that arrive at the morgue. She sighs: “Resources.” It’s a word that comes up 10 times in a half-hour conversation.

So the bodies end up at Olifantsvlei or a cemetery like it, in unnamed graves. On a recent visit by AP, a series of open rectangles awaited the bodies of the unidentified and unclaimed. They did not wait long: a pickup truck drove up, piled with about 10 coffins, five per grave. There were at least 180 grave markers for the anonymous dead, with multiple bodies in each grave.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is working with Vellema, has started a pilot project with one Gauteng morgue to take detailed photos, fingerprints, dental information and DNA samples of unidentified bodies. That information goes to a database where, in theory, the bodies can be traced.

“Every person has a right to their dignity. And to their identity,” said Stephen Fonseca, the ICRC regional forensic manager.

————————

THE UNITED STATES: “THAT’S HOW MY BROTHER USED TO SLEEP”

More than 6,000 miles (9,000 kilometres) away, in the deserts that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border, lie the bodies of migrants who perished trying to cross land as unforgiving as the waters of the Mediterranean. Many fled the violence and poverty of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador or Mexico. Some are found months or years later as mere skeletons. Others make a last, desperate phone call and are never heard from again.

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In 2010 the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team and the local morgue in Pima County, Ariz., began to organize efforts to put names to the anonymous bodies found on both sides of the border. The “Border Project” has since identified more than 183 people — a fraction of the total.

At least 3,861 migrants are dead and missing on the route from Mexico to the United States since 2014, according to the combined AP and IOM total. The tally includes missing person reports from the Colibri Center for Human Rights on the U.S. side as well as the Argentine group’s data from the Mexican side. The painstaking work of identification can take years, hampered by a lack of resources, official records and co-ordination between countries — and even between states.

For many families of the missing, it is their only hope, but for the families of Juan Lorenzo Luna and Armando Reyes, that hope is fading.

Luna, 27, and Reyes, 22, were brothers-in-law who left their small northern Mexico town of Gomez Palacio in August 2016. They had tried to cross to the U.S. four months earlier, but surrendered to border patrol agents in exhaustion and were deported.

They knew they were risking their lives — Reyes’ father died migrating in 1995, and an uncle went missing in 2004. But Luna, a quiet family man, wanted to make enough money to buy a pickup truck and then return to his wife and two children. Reyes wanted a job where he wouldn’t get his shoes dirty and could give his newborn daughter a better life.

Of the five who left Gomez Palacio together, two men made it to safety, and one man turned back. The only information he gave was that the brothers-in-law had stopped walking and planned to turn themselves in again. That is the last that is known of them.

Officials told their families that they had scoured prisons and detention centres, but there was no sign of the missing men. Cesaria Orona even consulted a fortune teller about her missing son, Armando, and was told he had died in the desert.

One weekend in June 2017, volunteers found eight bodies next to a military area of the Arizona desert and posted the images online in the hopes of finding family. Maria Elena Luna came across a Facebook photo of a decaying body found in an arid landscape dotted with cactus and shrubs, lying face-up with one leg bent outward. There was something horribly familiar about the pose.

“That’s how my brother used to sleep,” she whispered.

Along with the bodies, the volunteers found a credential of a boy from Guatemala, a photo and a piece of paper with a number written on it. The photo was of Juan Lorenzo Luna, and the number on the paper was for cousins of the family. But investigators warned that a wallet or credential could have been stolen, as migrants are frequently robbed.

“We all cried,” Luna recalled. “But I said, we cannot be sure until we have the DNA test. Let’s wait.”

Luna and Orona gave DNA samples to the Mexican government and the Argentine group. In November 2017, Orona received a letter from the Mexican government saying that there was the possibility of a match for Armando with some bone remains found in Nuevo Leon, a state that borders Texas. But the test was negative.

The women are still waiting for results from the Argentine pathologists. Until then, their relatives remain among the uncounted.

Orona holds out hope that the men may be locked up, or held by “bad people.” Every time Luna hears about clandestine graves or unidentified bodies in the news, the anguish is sharp.

“Suddenly all the memories come back,” she said. “I do not want to think.”

—————-

SOUTH AMERICA: “NO ONE WANTS TO ADMIT THIS IS A REALITY”

The toll of the dead and the missing has been all but ignored in one of the largest population movements in the world today — that of nearly 2 million Venezuelans fleeing from their country’s collapse. These migrants have hopped buses across the borders, boarded flimsy boats in the Caribbean, and — when all else failed — walked for days along scorching highways and freezing mountain trails. Vulnerable to violence from drug cartels, hunger and illness that lingers even after reaching their destination, they have disappeared or died by the hundreds.

“They can’t withstand a trip that hard, because the journey is very long,” said Carlos Valdes, director of neighbouring Colombia’s national forensic institute. “And many times, they only eat once a day. They don’t eat. And they die.” Valdes said authorities don’t always recover the bodies of those who die, as some migrants who have entered the country illegally are afraid to seek help.

Valdes believes hypothermia has killed some as they trek through the mountain tundra region, but he had no idea how many. One migrant told the AP he saw a family burying someone wrapped in a white blanket with red flowers along the frigid journey.

