“How much did you say they’re asking for this place?”
We stood at the front window of a four-bedroom brick house sitting on an acre of land. We were looking directly out at the Pacific Ocean…nothing between us and the surf but a line of little blue fishing boats pulled up on the beach on the other side of the coastal road.
“They’re asking $45,000,” said Richard. “They’d probably take $40,000.”
The house is a brick shell…it needs plaster and paint throughout, but the Ecuadorian family who used it for their weekend beach getaways never bothered. The property has water and electricity. At the back of the lot is a two-story building with four rooms, once used for sleeping quarters, dilapidated and probably in need of demolition.
But $40,000 for an acre of beachfront with a useable home on it? And just 30 minutes (on a good road, no less) from Manta, the anchor city of Ecuador’s bustling central coast?
Shouldn’t it be hot here on the equator?
You’d think that at Latitude 0 it would be hotter than Hades. But no, the weather is quite temperate because this is where the colder Humboldt current flowing from the south meets the northbound warm El Niño. Dry season, or summer—from June to December—is the coolest time of year. Year-round daytime temperatures in Manta average 73° F.
“Of course,” Richard said, “if you didn’t want the house, you could knock it down, grade the lot, and have a pristine acre of prime beach land ready for new construction for maybe $50,000 all told.
“I’d keep the construction, though,” he continued. “The national surfing championship was held right over there by that big rock on the beach. Fix up the house and the place in back and you’d have room for a dozen surfers to rent here.”
Richard Parker is a Manta real estate agent. We’d told him we wanted to see the best beach values available within an hour’s drive of Manta, and he was delivering.
The shopping, health services, and entertainment options Manta offers make it a natural center of gravity for expat life on this stretch of Ecuador’s magnificent Pacific coast. And being within easy driving distance of Manta is much easier now than it was when Dan and I lived in Ecuador seven years ago. The coastal road going south, called Ruta del Sol, is in great shape for the most part, and the road going north to Bahia de Caráquez is actively being widened and repaired.
As we left Manta that day to head south, Richard pointed out several gated communities with ocean access on the edge of town, where 4,000-square-foot houses sell for about $185,000. And new condos can be had for $100 per square foot.
Another five minutes down the road, we stood on the third tier of a five-tier oceanfront development running up a hill…1,500-square-foot building lots with water, power, and a gated front entrance for $18,000.
A few minutes later we passed two 4,000-square-foot unimproved oceanfront lots right on the coastal road on a ridge high above the ocean. The views from here stretch for miles both north and south. There are high, craggy tree-covered cliffs and a strong, steady surf laps at wide, flat beaches. There are only a few houses here and they are off in the distance, but no towns to speak of.
This must be what Malibu looked like 100 years ago before the Pacific Coast Highway. It would be impossible to find a lot like this to buy in Malibu today…but in Ecuador they’re selling for $6,000 each.
Farther on, we took a right turn off the coastal road and found ourselves at the best opportunity yet…10 hectares of gorgeous tree-and-landscaped land between the road and the ocean. At the crest is a two-story, four-bedroom home with a spacious covered terrace and ocean views that go on forever. There’s a well-manicured lawn with seashell-bordered walkways that lead to a palm orchard, a two-bedroom guesthouse, a playground for the kids, a volleyball court, and a swimming pool on the beach…. There’s also a mini-zoo with toucans, peacocks, rabbits, and monkeys in tidy little cages connected by cobbled paths.
The land alone is easily a $40-million-property (or more) in Malibu, but here in Ecuador, the entire place and everything that goes with it, furniture included, is being offered for $600,000.
Dan and I immediately started counting friends…. If we can find five other couples to go in on it with us, we thought, we can each have it all to ourselves for two months out of the year. It would be like vacationing on a Hollywood movie set. And since Ecuador is on the equator and the weather is always late spring here, we wouldn’t even have to fight over the best months…they’re all good.
We interrupted this daydream to pile back in Richard’s car for the drive back to Manta. He had more to show us….
