New development in Sayulita…

This was recently sent out as a press release:

Punta Sayulita is pleased to announce the grand opening of the Punta Sayulita Beach House and Sales Center located on the southern end of Sayulita’s beach. Designed to serve as an example of what life will be like at Punta Sayulita and to display information on Punta Sayulita’s handcrafted homes and amenities, the Beach House is stocked with a variety of beach toys including surfboards, stand-up-paddle boards, boogie boards, kayaks and Punta Sayulita’s two 20-foot sport boats. Punta Sayulita will also be hosting a variety of events at the Beach House featuring delicious local Mexican faire and refreshing beverages.

Punta Sayulita is also pleased to introduce John Vering as Punta Sayulita’s Director of Sales. John has managed residential sales transactions in Mexico for more than 20 years and Punta Sayulita is excited to have John as a member of our team. John is located at the Beach House and can be contacted atjvering@puntasayulita.com or call 866.947.6017 x 101 (U.S. toll free) or 329.291.3957 x 101 (in Mexico).

John was the sales director at Villa La Estancia since its inception…

Within the next several weeks Punta Sayulita will be providing details on the timing and estimated pricing for the first release of Punta Sayulita’s residences. As Sayulita’s first private luxury oceanfront club and residential community, Punta Sayulita rests on an extraordinary 33-acre peninsula. Located along the “Riviera Nayarit” and sensitively planned to embrace only 62 detached homes, the community will also feature a full-service private Beach & Surf Club and personalized residential concierge services for Punta Sayulita’s residents and guests.

In order to make arrangements to visit the Beach House at Punta Sayulita and/or to learn more about the upcoming limited release of Punta Sayulita’s residences, pricing and availability, please call 866.947.6017 (toll free) or 329.291.3957 (in Mexico).

Its a nice development, well thought out  and delivering an interesting product.

Coldwell Bankers Preview opens new office in Punta Mita

A new office in Punta Mita has opened up, Coldwell Banker Previews International Punta Mita (Previews). Owned equally by Brock Squire, Wally Lopez, Jonathan Smart and Lynne Bairstow, (all formerly of Punta Mita Properties), the company was formed to bring the collective knowledge and experience of the partners to specialize in luxury residential real estate in Punta Mita and Pacific Coastal Mexico. All of the partners had previously been affiliated with the in-house sales and marketing organization of the Punta Mita master-planned community over the past nine years, contributing to its success as a world renowned resort and residential community.

With expertise in Punta Mita and the surrounding region’s lifestyle and real estate offerings, the partners and agents of Previews are knowledgeable and well positioned for the sale of real estate within Punta Mita and the Northern Banderas Bay region. Upon opening, Previews already has an extensive inventory of resale properties in Punta Mita and surrounding areas. 

In addition, the company offers consultancy services for design, development and marketing of high-end Master Plan communities in Mexico.

The Previews offices are located in the new Plaza Ollin, located 100 yards towards the beach from the service entry to Punta Mita Resort. Tel. 800-490-1733 (US/Canada toll-free), (+52) 329/291-5442;www.cbpuntamita.com.

Good summary of recent Mexico Conference in Carlsbad

Brett Ellsworth, who puts on this conference, is now a developer as well in Sayulita with the Punta Sayulita project. Here’s the article: http://www.mexidata.info/id2135.html

Financing in Vallarta

At the recent PV AMPI Chapter monthly meeting Terence Reilly of MexLend spoke about how financing has been going for his and other mortgage brokers and lenders in the Puerto Vallarta area. He said that in previous years, the market had been driven by people taking out home equity loans (HELOCS) on their homes in the USA or Canada, or cashing in stocks. In today’s market, this is no longer a valid option. So financing in Mexico has become more popular.

In 2007 his company did $20 million in real estate transactions. However, in 2008 they more than doubled their business with $47 million in transactions. The industry has lost some lenders, but also picked up some new one’s, such as Deutche Bank. One lender has a program to lend against your stock portfolio – very creative. And he mentioned that they can now do loans for property owners that want to have the property in a corporation.

Good news is that in 2008 only two foreclosures were reported. This is primarily because there just haven’t been many loans that could be foreclosed on! But that’s certainly good to see against what’s happening north of the border.

No Posts recently

Sorry for not posting recently, been rather busy with a number of projects that have taken up a lot of my time. One of these is that we’ve been surveying developments to obtain information on how sales went last year and what their inventory is for this year. We have nearly completed gathering the information and will begin analyzing it next week, so that we can prepare a report and post it here.

The market continues to be very difficult for real estate developers, although real estate offices for re-sales are remaining active. Developments are having to be very creative with their marketing, with the most successful one’s resorting to “fly-buy” programs. This involves making presentations in the USA or Canada and then flying interested people down for further presentations and an opportunity to see projects firsthand. It involves a lot of time and work and they are difficult to organize. And they are costly. But they seem to be working for the larger developments that can put in the time and handle the cost.
Preliminary news regarding developments is that inventory has been reduced considerably, and that is certainly good news. This is through developments that decided just not to move forward from initial pre-sales, developments that have now sold out, to some that have taken on a hotel component and others that have scaled down the development or are releasing it in phases. And, some inventory has been reduced by sales! We expect inventory levels to be less than half of what they were going into 2008, which was more than 8,000 units. The big factor here is that in 2008 we included all product available in a development, whether is was going to be released for that year or not. This makes up the biggest difference.

More on this shortly…

Mexico will be popular for Travelers in 2009

From the USA Today:

Wallet-watching travelers will be taking fewer trips, waiting longer to book them in hopes of a deal and downscaling vacations. Las Vegas will remain a big draw, and Mexico will be hotter than a chili pepper.

That’s the outlook for 2009, according to travel analysts and providers and a survey of 547 agents, managers and agency owners with Travel Leaders (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates), out today.

Internationally, Caribbean cruises rule yet again, but dollar-stretching Mexico has five destinations in the top 10: Cancun, No. 2; Riviera Maya, No. 3; Puerto Vallarta, No. 4; Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos, No. 9; and Mexican cruises (tied for No. 10). Additionally, some Caribbean cruises call at Mexican ports.

“You’ve got so many” new resorts in Mexico, and there are some exceptional values, Loucks says. He also cites increased interest in China, Mediterranean cruising and European river cruises.

At Apple Vacations, famed for value getaways in the Caribbean and elsewhere, Mexico remains popular. Huatulco on the Pacific Coast is an up-and-coming destination, with lots of new hotel rooms, says Apple marketing vice president Sandy Babin.

Meanwhile, well-heeled travelers are “taking a step back” and downgrading, says Roland Largay, chairman of Southbury, Conn.-based Largay Travel, who recently was named agent of the year by Travel Agent magazine.

Other findings in the Travel Leaders 2009 trends survey:

•90.5% say customers are cutting back on travel compared with the same period last year.

•57.4% say clients are cutting back on the length of their trips.

•81.6% say clients are trading down when it comes to hotels.

•84.3% recommend Mexico as the best value outside the USA, followed by cruises (61.1%) and the Caribbean (43.9%). Agents were asked to pick up to three places.

•Despite the rise of the dollar against the euro and pound, 77% say bookings to Europe are even or down for 2009.

•71% say travelers are saving money by staying at all-inclusive resorts; 75.7% say vacationers are being more flexible with travel dates to get better prices.

2009 “is going to be a travelers’ market,” he predicts.