Marta Duque, 55, has had a front seat to the Venezuela migration crisis from her home in Pamplona, Colombia. She opens her doors nightly to provide shelter for families with young children. Pamplona is one of the last cities migrants reach before venturing up a frigid mountain paramo, one of the most dangerous parts of the trip for migrants travelling by foot. Temperatures dip well below freezing.

She said inaction from authorities has forced citizens like her to step in.

“Everyone just seems to pass the ball,” she said. “No one wants to admit this is a reality.”

Those deaths are uncounted, as are dozens in the sea. Also uncounted are those reported missing in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. In all at least 3,410 Venezuelans have been reported missing or dead in a migration within Latin America whose dangers have gone relatively unnoticed; many of the dead perished from illnesses on the rise in Venezuela that easily would have found treatment in better times.

Among the missing is Randy Javier Gutierrez, who was walking through Colombia with a cousin and his aunt in hopes of reaching Peru to reunite with his mother.

Gutierrez’s mother, Mariela Gamboa, said that a driver offered a ride to the two women, but refused to take her son. The women agreed to wait for him at the bus station in Cali, about 160 miles (257 kilometres) ahead, but he never arrived. Messages sent to his phone since that day four months ago have gone unread.

“I’m very worried,” his mother said. “I don’t even know what to do.”

———————-

ASIA: A VAST UNKNOWN

The region with the largest overall migration, Asia, also has the least information on the fate of those who disappear after leaving their homelands. Governments are unwilling or unable to account for citizens who leave for elsewhere in the region or in the Mideast, two of the most common destinations, although there’s a growing push to do so.

Asians make up 40 per cent of the world’s migrants, and more than half of them never leave the region. The Associated Press was able to document more than 8,200 migrants who disappeared or died after leaving home in Asia and the Mideast, including thousands in the Philippines and Indonesia.

//<![CDATA[ ( function() { pnLoadVideo( "videos", "ibzrMoImAS0", "pn_video_683968", "", "", {"is_mobile":""} ); } )(); //]]>

Thirteen of the top 20 migration pathways from Asia take place within the region. These include Indian workers heading to the United Arab Emirates, Bangladeshis heading to India, Rohingya Muslims escaping persecution in Myanmar, and Afghans crossing the nearest border to escape war. But with large-scale smuggling and trafficking of labour, and violent displacements, the low numbers of dead and missing indicate not safe travel but rather a vast unknown.

Almass was just 14 when his widowed mother reluctantly sent him and his 11-year-old brother from their home in Khost, Afghanistan, into that unknown. The payment for their trip was supposed to get them away from the Taliban and all the way to Germany via a chain of smugglers. The pair crammed first into a pickup with around 40 people, walked for a few days at the border, crammed into a car, waited a bit in Tehran, and walked a few more days.

His brother Murtaza was exhausted by the time they reached the Iran-Turkey border. But the smuggler said it wasn’t the time to rest — there were at least two border posts nearby and the risk that children far younger travelling with them would make noise.

Almass was carrying a baby in his arms and holding his brother’s hand when they heard the shout of Iranian guards. Bullets whistled past as he tumbled head over heels into a ravine and lost consciousness.

Alone all that day and the next, Almass stumbled upon three other boys in the ravine who had also become separated from the group, then another four. No one had seen his brother. And although the younger boy had his ID, it had been up to Almass to memorize the crucial contact information for the smuggler.

When Almass eventually called home, from Turkey, he couldn’t bear to tell his mother what had happened. He said Murtaza couldn’t come to the phone but sent his love.

That was in early 2014. Almass, who is now 18, hasn’t spoken to his family since.

Almass said he searched for his brother among the 2,773 children reported to the Red Cross as missing en route to Europe. He also looked for himself among the 2,097 adults reported missing by children. They weren’t on the list.

With one of the world’s longest-running exoduses, Afghans face particular dangers in bordering countries that are neither safe nor welcoming. Over a period of 10 months from June 2017 to April 2018, 4Mi carried out a total of 962 interviews with Afghan migrants and refugees in their native languages around the world, systematically asking a series of questions about the specific dangers they had faced and what they had witnessed.

A total of 247 migrant deaths were witnessed by the interviewed migrants, who reported seeing people killed in violence from security forces or starving to death. The effort is the first time any organization has successfully captured the perils facing Afghans in transit to destinations in Asia and Europe.

Almass made it from Asia to Europe and speaks halting French now to the woman who has given him a home in a drafty 400-year-old farmhouse in France’s Limousin region. But his family is lost to him. Their phone number in Afghanistan no longer works, their village is overrun with Taliban, and he has no idea how to find them — or the child whose hand slipped from his grasp four years ago.

“I don’t know now where they are,” he said, his face anguished, as he sat on a sun-dappled bench. “They also don’t know where I am.”

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[manchattanskyline]

A Room With a View and Homemade Chicken Soup

I’d slept slightly better than the night before but still pretty badly. I put my improved slumber down to just being so freakin’ tired but today was the day we moved rooms so we re-packed what little we had unpacked (there are no wardrobes or drawers in budget New York hotel rooms so most of my stuff was still in the suitcase). After dropping our bags off at reception and being assured that we were definitely moving rooms, we set off out in the bright , wispy clouded morning. Knowing that it was a little warmer, today, we decided against thermals and just went with normal winter clothes.We were so enamoured with Caffe Roma, the night before, that we went straight back there for breakfast. Breakfast was a sfogliatella ( see here for description) and a cappuccino, which was just enough to fuel our walk up north to NoLiTa ( North of Little Italy and SoHo (South of Houston) .