Manta: The “next” Panama City?
Manta is the fastest-growing city in Ecuador. It’s a prosperous city, too. The economy revolves around the tuna industry. (Homage is paid with a huge tuna statue in the center of a roundabout on the seaside highway.)
On our first visit to Manta in 2002, we found it a bit rough around the edges. But the country had just been through an economic crisis…one that caused the president to drop the national currency and adopt the U.S. dollar as the country’s official legal tender.
We were also newbies to living in Latin America then. As time has passed, we’ve become more accustomed to the lack of zoning codes and fresh paint, and the lack of money from the government to do much about anything.
It was eye-opening to look at Manta with the fresh perspective of our now-seven years of experience living in Ecuador, Panama, Nicaragua, and Mexico.
It almost felt as though we’d never been here. Yes, the hotel was the same and the beach was the same…with loud music and dozens of blue umbrellas fluttering in the sea breeze, athletic sorts playing volleyball, and lots of bodies bobbing happily in the surf. The little open-air restaurants on the malecon looked to be flourishing.
But in many ways, Manta seems like a different city now. There are new roads, new shopping centers, new restaurants, and construction sites everywhere.
Everyone is excited about Manta. As an Ecuadorian attorney told us, “I spend part of my time in Manta and I have an apartment here. In fact, I’ve just bought a new one and hope to move my family here from Quito. There’s just so much going on here.”
While those from Guayaquil in the south tend to head to Salinas for weekend getaways, Manta—and its nearby beach communities—is quickly becoming the Ecuador beach destination of choice for tourists and second-home buyers from Quito, he said.
“Price is what you pay, value is what you get”
So says Warren Buffett. While he certainly wasn’t talking about Manta, he could have been. Because in Manta, you get top value for bottom dollar. Check it out:
Bus ride: 25 cents
30 oranges: $1
20 limes: $1
Taxi anywhere in town: $1
Taxi from one side of town to the other: $1.50
Gallon of gas: $1.48
1 pound of lobster: $2
Four-course meal (appetizer, soup, chicken with side of veggies and rice, dessert, beverage): $2.50
New oceanfront condos per square foot: $100
And by the way, this part of Ecuador is where the Panama Hat was born, and still turns out the world’s finest and most authentic version. Prices start at about $15 and go up as quality increases.
Expats, too, are finding their way here. Linda Flierl Hooks has founded an expat social group, and she threw an impromptu cocktail party during our visit. The U.S., Canada, Russia, and Ecuador were all represented.
Linda loves living in Manta, and standing on the plant-filled terrace of her spacious three-bedroom condo, surrounded by interesting people happily jabbering away in a host of languages, it’s easy to understand why.
It would be easy to live in Manta, we agreed. And affordable. Richard showed us several condo projects in the city in various stages of construction, all either on the beach or near it. Some feature marble flooring and hardwood cabinets. All feature balconies with a view, and none are priced much more than $100 per square foot.
At El Navegante, now in pre-construction stage, prices are the same no matter which floor of the building you are on. Like many condo projects in Manta, the building sits on a cliff overlooking the beach, and all the units, first floor included, have unobstructed ocean views. Buying higher in the building doesn’t get you anything but a longer elevator ride, and the developer doesn’t see any point in charging more for that.
When did Ecuador become such a pocket of developer sanity? When did it enter the running for the best beach value play in the Americas? Was it like this when Dan and I were here seven years ago?
Probably, but back then, we didn’t have a Richard Parker to guide us, and Manta wasn’t the economic center it is today. The condo projects we saw then seemed half-baked and weren’t configured and built to North American tastes as they are now.
Manta today reminds us of Panama City 10 years ago, back before the current real estate boom and the resultant sky-high prices. As in Panama City, there is big money in Manta (from tuna, shrimp, and shipping). The currency is the U.S. dollar, and the Pacific beaches are world-class. But Manta hasn’t lost that small-town Latin beach feel.
