Building a LOST VILLA in Belize? (I BOUGHT LAND)

today my goal is to show you Belize from the untouched jungles to the unchartered beaches and I'll show you why I'm actually doing a little bit of property hunting here and spoiler it's happening let me show you why I became a property owner here in Belize if you're new to the channel my name is Christian and right now I'm building a series of dream homes all around the world I've currently got nine lost Villas under construction here in Bali Indonesia I just opened my first lost home in Dubai and for those of you that do know me you might be thinking Belize yeah Belize and it seems random even for me but here's how it happened you see for the last few years I've been traveling through Tulum and I really like the place I think it's one of the most beautiful places on our planet it's nice and close to my family being on the Western Hemisphere and so I really started looking to find a home there in fact I even made an offer but when the offer was rejected it made me pause and when I took that pause I realized that there was a lot of cons that came with the pros of Tulum you see investing in Tulum means for one ownership in Mexico as a foreigner felt a little bit shaky and complicated secondly the cartel activity is a serious problem and it's actually driving away a lot of business owners as a tourist you probably won't see it but if you live there you will eventually see the other side and lastly as an investor it's a mark Market that has already boomed and honestly it's hard to say what's left on the upside but despite these cons I dreamed of having a home in a place like this and that's why fast forward a few months I got so excited when I received a DM from this guy this is will I had never met will never heard of him but when I got a message from him inviting me to come and explore tulum's next door neighbor Belize I was like I don't know much about this place but given how close it is I'm sure the landscape and the feel it must be somewhat similar he told me that not only is Belize one of the Undiscovered Frontiers he said it's also a place that historically investors have done exceptionally well I was intrigued and so as per usual I got on a flight flew across the world to go and hang out with a total stranger and this is how it went [Music] so this trip starts off just outside of Belize City where we're going though is where I'm most excited about now I probably came with the best guide in all of Belize this year as well guys rejoined here with Zach heck yeah man what's up man now pretty much any trip to Belize will start off by Landing in Belize City which is the largest and most populated city but most people don't typically stay there so we quickly got on this little tiny plane and flew over to ambergris cave amberger's keep Amber's risky it's not it's I I'm thinking hamburger I can't even pronounce the island and this is where will lives and has built out his business as an owner of the Re Max franchise for Belize but the thing that I couldn't help but notice is as we took off just how small Belize City was you see in total this country only has 400 000 people and fun fact they speak English which considering where they're located is kind of strange because most of their neighbors speak Spanish [Music] right now we just landed the beautiful island of ambergris key we're in San Pedro Town Island's 24 miles long three miles wide and this is going to be the VIP exclusive tour only for all the loss of long people can't say much more than that [Music] all right here this is stunning very very simple from the exterior and then you come in here and it's like modern beautiful organized for you guys oh my God such a warm warm welcome very like thank you after a long day of travel you really don't find a nicer check-in than this one was later that night I took an espresso shot tried to wake up and headed to dinner with these beautiful people pretty much all of these people gathered around the table are Canadians and Americans that have traded in the cold for a much better life in Belize and as something I can 110 relate to because that's why I came to Bali through our honorary guest today guys Zach and Christian I feel so grateful to be here right now usually I'm visiting places but I'm not really connecting with the people and this is like the other way around it's like meeting people first and then getting to know the area and that's the best way to do it so thank you guys welcome to the family being invited into this Inner Circle felt very special and I can say that even though it was just the first night I started to feel like there might be more to Belize than just the blue water now one thing you'll come to see on this trip is that will is pretty much the most badass host in all of Belize and he did not disappoint the morning started off with an amazing meal and immediately heading out from a canal right in front of our home to this [Music] in 15 minutes later you're out in the middle of paradise such a cool experience just hanging out here with will and his friends and getting to see this very local local style of travels how many days of the week look like this three three days a week it's just unbelievable I'm already picturing my life here in Belize and I