After the abandonment of a highway scheme in 1966, the undesirable (and cheap) properties in SoHo became home to  artist’s lofts and residencies, before gradually becoming a more desirable area.Now, most of the beautiful cast-iron architecture and red brick industrial buildings house high-end shops, bars and restaurants. The cobbles, cast iron trimmed sidewalks and bubbled glass paving are still there, and there’s still the odd gallery and small theatre company, nestled amongst Dior, Chanel and Marc Jacobs but they are very few and far between. Hover or click on the images, below, for more info.

An achingly cool clothes shop, SoHo

Traditional cast-iron style architecture, SoHo

Bubble glass paving, SoHo

SoHo

We zig-zagged up and down the main thoroughfare of Wooster St / Spring St and then down West Broadway. We were hungry by this point and just so happened to stumble across a fabulous, traditional train-car diner, The Square Diner. There was a huge menu of mouth-watering food, from breakfast / lunch items, lighter snacks, milkshakes, and huge fried chicken meals. After a couple of days of pastries and white carbs, I opted for a chicken and rice soup. I was not disappointed. It was a clear broth with vegetables, brown rice and, of course, chicken. It was light but wholesome and I could feel my body sighing with relief, as it consumed some nutrients for the first time in a couple of days.It was great to be sat in a proper diner, complete with chrome counter, red swivel stools and surly waitresses. Even the tiny toilet at the back was a train toilet! The soup and the famous American free coffee refills had us ready to head out for what was to be the most emotional part of the trip. The 9/11 Memorial.

The Square Diner, Leonard St, TriBeCa

Square Diner, interior

  I need to start by saying that there really aren’t words that can accurately describe the feelings of being in the area of the now, Freedom Tower, formerly World Trade Centre (or Twin Towers). When I last visited in 2005, the whole area was still very much a construction site. The rubble had mostly been cleared but the smell of concrete dust still hung heavy in the air.  A lot of the buildings that weren’t damaged beyond repair had re-opened and businesses and people were doing their damnedest to carry on. There were wire railings around the area immediately affected  and there were still photos, messages and small personal items,attached to these railings. It was one of the most overwhelming experiences that I’ve ever had.

  This visit, was different in some ways but much the same, in others. There’s no denying that the memorial site is massively transformed, not least because of the re-building , regeneration and the effort to move on from the tragedy whilst still paying respects to those lost and affected. The Freedom Tower can be seen from all over Manhattan, Brooklyn and beyond and is New York’s new beacon of hope and freedom and strength. It’s illuminated brightly, at night, and shines just as bright during the day, reflecting the smallest amount of sunlight that hits it angled glass structure. The open spaces around the 9/11 Memorial , as well as the giant white span of the winged memorial museum, make it airy and light, even in the depths of Winter. Despite this, I felt an odd heavy weight. An indescribable feeling, like someone just lowered the sky and sucked out a bit of the oxygen. There are tourists and workers, alike, milling about. Talking, laughing and going about their days but as you get closer to the memorial fountains, formed from the footprints of the North and South Towers, the background noise decreases and I was aware of the louder rushing of the water, as it spills first into ground  level and then down, down, down, in to what looks like the centre of the earth. You can smell the water. It smells cold and clean and hard. It falls almost without ripples, like sheets of roaring glass. Around each of the fountains, are engraved the names of the victims of 9/11. A rose is placed on their names, on the day of what would have been their Birthdays, and there were a few dotted about that day, having been placed within the last few days, I imagine. I read name, after name, after name, trying to show each of them the respect they deserve. Like the televised reading of names at this location, on 9/11, you don’t want to miss anyone out or let one person’s name go unread. I quickly realised that it was impossible, not jus time-wise but emotion-wise to do that. Each new name brings it’s own wave of sadness, guilt and hopelessness. You can’t sustain that. I couldn’t anyway. I made the decision to stop staring into the abyss, to take my hands off the surround of the fountain, to stop tracing the letters of the names with my fingers and to keep walking. Ultimately that’s what New York did after 9/11. It kept walking. Limping, crying, wondering why, but it kept going on. It had to. What choice did it have.

I could have stayed there for a million years and still not have understood why this happened. There is no sense to be made from it. I wasn’t angry, or vengeful, just overcome with sadness. I cried. Trying to mop up the tears at first but then I just let it come. You can’t fight that amount of emotion and it felt safe to let it go, here. I can’t type this without crying, again, but I’m not sorry for that. We are human and we have human reactions to these events and it is only by having faith in that humanity that we can keep on walking.

I urge you to visit the former site of the Twin Towers. you may have a very different experience to me, and that’s OK. It’s the mixture of human experiences that builds this strong, proud, indestructable city.

As you head south, out of the Memorial Park, the high-rises and skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan behind you, the sky opens up. You can see water, and you enter Battery Park, at the southern most tip of Manhattan Island. It’s the perfect antidote to where you’ve just been. Battery Park is a park,of course,  but it also houses Castle Clinton,  a former fort, and also the ferry terminal for Liberty and Ellis Islands. This is where we purchased our Liberty Island tickets for Saturday and saw some fat cheeky squirrels and then headed back up, along the Hudson River, through the Battery Park residents areas and onto Wall St. Looking over the river towards New Jersey, and similarly the other side over the East River to Brooklyn, it looks as if Manhattan has somehow crawled cross the water as the skyscrapers and high-rises begin to populate the surrounding areas. The rivers no longer stop the march of progress. If that’s what it is.