And the beautiful beaches and buying opportunities extend to the north of Manta, as well. Going north toward the seaport of Bahia de Caráquez, the road is under construction for long stretches, but the beaches are just as nice. Less than an hour from Manta and near the town of San Clemente, for example, is Palmazul, a mixed-use project on the edge of a crescent-shaped bay. Here, beach view condos are under construction and start in price at $89,000.
When the roads are finished and the new bridge is built, as planned, over the river estuary at Bahia, another entire market will open up farther north, with Manta as its logical base.
What’s missing in Manta? An international airport, although direct flights from Miami sometimes land here during high season. It only takes 30 minutes to fly to Manta from Quito. Domestic flights are offered well into the evening, so even with a Quito or Guayaquil connection, you can still get to Manta from North America in one day.
What else is missing? Sky-high and skyrocketing prices and a boom-town atmosphere. Manta is muy tranquilo. And the beach communities north and south are even more laidback.
I can’t afford Malibu. But even if I could, I’ll take Ecuador any day.
NEED TO KNOW
Manta fast facts
Manta is in the province of Manabi on the west coast of Ecuador. According to a survey by Ecuadorian magazine Vistazo, many of the country’s largest-revenue companies have headquarters in or near Manta. Tuna and vegetable oil processing and exportation are the largest industries. Tourism is important, too. Tourists are drawn to beaches and water sports, including surfing, scuba diving, water skiing, kiteboarding, and kitesurfing. (Manta has hosted both the 2004 Bodyboarding World Cup and the South American Windsurfing Championship.) Its claim to fame, though, is sport fishing. Many world-record fish have been pulled from the waters here. (In 1985, Jorge “Pancho” Jurado caught a 1,014-pound blue marlin here that stood as record for several years.)
Getting there
Fly to Ecuador’s international airport at Quito. Then catch a flight to Manta with one of three domestic airlines: TAME; Aerogal; or Icaro. The 30-minute flight averages $65 per person.
Where to stay
There are several nice hotels in Manta, including Costa Sol and an upscale Howard Johnson. We like the Oro Verde—it has a nice restaurant with a wonderful breakfast buffet. There’s even an onsite sushi restaurant. (The tuna doesn’t get much fresher than in Manta.)
Don’t miss…
Linda Flierl Hooks is the de facto social director of the expat community in Manta. She’s created a website that details the upcoming social events. If you visit Manta, she just might throw you a party!
Buying real estate in Ecuador
Foreigners have all the rights of residents when buying real estate, and property ownership is “direct deed” as in the U.S. Almost all transactions are cash, there is little mortgage financing unless through the seller or developer.
Always hire your own attorney to look over sales contracts. There are no title or escrow companies, and sellers and buyers are required to pay their own debts outside the sales process (insurance, real estate commissions, etc.). Title insurance is available through Tuey Murdock at First American Title Insurance Company, e-mail: tmurdock@firstam.com.
Real estate taxes and transaction fees in Ecuador are among the lowest in the world. On average, the total amount of taxes comes to about 1.5% of the purchase price. Capital gains tax rarely amounts to more than a few hundred dollars.
Real estate resources
For information about real estate in Manta or the beach communities near there, e-mail Richard Parker at: aica0203@yahoo.com. To learn more about Palamazul, e-mail: thor@sanclementeecuador.com. To sign up for a real estate tour, e-mail: info@pathfinderrealestate.net.
Attorney
Roberto Moreno, with offices in Quito and Manta; tel. 099 70 8798 in Ecuador and (59) 39-970-8798 from outside the country; e-mail: roberto@morenodidonato.com.
IL’s Ecuador resources
Ecuador: The Owner’s Manual is an encyclopedia of information, including contact information for local real estate and legal resources and more. From mountains to beaches, you’ll learn about the cities, towns, and areas that are most attractive to expats.
A good resource for information about Ecuador is the newsletter published by IL contributor Gary Scott. See www.ecuadorliving.com.