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FOUR Things You Need to Consider BEFORE Retiring to the Sun! By Al G Smith

Join me for a moment in one of my favourite daydreams ¨C maybe it is one of yours too? You have just woken early to see that once again the sun is shining and the sky is a superb azure blue. A few exotic birds are greeting the day amongst the swaying palms that ornament your garden. But as you rise and pull back the shutters, your gaze is taken by the scintillating silver of the Caribbean tides lapping against the golden sands only a stones throw from your door.

You now have the onerous duty of deciding whether you are going to settle on the veranda with your bowl of fresh, ripe, delicious fruits (picked from your own trees) with your ’specially imported newspaper’ (OK it is a day or two past its publication date…but who cares?) and while away the hours until it is decently late enough to enjoy your first chilled Margarita…OR…are you going to be energetic today, and join your pals down at one of the local ‘World-class’ golf courses, before hitting the 19th hole for a lunchtime livener?

It’s a tough call! But such are the rigours of ‘retired life’ for ex-pats in the Dominican Republic for those who did adequate retrement planning. If only all of life’s problems where as sweet!

Yes, maybe like me you harbour that desire to find yourself in a position to retire to somewhere warm and exotic ¨C a world away from the 9 to 5 drudgery, and daily commuting nightmares. Maybe you too are anxiously monitoring the progress of any ‘nest egg’ you may be nurturing, or portfolio you are building- in the hopes that the finances will one day allow your daydreams to become a reality.

Well in order to make yours MORE than just a pipe dream it can help to put some time into considering FOUR key issues. This simple (and quite enjoyable) process can begin to help you clarify whether or not your ‘place in the sun’ is not only to be achievable part of your retirement planning, but also likely to live up to its promise once you are there.

I like to call these the FOUR P’s ¨C and a little thought early enough could just help to tip the balance in favour of you having that wonderful, enviable period of retirement that you deserve ¨C but which in reality relatively few folks obtain!

The first P ¨C is for PURSE! Well it is the most obvious one I guess. Will you have enough ‘cash’ to see yourself (and of course your nearest and dearest) through your later years. Many folks seriously underestimate the amount they may need. The twin terrors of inflation and an ‘ageing perspective’ on the value of money, can lead to a rude awakening one morning soon after your 65 birthday. There is a useful calculation you can do to get a ‘good estimate’ of the ballpark your savings or investments need to be ‘playing in’ if you want to be as sure as possible of being ‘comfortable’ throughout your dotage. Due to limitations of space here ¨C suffice to mention that house prices have typically risen by a factor of tenfold over recent 25 year periods. So for someone planning to retire at 65 ¨C the price your house is valued at when your are 40 will be 1/10 of the value of the property you are likely to be in (at least) when you retire! Amazing though it seems ¨C what seemed like a huge retirement fund of a ‘quarter of a million’ (pounds, dollars or euros) not so long ago, won’t last for long these days!

The second P ¨C is PLACE. We have outlined the dream scenario above…but just where do you REALLY think you would be happy. What would it need to offer. If you are a sun-lover then you might seriously be looking at the type of place you have enjoyed for a vacation in the past. BUT there is a big difference between living somewhere for a week or two…and living there for years. On the positive side it is still the case that with a bit of wise selection many ’sunny climes’ still offers great ‘retirement property opportunities’. For those with a Caribbean passion ¨C the Dominican Republic is an excellent option for many reasons, not least the ’still accessible’ level of prices that real estate can be purchased for ¨C especially away from the ‘hottest’ of the tourist development ‘hot-spots’

The third P ¨C is for PEOPLE. If you are like me (and not everyone is) I’d be only too glad to be ‘mixing in’ with the locals, learning a new language and hardly ever seeing any other ex-pats like myself. But for many folks it can be important to feel that they will have a group of ‘mates’ near at hand. For most ‘retirees’, it is nice to know that a few like-minded folks, who have the same reference points, and topics of interest reside not too far away. You need to know that you are choosing to retire somewhere that there will be ‘people you’d like to be with’. Someone you can sip a glass of ‘Chateau de what-do-you-call-it’ with, and clink your glasses over a toast of ‘who’d have thought it’. This makes the enjoyment of your twilight years in the sun all the more likely! Many have made the mistake of moving so far away from what they have been familiar with they have found themselves in a lovely place but feeling miserable, and homesick!