A few steps away from the giant New York Stock Exchange on Wall St, is Federal Hall. It stands on the site where George Washington was inaugurated, as the first POTUS in 1789. Later that same year, the United States Bill of Rights was proposed here  (‘Hamilton’ fans, take note!) You can see the actual stone floor of the balcony where Washington stood. The cracks above the doorways, on the ground floor, are from the impact when the Towers came down, just half a mile away. Two moments that have shaped America, in that one spot.

Federal Hall

‘Standing on this stone’

Cracks caused by the Twin Towers coming down

As the daylight wained, a round-the-houses walk took us back to Canal Street and then back to our hotel. Chinatown takes on a new energy at evening rush-hour, with stalls popping up out of no-where selling fruit and veg and fish, and spices, and … iIdon’t even know what a lot of it was but it all looked amazing. A couple of hours later,  the stalls disappear and all that’s left is the odd person sweeping up, the smell of universal New York disinfectant and a pile of boxes next to a trash can.

We tentatively entered our new hotel room, out bags having already been taken up for us (thank you Hotel 91 staff)  Our first impressions were that it was a much nicer room, in general, what a relief. And then this.

Blurred and zoomed in but undeniably, The Empire State Building. From our hotel room window. We flung open the windows to let the rush hour noise and freezing air in, and so that we could hang out of the window and take photos of the view. We put the heating on and sat with the windows open for quite a while, just surveying the city that , for the remaining eight days at least, was ours.

To celebrate our fabulous room, we went up to Little Italy and to Sofia’s , that sweet little restaurant we’d seen before, for a full three course meal. It would be hard to close the curtains on that view. But we did. We were just so god-damn tired.

  Waiting for food, at Sofia’s, Mulberry St. 

A New York Travel Diary: Day 2 A Room With a View and Homemade Chicken Soup I'd slept slightly better than the night before but still pretty badly.

[charlesccastill]

Top 6 Best Overseas Real Estate Markets for 2019

Paris, France – Live and Invest Overseas, a resource for overseas travel, investment, real estate and retirement, announced the release of its top places to buy real estate in 2019.

“This past year we’ve positioned ourselves for profit from townhouses on the coast of Brazil and long-term care homes in the U.K. From turnkey rentals in Colombia, Portugal and the Dominican Republic, and from an ignored but important Panama City niche pre-construction market to organic agriculture in Panama, a truffle farm in France, and a teak plantation in the Darién,” said Lief Simon, Director of the Overseas Property Alert for Live and Invest Overseas.

“The good news is that some of these top opportunities of 2018 remain available as we turn the corner to 2019. As we look ahead, here are six markets you should have on your radar.”

Brazil

“I’ve made two investments in Brazil—one in agriculture in Fortaleza, which is on track to begin paying out in 2019 and, this year, in a pre-construction coastal townhouse in the same Brazilian state,” said Simon.

Both are yield plays. The projected rental returns for the townhouse are in the range of 18 percent.

The Brazilian real remains historically weak against the U.S. dollar, meaning Brazil remains especially attractive to dollar buyers.

Fortaleza is a particular market of focus because it’s an emerging international tourist destination that is significantly undervalued.

One concern has been access. Historically, to get from the United States to this region of Brazil, you had to fly hours south and catch a connecting flight back north. Brazil is a big country.

Now many new direct flights make the Fortaleza airport much more easily and much less painfully reached from both North America and Europe.

Thanks in part to this improved access, the area is receiving growing numbers of foreign tourists.

“My French chiropractor mentioned during my most recent visit that he just returned from a kitesurfing vacation on this Brazilian coast,” said Simon. “Still, though, in-country tourists make up much of this market, and the townhouse development I’ve reported on – and invested in – this year targets local weekend visitors.”

That coastal community has sold out. However, the developer is looking for more land so he can build more townhouses. The demand is there.

Belize

“This year I added two Belize investments to my portfolio, one in the Cayo District, in the country’s rain forest interior and the second on the Caribbean coast of Ambergris Caye,” said Simon.

In Cayo, a developer with an extensive track record is creating a tiny home neighborhood in his self-sufficient community. These efficient little cottages work both for full-time living and as rental properties.

“Comfortable rentals, either short- or long-term, are not easy to find in Cayo, and I believe these tiny cottages will be in high demand,” Simon continued. “And the cost of entry is appealing, at less than $100,000.

“Using a conservative 50 percent occupancy rate, the yields for this hit my target of five to eight percent net per year before taxes. However, this purchase also plays into my long-term lifestyle plan. Kathleen and I like the idea of being able to spend a couple of weeks in Belize every year, one in our cute little self-sufficient cottage in Cayo and the other in our 5-star beachfront hotel unit on the sandy coast of Ambergris Caye. In fact, the hotel unit we’ve invested in comes with four weeks of personal use, meaning our kids could spend a week or two here each year, as well.”

The hotel unit isn’t a time-share or fractional ownership. It’s full ownership of a unit that will be part of a brand-name property. Net rental return projections for this investment hit double digits once the hotel is fully operating.

