How To Buy Real Estate in Mexico
by Fabiola Kinder

2008 - My Perspective
by Bruce Greenberg

PROPERTY AREAS:
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Acapulco
Cancun/Riviera Maya
Central Mexico
Colonial Route
Ensenada
La Paz
Loreto
Los Cabos
Manzanillo
Mazatlan
Puerto Peñasco
San Felipe
Vallarta

CABO & BAJA SUR
 
Los Cabos
Without a doubt, Los Cabos is the leader in the development of world-class golf in Mexico. This burgeoning resort located at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula recently ranked 14th in a listing of the 50 most popular golf destinations in the world.
Los Cabos’ climate and setting are perfect, like Palm Springs on the ocean. A 20-mile stretch of coast between the two towns of Los Cabos, Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, is home to some of the world’s best oceanside courses, carved out of a landscape where stark desert meets an azure sea.
Three Nicklaus signature courses are open along this corridor, including the top-rated Cabo del Sol Ocean, ranked 88 in 2007 in Golf Magazine’s “Top 100 Courses in the World.” The course boasts five oceanfront holes, including the “finest three finishing holes in golf,” according to its designer, Jack Nicklaus.
Up the road, at the legendary One and Only Palmilla resort, you’ll find Nicklaus’ first signature course in Latin America, with 27 holes featuring the ocean, arroyo and mountain nines. Surrounding the One and Only Palmilla is one of Cabo’s great real estate success stories.  Villas Del Mar, guard gated, ocean front homes that originally sold for $400,000 in 1987, now fetch over $5 million each according to Chris Snell, president of Snell Real Estate, who specializes in several high end developments in Los Cabos, including Cabo del Sol, Villa de Oro and Punta Ballena.  Snell also reports that  “In 2008 sales of homes are down 15% from 2007, the highest year on record; yet at the same time, price per deals are up 20%, an indicator that prices are holding up for good quality homes that have all of the bells and amenities with great views or locations.  New home tours are up 11% over last year.”
Across town, Debbie Dodson of Prudential CaboGold represents a broad range of real estate properties in Los Cabos with three offices for the past 20 years along with her husband, Golf Professional, Steve Dodson. 
One of the great new finds in San Jose del Cabo is the ocean front, Cabo Azul, a fantastic hotel /resort/ vacation ownership experience with architecturally stunning rooms and a  delightful Mexican style restaurant, Javier’s. Here they exceed your expectations with quality service and experienced management. 
Close by is one of the six successful Mayan Palace Resorts in Mexico, along with it’s unique, nine hole San Jose del Cabo golf course directly across the street.
In the middle of the Los Cabos corridor is Cabo Real, a master-planned golf resort featuring deluxe hotels and properties such as the Westin Regina, Grand Regina, Hilton Los Cabos (now under the Waldorf-Astoria brand), Melia Cabo Real, Dreams Los Cabos, and the ultra-luxurious Las Ventanas al Paraíso.  Tiger Woods stayed here after he won the US Open.
Cabo Real boasts three residential golf course master plans; Cabo Real Golf Course by Robert Trent Jones II; the newer, spectacular, oceanfront El Dorado, a Jack Nicklaus signature design, now a private real estate retreat under the management of the Discovery Land Group; and the just opened Campestre San Jose, another Jack Nicklaus design rounding out the current projects open for business.  Eduardo Sanchez Navarro, general director of Questro Golf, Mexico’s number one golf course development group with six courses in Mexico and a dominant presence in Los Cabos said, “Our goal is quality,
consistency and professionalism.” 
Soon Grupo Questro will open the mega-complex Puerto Los Cabos, a project four years in the making, with two 18-hole golf courses, one by Greg Norman and the other Jack Nicklaus, along with Cabo’s newest and grandest marina. 
The location between Los Cabos and the expansion on the East Cape is spectacular and a perfect option for your second home investment. On a stretch of beach next to the Greg Norman designed golf course is one of my favorite real estate
project, called El Encanto de la Laguna. Wonderfully designed and built villas and town homes command a majestic view of the Sea of Cortez, prices start at $695,000 for a 2 bedroom condo, all with top notch quality construction.
Rated number three of all private golf courses in Mexico is Querencia, which opened in November 2000.  This world-class 18-hole course is Tom Fazio’s first signature course in Mexico.  It was host to Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf tournament between Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson.  Andre Boersma, General Manager brings a vast array of luxury hotel experience to this spectacular location perched over the Los Cabos coastline with endless vistas of the Sea of Cortez. “This is a real genuine country club experience in Mexico”, he advises. “The members have a real sense of friendship and appreciation for the style and services of our club.  
Award winning architectural designs and a sense of community set this private, gated residential project apart for our 270 content members.  A second course by minimalist, Gil Hanes, who mentored under Tom Doak, is in the works.” 
Closer to Cabo San Lucas is the Cabo San Lucas Country Club designed by Roy and Matt Dye, featuring an open layout with a view to Land’s End, Los Cabos’ most photographed landmark. This is the location of Los Cabos Golf Resorts for golf-focused guests who like the idea of owning a villa for a week or more on a golf course close to town. 
What is on the drawing board?  Over 20 new golf courses are being planned or conceptualized; branded designs by Nicklaus, Fazio, Norman, Dye, Love, Couples, and Mickelson are keeping Los Cabos in the lead for Golf in Mexico   “Chileno Bay is one of the grandest of all —a family sanctuary…enchanting,” according to managing director Gonzalo Franyutti.  “This property is recognized as having one of the best beach fronts in Los Cabos.  It was the former Hotel Cabo San Lucas, exuding with potential.” 
Chileno Bay has been purchased, in part, by the, Midas touch king, Discovery Land Company. You can plan on another “off the charts” success story here.  Two world class courses by Fazio are in line to compete for Mexico’s best courses.
For the first time, growth along the Pacific side of Los Cabos is taking shape with highly anticipated Diamante Life. It will compete for the best course in Mexico with its Davis Love private ocean front golf course and a potential second golf course in the making on this wonderful master-planned community according to managing director, Bob Gaudet.
Netto Coppell is a legend in Los Cabos, running Pueblo Bonito Resorts, the most successful timeshare development in México.  Now he is expanding on the Pacific side near the Pueblo Bonito Sunset Resort with two new Jack Nicklaus golf courses and a Quivira master plan. 
Project DIrector, Jose Luis Mogollon indicates, “It will have two Nicklaus Signature Ocean courses, one private and one semi-private. Among the two, they will have 8 ocean front golf holes, and almost all of them will be ocean view. Bandon Dunes meets Pebble Beach is a good description for these golf courses due to the dramatic location of several ocean front holes on the cliffs and the dune areas”.
The courses will break ground  this summer, while at the same time the announcement of the Ritz-Carlton will establish a 200-room hotel and the first residential community in Mexico. This residential ocean front community will be the talk of Los Cabos.  During the high season in Los Cabos, advanced tee time reservations are a must, and now they are available via the Internet at www.best4mexicoteetimes.com It’s also a good idea to rent a car to make the most of your golf vacation; with the variety of golf courses and fine restaurants located along the corridor, you will want to drive up and down on your own schedule.
Expect to pay premium prices in Los Cabos for accommodations, golf and restaurants, often referred to as Newport Beach South.  After all you’re in a most beautiful
grown-up fantasy land.
Some great new courses are just beginning to take shape north of Los Cabos on the Pacific Coast on the way to Todos Santos, La Paz and Loreto.