think I want it [Music] so Toshi and Oni have basically made a little pop-up restaurant for us here just in the jungle unbelievable [Music] yeah think of a better place to celebrate the sunny day I'm with amazing people and we got champagne this is a roll that was designed Toshi and well together they spent ages in the laboratory cracking up the best formula it is so good that's like so deliciously buttery this is so much better than the floating breakfast in Bali as the sunset started to hit will invited Zach and I to get back on the boat and go and explore our first set of investment properties just a few minutes away from this beach is a place called secret Beach Now secret Beach is an upcoming Community built along this beautiful Coastline it has a few restaurants a few bars a couple upscale properties and a few homes like this that right there is called a Mennonite style home it's rather simple in its style it's actually up on stilts now one thing I need to add is that these plots at the moment do not have utilities thirty five thousand dollars for the plot for the materials the labor and basically getting a full standing structure you're looking around sixty thousand dollars maybe ten to fifteen thousand dollars to get yourself solar panels and a bunch of other utilities that make this place efficient so just over a hundred thousand dollars and you have yourself a place here in Belize these lots that today were are thirty five thousand dollars well five years ago they were starting at 5 000 us you're on an island sea of Island economics you're out of the curve and there's already a track record in data pointing this is where stuff's coming we're actually gonna go see another style of construction kind of a more stylish and designer way to go with the prefab look so again the benefit being usually it's a little more affordable but it's definitely a lot faster to get up and going we have like a simple hard-water Brewery even over here they start at about 275 but most of all secret Beach is a lot of recently purchased plots one thing I found very interesting about this area is that there's an upcoming development by the name of habitat and as you know the thing that Drew me to this region was the experience of Tulum while there's about to become a bunch of these upscale Tulum style homes that I just find absolutely gorgeous one of the great things about secret Beach is that unlike Tulum where there was Zero urban planning and trust me if you've been to Tulum you know all about those bumpy roads the awful traffic it's a nightmare but with an area like this a ton of planning is going into it to create the right roadways and structures to avoid the bottleneck that you see all across Tulum the truth is if I could have been there on day one to invest in Tulum you better believe I would have but that ship has set sail now my goal is to find the spot before it's the spot and I saw a lot of potential here [Applause] the next day we started our morning bright and early grab some breakfast at a nearby Resort what do we have here guys what is this oil bath it's a great way to describe it so this right here apparently is a very traditional Belizean breakfast it's a pitesh pack and basically you've got these really like fluffy pillowy breads you're gonna poke a hole in it and then stuff it with the bacon the eggs the refried beans let's try it on Cheers it kind of is I'm all for Belizean food though Reuben is actually a bit of a talented man he's a singer sometimes we put out music sometimes the people listen And It's a Blessing but right now we're in Belize and we're getting lost after an amazing breakfast I headed to the motorboat because today we were gonna catch our own lunch or at least we hoped this is how we're catching today's meal I know some of you guys are probably thinking but isn't it wrong to be shooting fish there's actually no commercial fishing off of the coast of Belize or in Belize at all this is actually a really great way to enjoy Belize and also get our next meal thank you we got food we got food we got food so everything we speared is right in front of us here all freshly prepared a little bit of a lobster a little bit of fish thanks to this guy right here nice shot oh baby wow thank you boss this right here is a very serious crab cloth it's trying to like tear it open but Emmanuela came over showed me how to do it doesn't really brushing that now I swear food just tastes a little bit better when you catch it yourself but after that incredible meal we headed back to Mahogany Bay which is a gated community and unlike secret Beach which has a lot of room to grow a lot of developing to do Mahogany Bay is quickly taking shape they're about to have a pool Club it has a school they have a hair and a nail salon they've got an art shop they have a yoga studio they have amazing wildlife they have a coffee shop I'd recommend the coconut little kid [Music] now I can see how Mahogany Bay will soon have mostly everything you could want in one place but my question was still the same where would I live and how far would my money go if I invested today so we hopped in Will's golf cart and he gave us a tour of the upcoming builds and homes in the area are these the plots of land that people would have bought exactly so