Word continues to spread on all this country has to offer, and tourism-related industries are enjoying the growth that reality suggests.

The hotels and restaurants tourism subsector grew by 17.2 percent through the third quarter of 2018, thanks to a 15.3 percent increase in overnight visitors for the period. As the number of direct flights to Belize increased, the number of visitors from the United States rose by 16.2 percent, while tourist numbers from Europe were up 22.7 percent and the number of Canadian visitors increased by 56.7 percent.

Cruise traffic, likewise, expanded substantially. The number of cruise visitors to the country through the third quarter of this year increased 55.5 percent.

Panama

“I’ve been bullish on Panama for property investment for almost 20 years. This country’s real estate markets have seen ups and downs over that time, of course, but mostly ups,” said Simon.

The 2008/2009 global real estate crash had a much less dramatic effect in Panama than in other countries in the region for two reasons. First, Panama enjoys a broader demand base. Second, there’s little leverage in play.

Prices in Panama City today are multiples of prices a decade-and-a-half ago. However, comparing apples to apples on a global scale, they remain a good buy on a per-square-meter basis and continue to generate a strong and reliable rental return.

That said, this is a dramatically different market from 15 years ago. Back then, you could have bought almost anything and realized a profit. In today’s boomtown Panama City, hustlers abound. You need to know where to look and what specifically to buy.

Portugal

“I made my first investment in Portugal in the summer of 2015. Looking back now, I can call this as the market bottom in the wake of the 2008 global property crisis,” said Simon. “You can still find properties on the books of banks and financial institutions in this country, but those kinds of deals are mostly history.”

Property prices in the hot spots of Lisbon now resemble prices for comparable properties in Barcelona and Rome. You can still find good deals in areas that haven’t yet been fully re-gentrified, but the best deals today are renovation projects.

This is increasingly true across the Algarve, as well, where renovation projects are the best buys. A property ready for rental today likely comes with a price tag that translates to a net rental yield of maybe five percent or maybe not even. While prices have risen, rental rates have not kept pace, meaning yields have fallen from the eight percent to 10 percent net you could have expected two or three years ago if you bought right.

The Portugal market requires more work today than it did a few years ago, but it’s worth it. The numbers of both tourists and foreign retirees choosing to spend time in this country is rising and will continue to do so. Some Portuguese aren’t happy, as the phenomenon is pricing the locals out of some markets. However, overall, this is a stable country with a strong economy.

Portugal’s coast isn’t nearly as overbuilt as the coast of Spain and won’t be, thanks to serious restrictions on oceanfront development. No new construction is allowed within 500 meters of the coast.

“A friend owns a house within that zone and couldn’t even add a pool house for her already existing pool. Construction up to two kilometers from the coast comes with height restrictions, meaning no towns like Benidorm, Spain, with high-rises at or even near the beach,” said Simon.

This means that existing beach properties will continually become more valuable.

Note that it’s possible to get a local mortgage as a nonresident for the purchase of property in this country.

Montenegro

“I’ve been watching the real estate market in Montenegro develop since 2005, when I made an investment in Croatia. I made the trip across the border south of Dubrovnik to Kotor more for vacation than property scouting, but, as happens for me often, once there, I was inspired to look at property for sale,” said Simon.

Kotor is a fairy-tale medieval town on a sparkling bay. Seeing its historic stone structures, one can’t help but wonder what they cost to own. Our research found that prices were lower than in Croatia, but the market was moving more quickly.

“Values in Kotor moved up fast and then took a big hit following the global real estate collapse of 2008. Two years later, Kathleen and I moved from Europe to Panama, and charming Kotor fell off my radar,” said Simon. “Now that Montenegro is on a path for EU membership and gaining growing stature on the world stage, Kotor is back in my sights. When I was paying attention back in 2005, the market was driven mostly by Russian and Serbian tourists. Today, Westerners are increasingly on the scene.”

The difficulty is that Montenegro is a small country and Kotor is a tiny city. Not a lot of inventory.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico isn’t technically offshore for an American (as it’s an unincorporated U.S. territory), but it’s on our list for 2019 thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The tax incentives were created to spur investment in U.S. Opportunity Zones in general and apply beyond Puerto Rico. However, in the case of Puerto Rico, the entire island is an Opportunity Zone, meaning you can invest anywhere and qualify for the tax deferrals created by the new tax law.

However, you can’t buy just any property and benefit. You must make an investment in new construction or a renovation, meaning this isn’t an easy or a straightforward opportunity for an individual investor.

Tax incentives aside, Puerto Rico is a good rentals market. Tourism has already begun to rebound, while other industries are still recovering. And, if your investment qualifies under the Opportunity Zone law, your returns benefit from the tax deferrals now available.

Based in Paris, France and Panama City, Panama, LIOS is the leading resource for people who want to live, retire and invest overseas. More info available at www.liveandinvestoverseas.com.

from boston condos ford realtor http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BostonRealEstateCondos/~3/o56XcD3vvqs/

[charlesccastill]

Top 6 Best Overseas Real Estate Markets for 2019

Paris, France – Live and Invest Overseas, a resource for overseas travel, investment, real estate and retirement, announced the release of its top places to buy real estate in 2019.

