Local Real Estate Market Depressed; No Money Available

Hugo Moguel

President of the Association of Real Estate Brokers of Belize, Hugo Moguel, also discussed the general state of the market for real estate. He explained that while the international market is rebounding slowly after the 2010 global recession, local sales have slumped due to jitters over acquiring new debt for buying houses and land.

Hugo Moguel, President, Association of Real Estate Brokers of Belize

“Foreign purchases have been up, we have some momentum…”

Reporter

“…in the last how many years?”

Hugo Moguel

“…and thank goodness for that. Since the recession we have picked up, I would say from 2010, the middle of 2010, it started creeping up, 2011, little incremental climbs, and then 2015 was overall a pretty decent year and 2016 has been as well. But what has been slow now, what has been slow is our local market, in terms of resident to resident, and that is something we need to look at. Now there a lot of factors affecting that, not to mention the recession we are in, and we are cognizant of that, we are watching it very carefully. But thank goodness, at this time we’re still gaining the foreign investment, but that will dry up if regulations aren’t being put in place that look at this or consider this in terms of formulating their plans and how things are expedited. The time it takes to get a loan; the different requirements from different banks; some of the language coming from different banks. Financing right now, if you see the interest rate, is very low, but yet actually getting a loan is an issue. Plus if you start to look at individuals, a lot of people are burdened with debt right now. And it’s short-term, small debt; but because it’s short-term, the payments are so high that these people can’t get a loan for a mortgage. So it doesn’t matter what you promote; at the end of the day they cannot afford to take on another payment, to buy land, buy a lot, or to build a home or buy a home.”