The final P is for PASTIMES. Once you have gotten over the ‘holiday feeling’ of being retired (usually after about 6 weeks!!) you then need something to ‘do’ with your time. Again people often fallen foul of this problem by failing to give some thought to what they might actually do with the 40 to 60 hours a week that they used to spend working! For some the answer is simple ¨C once again the privileged few who retire to Caribbean climes, like the Dominican Republic, may have a whole range of superb golfing amenities, or maybe scuba diving courses, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, or even kite-boarding (!!) to take advantage of. Once again if you pick an area too remote, or lacking in development, it might be so boring it could literally drive you to drink…You would not be the first person who became a literal alcoholic, to the great detriment of their health and enjoyment of retirement years, thanks to putting too little thought into just what they were going to do with their time!

Proper attention paid to the four P’s in good time, as part of formulating a strategic retirement plan can pay dividends in ensuring that you have many enjoyable years after you withdraw from the world of the daily drudge. These days it is perfectly likely that you could retire at 60 (with a bit of good financial planning) and have another 25, or even 30 years or more, to look forward to ¨C which should be spent doing all the things you ever wanted to…Don’t end up being one of those who failed to put some time into thinking ahead EARLY ENOUGH in life. If you make sure you plan your retirement properly and implement that plan, in good time, one day you could be waking up to the tropical sunshine, the azure sky and the sparkling sea all for real!…

By Al Smith - author and co-developer, with his wife, Dominican born, Ruth Ramos de Smith and her sister Esther Ramos of http://www.visiting-the-dominican-republic.com a premier website resource featuring articles, contacts, information and links for anyone visiting the Dominican Republic on vacation, for business, or seeking that perfect Caribbean investment property or retirement villa. The site includes additional information about how the Dominican Republic could feature in your retirement plan!

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It was December 1492 when explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the coast of what is known today as the Dominican Republic, calling it Hispaniola, or Little Spain. In his diary, he described the lush and mountainous terrain as the "most beautiful in the world." On subsequent voyages to the New World, Columbus returned to Hispaniola and upon his death asked that his remains be buried in Santo Domingo, on the south coast. Santo Domingo is now the site of the longest unbroken European settlement in the New World and a United Nations-designated World Heritage city.

You could think of Columbus as the first Caribbean "tourist." More than half a millennium later, the Dominican Republic — which takes up the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, the impoverished, politically unstable nation of Haiti comprising the remaining third — is fast becoming the destination of choice for a growing number of sun-worshipping vacationers and those, like aging boomers, seeking a second home in a tropical paradise. Last year, more than 3.6 million tourists visited the Dominican Republic, up from 7.2% in 2004, well ahead of Cuba (2.3 million) and Mexico's Cozumel and Cancún (2.4 million). The Dominican Republic has overtaken every other Caribbean tourist destination, both in number of hotel rooms — close to 60,000 rooms — and the value of their economic impact — more than US$3.1 billion in 2004. Compare that to second-place Puerto Rico — which had less than 13,000 hotel rooms in 2004 and tourist receipts of just over US$3 billion. (Most people visiting the U.S. protectorate stay with friends and family.)

The D.R. is also trying to grow beyond its image as a location of choice for bread-and-butter, all-inclusive vacation packages. "In the past, there's been a lot of negative publicity about the Dominican Republic," says John Schroder, 41, who spent 17 years on Wall Street in the brokerage business (his last job there was as a vice-president of a brokerage division with Citibank) but now runs a business out of Santo Domingo helping North Americans and others with land or business transactions and residency applications in the Caribbean and other overseas hot spots. However, "Things are starting to change," he says, adding that more people, especially Americans, have discovered both the recreational and investment opportunities in the D.R. "There are a lot of beautiful places in the Caribbean," says Schroder. "There aren't a lot of affordable places in the Caribbean." He notes that the recreational property market "isn't as overheated" as in other parts of the Caribbean, say Antigua or the Turks and Caicos.