“This past year we’ve positioned ourselves for profit from townhouses on the coast of Brazil and long-term care homes in the U.K. From turnkey rentals in Colombia, Portugal and the Dominican Republic, and from an ignored but important Panama City niche pre-construction market to organic agriculture in Panama, a truffle farm in France, and a teak plantation in the Darién,” said Lief Simon, Director of the Overseas Property Alert for Live and Invest Overseas.

“The good news is that some of these top opportunities of 2018 remain available as we turn the corner to 2019. As we look ahead, here are six markets you should have on your radar.”

Brazil

“I’ve made two investments in Brazil—one in agriculture in Fortaleza, which is on track to begin paying out in 2019 and, this year, in a pre-construction coastal townhouse in the same Brazilian state,” said Simon.

Both are yield plays. The projected rental returns for the townhouse are in the range of 18 percent.

The Brazilian real remains historically weak against the U.S. dollar, meaning Brazil remains especially attractive to dollar buyers.

Fortaleza is a particular market of focus because it’s an emerging international tourist destination that is significantly undervalued.

One concern has been access. Historically, to get from the United States to this region of Brazil, you had to fly hours south and catch a connecting flight back north. Brazil is a big country.

Now many new direct flights make the Fortaleza airport much more easily and much less painfully reached from both North America and Europe.

Thanks in part to this improved access, the area is receiving growing numbers of foreign tourists.

“My French chiropractor mentioned during my most recent visit that he just returned from a kitesurfing vacation on this Brazilian coast,” said Simon. “Still, though, in-country tourists make up much of this market, and the townhouse development I’ve reported on – and invested in – this year targets local weekend visitors.”

That coastal community has sold out. However, the developer is looking for more land so he can build more townhouses. The demand is there.

Belize

“This year I added two Belize investments to my portfolio, one in the Cayo District, in the country’s rain forest interior and the second on the Caribbean coast of Ambergris Caye,” said Simon.

In Cayo, a developer with an extensive track record is creating a tiny home neighborhood in his self-sufficient community. These efficient little cottages work both for full-time living and as rental properties.

“Comfortable rentals, either short- or long-term, are not easy to find in Cayo, and I believe these tiny cottages will be in high demand,” Simon continued. “And the cost of entry is appealing, at less than $100,000.

“Using a conservative 50 percent occupancy rate, the yields for this hit my target of five to eight percent net per year before taxes. However, this purchase also plays into my long-term lifestyle plan. Kathleen and I like the idea of being able to spend a couple of weeks in Belize every year, one in our cute little self-sufficient cottage in Cayo and the other in our 5-star beachfront hotel unit on the sandy coast of Ambergris Caye. In fact, the hotel unit we’ve invested in comes with four weeks of personal use, meaning our kids could spend a week or two here each year, as well.”

The hotel unit isn’t a time-share or fractional ownership. It’s full ownership of a unit that will be part of a brand-name property. Net rental return projections for this investment hit double digits once the hotel is fully operating.

Word continues to spread on all this country has to offer, and tourism-related industries are enjoying the growth that reality suggests.

The hotels and restaurants tourism subsector grew by 17.2 percent through the third quarter of 2018, thanks to a 15.3 percent increase in overnight visitors for the period. As the number of direct flights to Belize increased, the number of visitors from the United States rose by 16.2 percent, while tourist numbers from Europe were up 22.7 percent and the number of Canadian visitors increased by 56.7 percent.

Cruise traffic, likewise, expanded substantially. The number of cruise visitors to the country through the third quarter of this year increased 55.5 percent.

Panama

“I’ve been bullish on Panama for property investment for almost 20 years. This country’s real estate markets have seen ups and downs over that time, of course, but mostly ups,” said Simon.

The 2008/2009 global real estate crash had a much less dramatic effect in Panama than in other countries in the region for two reasons. First, Panama enjoys a broader demand base. Second, there’s little leverage in play.

Prices in Panama City today are multiples of prices a decade-and-a-half ago. However, comparing apples to apples on a global scale, they remain a good buy on a per-square-meter basis and continue to generate a strong and reliable rental return.

That said, this is a dramatically different market from 15 years ago. Back then, you could have bought almost anything and realized a profit. In today’s boomtown Panama City, hustlers abound. You need to know where to look and what specifically to buy.

Portugal

“I made my first investment in Portugal in the summer of 2015. Looking back now, I can call this as the market bottom in the wake of the 2008 global property crisis,” said Simon. “You can still find properties on the books of banks and financial institutions in this country, but those kinds of deals are mostly history.”

Property prices in the hot spots of Lisbon now resemble prices for comparable properties in Barcelona and Rome. You can still find good deals in areas that haven’t yet been fully re-gentrified, but the best deals today are renovation projects.

This is increasingly true across the Algarve, as well, where renovation projects are the best buys. A property ready for rental today likely comes with a price tag that translates to a net rental yield of maybe five percent or maybe not even. While prices have risen, rental rates have not kept pace, meaning yields have fallen from the eight percent to 10 percent net you could have expected two or three years ago if you bought right.

The Portugal market requires more work today than it did a few years ago, but it’s worth it. The numbers of both tourists and foreign retirees choosing to spend time in this country is rising and will continue to do so. Some Portuguese aren’t happy, as the phenomenon is pricing the locals out of some markets. However, overall, this is a stable country with a strong economy.

Portugal’s coast isn’t nearly as overbuilt as the coast of Spain and won’t be, thanks to serious restrictions on oceanfront development. No new construction is allowed within 500 meters of the coast.