Todo Santos
An oasis spot on the map is Todo Santos, a sleepy artist town, now getting ready to join the golf scene.  Arthur Hills has begun construction on his second course in the Baja, at Punta Lobos (Sea Lion Point). It will occupy more than 1,800 acres of seaside property owned by the Santa Ana Family, stewards of this land, since 1803.  The two golf courses, residences, hotels and marina associated with the project will be built on coastal terrain made verdant by arroyos that channel fresh water from the Sierra de La Laguna Mountains.  Also slated for development in sleepy little Todo Santos is Maravilla Resort, with spa, golf and villas on over 900 acres of plush palm trees, an oasis setting with a swimable beach.  A golf course designed by Clive Clark, of Indian Wells fame, has been permitted. 

La Paz
Less than an hour up the coast in La Paz is Arthur Hills’ first championship course, in Mexico, taking shape at Paraiso del Mar, a peninsula in the bay of La Paz with an agenda of sustainable living.  No motor cars on this peninsula; just golf carts and a ferry service between the gated community and the beautiful port side of the state capital. High demand calls for full build out of 290 single story casas and 400 condo villas.
Across the bay, is the 500-acre seaside development of Costa Baja Resort & Marina.  One can purchase full ownership condos and villas on the waterfront or with golf course view. This project was conceived in the ivory towers of Parque Reforma in Mexico City and boasts of being the first Gary Player designed golf course in Mexico.  Parque Reforma is committed to the preservation, enhancement, and protection of the nation’s natural wonders, and has been a continual supporter of the Mexican Foundation for Environmental Education. This will be one of the most sought after addresses in Mexico with units starting at $300,000.
The team of Schmidt & Curley is moving forward with their 18-hole design plus a shorter course called IRONS for seniors at Maravia.  Construction of the first course at Maravia Golf Club begins this summer. 
Named “Comillo de Coyote” (Fang of the Coyote), it is part of a planned golf residential community overlooking the Sea of Cortez.  Located after Pichilingue, 15 minutes north of La Paz in Mexico’s Baja California, it is a par 71 of 7,068 yards and will combine desert-style “target golf” with numerous spectacular ocean vistas. The layout will feature extensive, rugged, sandy waste areas with backdrops of the sea and dramatic mountains, as well as the revolutionary Seashore Paspalum grass on its tees, greens, fairways and roughs. The master planning firm von Hagge, Smelik and Barril designed Azul de Cortez, a community that will include an interesting 18-hole, hillside championship course with the goal of preserving the natural environment and making the best use of the terrain around incredible ocean vistas. 
Perhaps one of the hidden treasures of golf will be the Tom Doak minimalist design at Bahia de los Sueños, the first Doak golf course in Mexico.  The routing is completed, and dirt has been moved, open for play in 2009.  I predict that it will be one of Mexico’s most sought after golf course resorts and high-end custom residential communities. Several homes currently on site, utilities exist other prime locations still available in the first release for site inspection and rental.  You must see Villas of Bahia de los Sueños.
On site you can enjoy a taco and beer at the Giggling Marlin II. 

Loreto
Up the coast, is The Villages of Loreto Bay, a successful project now under the watchful eye of Citibank and the Replay Group.  Over 600 villas are under construction, 900 homes have been sold, and more than 175 owners have moved in. This project will have the first David Duvall golf course, a redo of the existing course that has incredible scenic value, and now quality investment in shaping, design and infrastructure. 
With all of these spectacular courses and developments moving forward. All the more reason to visit and invest in the state of Baja Sur, Mexico.