Canadian real-estate developer Derek Elliott, 36, is one of those taking advantage of this opportunity. "The Dominican Republic has grabbed more attention in the spotlight in the last 18 months than it has in the past 18 years," says Elliott, CEO of Elliott Group, or what was formerly EMI Group (the name was changed to avoid confusion with the music company with a similar name). Elliott, who has been operating his D.R.-based Sun Village Resort & Spa since 2002, expects the number of tourists to the DR to jump to 10 million within the next decade. With extensive new developments planned, he clearly sees room for the tourism and vacation-home market to grow rapidly. (He notes that in Canada and the United States, the D.R.'s main tourism markets, about 10,000 people a day are turning 60 years old and belong to one of the wealthiest generations to have ever been born.

"I came down the first time, for my birthday in April," says Harvey Spiegel, a judge with the Superior Court of Justice (Ontario) in Toronto, relaxing by the pool near the resort's new 17,000-square-foot spa, which opened this summer. "I've been back four times since. It's just great."

Now, Elliott is taking the Sun Village Resort & Spa brand and plunging headfirst into the heady, competitive world of all-inclusive resort tourism in the D.R. In the next three years, he plans to operate four resorts here, with about 1,500 rooms between them. At the same time, he's developing a vacation-real-estate business that emphasizes condominium-style ownership. Sun Village offers two real-estate choices: owning an entire hotel suite or villa, where buyers get the benefit of equity appreciation and the ability to earn income by renting out their unit when they're not using it, paying Sun Village a management fee to do so; or "fractional ownership" — an upscale spin on time-shares — where you buy the right to use a suite or villa for a certain period of time, typically a month, but get no equity stake.

Schroder says buying recreational property in the D.R. has all the makings for a good investment, pointing out that three years ago he helped two Canadians buy condos for US$35,000 that today would probably go for closer to US$80,000.

Elliott's company, founded by his father, Fred, has held land in the D.R. since 1988, but only recently started a big development push. The 300-room, 4.5-star (five-star by Caribbean standards) Sun Village Resort & Spa Cofresi is located about a 25-minute drive west of Puerto Plata's international, airport on the island's north coast. In 2005, about 108,000 guests spent 74,875 room nights at Sun Village Cofresi, bringing in revenue of nearly US$5.5 million from the all-inclusive package deals, and projections for this year are that 157,000 guests will spend 99,881 room nights, with total revenue topping about US$9 million.

Elliott acknowledges the average sun seeker can still come to Sun Village Cofresi as part of a traditional weeklong, all-inclusive vacation deal, sometimes even for well under $1,000, using travel agents like itravel2000. But as Elliott stands over a scale model of the Cofresi property, the real-estate developer excitedly details his plans to open a 120-room luxury residence expansion on the oceanfront property: 2,250-square-foot, two-bedroom units, with full kitchen, going for US$800,000 in the first phase and increasing as more are released. These condos can be sold in different configurations, ranging from studios to a two-bedroom unit. (The secret is in the design: strategically placed doors and dividers that can separate the base unit into smaller ones.)

As well, Sun Village Cofresi will likely benefit from the spillover effect of the recent construction of Ocean World Adventure Park, located next door. Ocean World, which features dolphins, sharks and an interactive pool for swimming with sea creatures, is part of a US$35-million development being built by German investor Ludwig Meister, who is also putting the final touches on a marina and casino next to the Sun Village resort. These facilities are set for completion in December, and Elliott says both will provide a tremendous boost to the Cofresi resort. It will be the first full-service marina on the D.R.'s north coast, filling a 300-mile gap between the Turks and Caicos Islands and Puerto Rico on the well-travelled route between Florida, the Bahamas and the eastern Caribbean.

On the southern coast, Elliott is set to open the Sun Village Resort & Spa Juan Dolio in May 2007. The property has been undergoing a renovation that will create 240 deluxe condominiums and "grand presidential penthouses" that are sold out of its first and second phases and now sell for anywhere between US$450,000 to US$1 million. It's located close to world-class golf facilities and an hour from Casa de Campo and La Romana. The area is currently a hot real estate market, with more than US$200 million in acquisitions and renovations registered in 2005. The government has promised completion of the Las Americas Highway to Santo Domingo and the Coral Highway going east to Punta Cana, both through private-sector development. The first phases of the condo-style units at Cofresi are set to go on the market on Dec. 1, while only about 60 units are still available at Juan Dolio.