“A friend owns a house within that zone and couldn’t even add a pool house for her already existing pool. Construction up to two kilometers from the coast comes with height restrictions, meaning no towns like Benidorm, Spain, with high-rises at or even near the beach,” said Simon.

This means that existing beach properties will continually become more valuable.

Note that it’s possible to get a local mortgage as a nonresident for the purchase of property in this country.

Montenegro

“I’ve been watching the real estate market in Montenegro develop since 2005, when I made an investment in Croatia. I made the trip across the border south of Dubrovnik to Kotor more for vacation than property scouting, but, as happens for me often, once there, I was inspired to look at property for sale,” said Simon.

Kotor is a fairy-tale medieval town on a sparkling bay. Seeing its historic stone structures, one can’t help but wonder what they cost to own. Our research found that prices were lower than in Croatia, but the market was moving more quickly.

“Values in Kotor moved up fast and then took a big hit following the global real estate collapse of 2008. Two years later, Kathleen and I moved from Europe to Panama, and charming Kotor fell off my radar,” said Simon. “Now that Montenegro is on a path for EU membership and gaining growing stature on the world stage, Kotor is back in my sights. When I was paying attention back in 2005, the market was driven mostly by Russian and Serbian tourists. Today, Westerners are increasingly on the scene.”

The difficulty is that Montenegro is a small country and Kotor is a tiny city. Not a lot of inventory.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico isn’t technically offshore for an American (as it’s an unincorporated U.S. territory), but it’s on our list for 2019 thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The tax incentives were created to spur investment in U.S. Opportunity Zones in general and apply beyond Puerto Rico. However, in the case of Puerto Rico, the entire island is an Opportunity Zone, meaning you can invest anywhere and qualify for the tax deferrals created by the new tax law.

However, you can’t buy just any property and benefit. You must make an investment in new construction or a renovation, meaning this isn’t an easy or a straightforward opportunity for an individual investor.

Tax incentives aside, Puerto Rico is a good rentals market. Tourism has already begun to rebound, while other industries are still recovering. And, if your investment qualifies under the Opportunity Zone law, your returns benefit from the tax deferrals now available.

Based in Paris, France and Panama City, Panama, LIOS is the leading resource for people who want to live, retire and invest overseas. More info available at www.liveandinvestoverseas.com.

from boston condos ford realtor https://bostonrealestatetimes.com/top-6-best-overseas-real-estate-markets-for-2019/

[charlesccastill]

Top 6 Best Overseas Real Estate Markets for 2019

Paris, France – Live and Invest Overseas, a resource for overseas travel, investment, real estate and retirement, announced the release of its top places to buy real estate in 2019.

“This past year we’ve positioned ourselves for profit from townhouses on the coast of Brazil and long-term care homes in the U.K. From turnkey rentals in Colombia, Portugal and the Dominican Republic, and from an ignored but important Panama City niche pre-construction market to organic agriculture in Panama, a truffle farm in France, and a teak plantation in the Darién,” said Lief Simon, Director of the Overseas Property Alert for Live and Invest Overseas.

“The good news is that some of these top opportunities of 2018 remain available as we turn the corner to 2019. As we look ahead, here are six markets you should have on your radar.”

Brazil

“I’ve made two investments in Brazil—one in agriculture in Fortaleza, which is on track to begin paying out in 2019 and, this year, in a pre-construction coastal townhouse in the same Brazilian state,” said Simon.

Both are yield plays. The projected rental returns for the townhouse are in the range of 18 percent.

The Brazilian real remains historically weak against the U.S. dollar, meaning Brazil remains especially attractive to dollar buyers.

Fortaleza is a particular market of focus because it’s an emerging international tourist destination that is significantly undervalued.

One concern has been access. Historically, to get from the United States to this region of Brazil, you had to fly hours south and catch a connecting flight back north. Brazil is a big country.

Now many new direct flights make the Fortaleza airport much more easily and much less painfully reached from both North America and Europe.

Thanks in part to this improved access, the area is receiving growing numbers of foreign tourists.

“My French chiropractor mentioned during my most recent visit that he just returned from a kitesurfing vacation on this Brazilian coast,” said Simon. “Still, though, in-country tourists make up much of this market, and the townhouse development I’ve reported on – and invested in – this year targets local weekend visitors.”

That coastal community has sold out. However, the developer is looking for more land so he can build more townhouses. The demand is there.

Belize

“This year I added two Belize investments to my portfolio, one in the Cayo District, in the country’s rain forest interior and the second on the Caribbean coast of Ambergris Caye,” said Simon.

In Cayo, a developer with an extensive track record is creating a tiny home neighborhood in his self-sufficient community. These efficient little cottages work both for full-time living and as rental properties.

“Comfortable rentals, either short- or long-term, are not easy to find in Cayo, and I believe these tiny cottages will be in high demand,” Simon continued. “And the cost of entry is appealing, at less than $100,000.

“Using a conservative 50 percent occupancy rate, the yields for this hit my target of five to eight percent net per year before taxes. However, this purchase also plays into my long-term lifestyle plan. Kathleen and I like the idea of being able to spend a couple of weeks in Belize every year, one in our cute little self-sufficient cottage in Cayo and the other in our 5-star beachfront hotel unit on the sandy coast of Ambergris Caye. In fact, the hotel unit we’ve invested in comes with four weeks of personal use, meaning our kids could spend a week or two here each year, as well.”

