Colombia's Real Estate Market is "En Fuego"
Milo Vanderwerf
What use to be one of the most violent places in the world to live, is now the hottest market in Latin America (give or take Brazil). In a recent TV news interview this past week on CNBC's Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo, global real estate investor Sam Zell was asked: where are the next opportunities for real estate investing?
Zell, Chairman of Equity Group Investments, responded saying "If I were to identify today the next focus point for real estate investment, it would be Colombia."
"In a few weeks you'll be hearing that the stock exchanges of Colombia, Peru and Chile are merging, making it the second-biggest stock exchange in Latin America behind Brazil, but larger than Mexico's. This newly-merged stock market will become a major funnel of capital into these markets after this event," commented Zell.
According to Zell, Colombia is also benefitting from the flight of human capital. The expertise of many oil executives, who have recently fled Venezuela, has now allowed Colombia to take advantage of their natural resources. Colombia has recently gone from 100,000 barrels of oil produced a day to almost 1 million barrels a day.
When asked about the state of the single family housing in the U.S., Zell stated, "the problem in housing is much more of a psychological problem than one of economics. It is an unwillingness of people to commit to buying."
Luxury Living International says "it’s a buyers market and a great opportunity to buy luxury real estate in almost all destinations you love, but you might want to hurry."