To help market the Sun Village brand, Elliott has even taken a bit of a leap into the film business. Last year, he launched the Dominican International Film Festival at the Cofresi resort, and it's slated again for Nov. 6-11. While it's still a relatively small festival, with screenings of more than 40 features, documentaries and shorts, Elliott hopes it will serve a boutique market. As well, Elliott has invested in two Hollywood-style films through his Elliott Motion Pictures division, teaming up with Media 8 Entertainment — which made the acclaimed films Monster (2003), and The Upside of Anger (2005), with Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. To be released soon: Lovewrecked, a teen romantic comedy starring Amanda Bynes; and Man About Town, with Ben Affleck. While getting into the film business is definitely a sideline, Elliott points out that Lovewrecked was shot on the Cofresi location. Elliott says it acts as a "huge product placement" for the Sun Village brand.

All this development indicates the extent to which Elliott believes the Dominican Republic is shedding its image as a cheap package-deal holiday destination. While it's been popular for many years — with more than 400,000 sun-worshipping Canadians going to the island paradise last year — it had developed a bit of a Kmart aura, with thousands of unremarkable hotel rooms at three-star resorts serving mundane all-you-can-eat buffets.

Today, however, Schroder says that most of the new resorts going up in the D.R. are at the high-end of the scale, noting that one upper-end project in Punta Cana he was acquainted with sold out in one day. "That's pretty incredible," he says, given that it involved US$100 million worth of real estate. Schroder adds that 90% of the purchasers were American. Christiane Théberge, vice-president of public affairs for the Association of Canadian Travel Agents, says that one of the reasons that there is more luxury development is the overall trend of North American boomers to want to pamper themselves more when they leave home.

And with a recent rash of celebrity spottings, the D.R. is acquiring a spiffier image. Earlier this year, press accounts had actor Brad Pitt visiting the D.R. to check out real estate prospects. He was also photographed at a Santo Domingo hotel with German architects Lars Kruckeberg and Wolfram Putz, who had previously refurbished his Los Angeles home. And according to a 2004 article in The New York Times, legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov even put his St. Barts house on the market and built one in the Dominican Republic.

US$1 equals 33.85 Dominican Republic peso

In 1492, when Columbus spotted the coral-rimmed island he later named Hispaniola, he proclaimed, “This is the fairest land under Heaven.”  I have to agree.  Home to the highest mountain range in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic—which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti—offers some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Columbus’s journal is full of descriptions of this beautiful island paradise.  But Columbus wasn’t looking for verdant valleys or turquoise waters and palm-lined beaches.  He was on a mission to find gold.

Noticing that the Taíno Indians who lived there were adorned with gold ornaments and jewelry from the deposits of gold found in Hispaniola’s rivers, Columbus must have thought he’d found the mother lode, and he hurried back to Spain to announce his discovery…and acquire a larger expedition.

By 1515, though, the Spaniards realized that the gold deposits of Hispaniola were being exhausted.  Not long after that, Cortez made his conquest of Mexico, with its fabulous riches of silver.  Almost overnight, the colonies established by the Spaniards on Hispaniola were abandoned.  Only a few thousand “Spanish” settlers remained behind (mostly the offspring of Spanish fathers and Taíno mothers).  The cattle and pigs Columbus had introduced to the island had multiplied rapidly, so the remaining inhabitants turned their attention to raising livestock to supply the Spanish ships passing by, en route to the richer colonies elsewhere.  Hispaniola’s importance as a colony declined.  So much so that the Spanish didn’t even bother to try to instill Catholicism there, as they did elsewhere.

“No gold, no God,” says a friend who lives in the Dominican Republic.  “There’s not a huge religious influence here…so there is not a lot of guilt. This is a sexy place, and the local people here are flagrant with their sexuality.  You should see some of their dance moves!

Luxurious digs
Some of the most popular tourist destinations in the Dominican Republic are found along the southern coast between Santo Domingo and La Romana.  Here, you’ll find Boca Chica, where you can wade 100 yards from shore in crystal-clear waters and still be only waist deep with nothing but soft clean sand underfoot—perfect for families with children.  But the nightlife is what Boca Chica is known for; it’s a swinging singles destination.

Further east along the southern coast is the immense Casa de Campo—the granddaddy of all Caribbean resort/residential communities—with its famous Teeth of the Dog, Pete Dye-designed golf course, considered the class of the Caribbean and ranked number 23 in the world by Golf magazine.

On the eastern tip of the island is the upscale Punta Cana area, with blinding white-sand beaches and emerald-green Caribbean waters.  Punta Cana is quickly eclipsing the rest of the country in terms of luxurious digs and high prices.