The hotel unit isn’t a time-share or fractional ownership. It’s full ownership of a unit that will be part of a brand-name property. Net rental return projections for this investment hit double digits once the hotel is fully operating.

Word continues to spread on all this country has to offer, and tourism-related industries are enjoying the growth that reality suggests.

The hotels and restaurants tourism subsector grew by 17.2 percent through the third quarter of 2018, thanks to a 15.3 percent increase in overnight visitors for the period. As the number of direct flights to Belize increased, the number of visitors from the United States rose by 16.2 percent, while tourist numbers from Europe were up 22.7 percent and the number of Canadian visitors increased by 56.7 percent.

Cruise traffic, likewise, expanded substantially. The number of cruise visitors to the country through the third quarter of this year increased 55.5 percent.

Panama

“I’ve been bullish on Panama for property investment for almost 20 years. This country’s real estate markets have seen ups and downs over that time, of course, but mostly ups,” said Simon.

The 2008/2009 global real estate crash had a much less dramatic effect in Panama than in other countries in the region for two reasons. First, Panama enjoys a broader demand base. Second, there’s little leverage in play.

Prices in Panama City today are multiples of prices a decade-and-a-half ago. However, comparing apples to apples on a global scale, they remain a good buy on a per-square-meter basis and continue to generate a strong and reliable rental return.

That said, this is a dramatically different market from 15 years ago. Back then, you could have bought almost anything and realized a profit. In today’s boomtown Panama City, hustlers abound. You need to know where to look and what specifically to buy.

Portugal

“I made my first investment in Portugal in the summer of 2015. Looking back now, I can call this as the market bottom in the wake of the 2008 global property crisis,” said Simon. “You can still find properties on the books of banks and financial institutions in this country, but those kinds of deals are mostly history.”

Property prices in the hot spots of Lisbon now resemble prices for comparable properties in Barcelona and Rome. You can still find good deals in areas that haven’t yet been fully re-gentrified, but the best deals today are renovation projects.

This is increasingly true across the Algarve, as well, where renovation projects are the best buys. A property ready for rental today likely comes with a price tag that translates to a net rental yield of maybe five percent or maybe not even. While prices have risen, rental rates have not kept pace, meaning yields have fallen from the eight percent to 10 percent net you could have expected two or three years ago if you bought right.

The Portugal market requires more work today than it did a few years ago, but it’s worth it. The numbers of both tourists and foreign retirees choosing to spend time in this country is rising and will continue to do so. Some Portuguese aren’t happy, as the phenomenon is pricing the locals out of some markets. However, overall, this is a stable country with a strong economy.

Portugal’s coast isn’t nearly as overbuilt as the coast of Spain and won’t be, thanks to serious restrictions on oceanfront development. No new construction is allowed within 500 meters of the coast.

“A friend owns a house within that zone and couldn’t even add a pool house for her already existing pool. Construction up to two kilometers from the coast comes with height restrictions, meaning no towns like Benidorm, Spain, with high-rises at or even near the beach,” said Simon.

This means that existing beach properties will continually become more valuable.

Note that it’s possible to get a local mortgage as a nonresident for the purchase of property in this country.

Montenegro

“I’ve been watching the real estate market in Montenegro develop since 2005, when I made an investment in Croatia. I made the trip across the border south of Dubrovnik to Kotor more for vacation than property scouting, but, as happens for me often, once there, I was inspired to look at property for sale,” said Simon.

Kotor is a fairy-tale medieval town on a sparkling bay. Seeing its historic stone structures, one can’t help but wonder what they cost to own. Our research found that prices were lower than in Croatia, but the market was moving more quickly.

“Values in Kotor moved up fast and then took a big hit following the global real estate collapse of 2008. Two years later, Kathleen and I moved from Europe to Panama, and charming Kotor fell off my radar,” said Simon. “Now that Montenegro is on a path for EU membership and gaining growing stature on the world stage, Kotor is back in my sights. When I was paying attention back in 2005, the market was driven mostly by Russian and Serbian tourists. Today, Westerners are increasingly on the scene.”

The difficulty is that Montenegro is a small country and Kotor is a tiny city. Not a lot of inventory.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico isn’t technically offshore for an American (as it’s an unincorporated U.S. territory), but it’s on our list for 2019 thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The tax incentives were created to spur investment in U.S. Opportunity Zones in general and apply beyond Puerto Rico. However, in the case of Puerto Rico, the entire island is an Opportunity Zone, meaning you can invest anywhere and qualify for the tax deferrals created by the new tax law.

However, you can’t buy just any property and benefit. You must make an investment in new construction or a renovation, meaning this isn’t an easy or a straightforward opportunity for an individual investor.

Tax incentives aside, Puerto Rico is a good rentals market. Tourism has already begun to rebound, while other industries are still recovering. And, if your investment qualifies under the Opportunity Zone law, your returns benefit from the tax deferrals now available.

Based in Paris, France and Panama City, Panama, LIOS is the leading resource for people who want to live, retire and invest overseas. More info available at www.liveandinvestoverseas.com.

from boston condos ford realtor https://bostonrealestatetimes.com/top-6-best-overseas-real-estate-markets-for-2019/