On the northern Atlantic Coast, the 30-mile stretch from Puerto Plata to Sosua and Cabrete is where you’ll find most tourist attractions.  This area has long been popular with expats, too, and still offers attractive property prices.

Heating up in Samana
The Samana Peninsula, situated along the northern coast, about 130 miles east of Puerto Plata, is the up-and-coming hot spot in the Dominican Republic..

Las Terrenas is the most popular town on the peninsula—especially with Europeans.  This area is currently experiencing an influx of expats who are coming here to live.  It is estimated that in the past few years the local population has grown from 3,000 to 20,000, with about 5,000 of that number being foreigners.  The French, in particular, have put their indelible stamp on the local economy, opening patisseries, boulangeries, specialty boutiques, and spurring a boom in the real estate market.  There is also a large Italian and German contingent, but as yet, few U.S. expats.

I suspect that will all change, but right now, the Samana Peninsula is hard to get to.  There are daily flights from Santo Domingo to Portillo (just a short distance from Las Terrenas) at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.  It takes five hours to drive from Santo Domingo.  Options are to fly into Puerto Plata or Punta Cana and charter a flight or drive from there.  Drive time from Puerto Plata is almost four hours; eight hours from Punta Cana.

A new international airport is being built at nearby El Catey, and a new highway from Santo Domingo to Las Terrenas, slated for completion in early 2008, will reportedly reduce the drive time to an hour.  The airport, which is supposed to open later this year, will bring in the tourists.  Then this sleepy place will change for the better—or for the worse, depending on your perspective.

The beaches along the peninsula’s 90-mile shoreline are mostly uninhabited.  According to a friend who lives here, that’s because the locals don’t want to live near the beaches, but prefer to live close together in towns inland, away from the wear and tear of salt and sea.

The beaches are solitary.  There are lots of large, sheltered U-shaped bays with long stretches of honey-colored sand, ringed by gorgeous, tall coconut palms.  The blue water is gentle and warm.  And because this area is harder to get to than other parts of the island, prices here are lower than you’ll find further west along the north coast or near Punta Cana.

What cost property here?
Across the road from the beach in Las Terrenas, a new apartment complex called Don Cesar is being built.  A luxurious two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot (not including the ample terrace) apartment here, with an ocean view, can be had for $320,000.   Some older apartments are just down the road.  These are built of wood in the typical Caribbean style, with big balconies overlooking a landscaped common area and with ocean views. Two large condo units are for sale here, with two levels and three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a huge balcony.  They come fully furnished.  One is priced at $230,000 and the other at $255,000.- Article Continued Below -
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What about raw land?  We went to see some lots on Barbacoa and Limon Bays.  One lot in particular stood out, as it is situated on an expansive bay, offering stunning views in both directions.  Nearly 2.4 acres in size, it was selling for $500,000.

The infrastructure will need to be installed, but both electricity and water are nearby.  Construction costs here for a 1,200- to 1,500-square-foot house average $40,000 to $50,000 ($35 to $40 per square foot). In comparison, we were told that construction costs in the more developed Puerto Plata area are close to $70 per square foot.

This place is poised to boom.  The beaches are too pretty and the property prices too reasonable—and increased accessibility will make it even more attractive.  New signature golf courses and an ambitious marina project are being planned.  Conde Nast Traveler has called the Samana Peninsula one of the 25 best locations in the world, and named one of its beaches (Playa Rincon) as one of the 10 best in the world. I don’t disagree. 

By Susan Haskins 

LONDON.- The number of foreign tourists in the Dominican Republic during the first nine months of the year grew 10 percent to surpass 2.6 million, according to the Caribbean nation’s Tourism minister Felix Jimenez, who currently heads the Dominican Republic’s delegation visiting a tourism fair in the British capital. 

Jimenez stated that growth rates registered were “spectacular” in the Canadian market with 22.14 percent, and in Great Britain with 17 percent, while Spaniard tourists have increased by 6 percent. 

The minister also underscored that during the first nine months of the year, the Dominican Republic received over 125,000 tourists from other Caribbean Islands. 

“Ours is a destination rich in nature and has a combination of enchanting small and medium size hotels,” said Jimenez, who added that projections lead to four million visitors during 2006, in contrast with the 3.6 million registered in 2005.