these are all 50 by 75 Lots if people want to do bigger homes they can build up with multiple Lots but you can fit a pretty substantial home like the one we're about to walk into this one right here is a duplex and you can actually see it by going right here it's basically the exact same building inverted on the other side so you could rent them out separately as two units or you could open it up this would be kind of medium to upscale finishing without a lot of nice like wood finishes let's cut some hardwood window frames that are manufactured this year on the ad you can actually get kind of like a turnkey home starting around 400k again you are paying premiums to be in a gated community and with that comes of course the ability to charge more on nightly rentals so a lot of the homes that we've seen so far have had a bit of a colonial style to them right now we're actually going into more of a modern one right here one bedroom here on the right one bedroom here on the labs you got this really beautiful wooden false beams that just adds so much personality to the space you got a walk-in closet right on the canal what do you think this kind of place costs in general when you're looking at a higher end finishing like this place I would just use the 175 to 200 per square foot matcher and calculate based in the square footage of the hole run that math add the property value that's your final cost now truthfully Belize is not the cheapest place I've ever come across building here is around mid pricing but what has made this place so favorable for some investors is the fact that Belize is built up on common law it means that whether you're a local Legion or whether you're a foreigner you are protected at the same level by commonwealth law it also means that no matter what passport you hold you can own a home outright and that home is your property for the rest of your life your kids lives and whoever they pass it on to next however can improve our prepared this area is prone to getting some serious storms and there was actually a hurricane that just came through a week ago all of these wooden structures seem in perfect condition they're actually built with hurricane straps big Porsche mahogany Bays the owner is in complete control so you can get your lot you choose your plan you can customize the plan and you're getting priced out directly from the best contractors in Belize so everything is streamlined for owners of the air after touring the properties we enjoyed the best thing about the way this community is set up from Mahogany Bay into the middle of the ocean in like five minutes but what I wasn't expecting was where we were just about to go snorkeling so this is hochan and trust me when I say this is one of the best dive sites on our planet the amount of marine biodiversity absolutely blew me away every five seconds it's a new species it's a new set of coral and it's an absolutely breathtaking experience [Music] oh yeah this is one of the most beautiful Marine sites I've ever been to I mean the only thing I can compare to maybe is is rajam hot in Indonesia it's all protected here and you see it like the way the fish act around you they're not even scared I've never seen so much biodiversity in a single dive later that night we celebrated another beautiful Belizean Day by heading down to this restaurant at a local Resort and I gotta be honest I started to feel something that I don't normally feel I felt like I was a part of this community I felt a sense of belonging and deep Community something I very rarely feel on my travels so low-key maybe hiki I love these people and the more time I spent here the more I started to visualize this place as a home before flying to Belize I thought my chances of getting a property or building a home here were about zero to one percent but the way the first few days played out had me thinking maybe there's a shot maybe five to ten percent but the reality was if I was gonna see Belize as some form of a home well I couldn't base that decision off of just the island of ambergris cave I can't even pronounce the island it can be hard to say ambergris If This Were to become home I needed to better understand Belize luckily Will's kind of a crazy tour guide and he had an insane travel plan to show me so much of this country in a short span of time so we hopped on a plane landed back down in Belize City and that brings us to this moment if there was one thing that I was most excited about in this entire Belize trip it was to see well but second to that is that right there today will has set up a trip for us to go and explore the Blue Hole from above and this hole is a world famous scuba site but today we have a totally different way of seeing it and the crazy thing is he's never done it before get into the blue hole with the helicopter I've never done guys this is Gustavo our pilot for today with astrum helicopters so let's start up the chopper let's go ladies and gentlemen we have taken a flight [Music] god dude your view is amazing yo will you want to go 50 50 on this island yeah I'm in are you excited first [Music] I actually didn't expect it to be so circular crazy just flying over this region you see some of the most incredible Landscapes this is one of the last natural sanctuaries of our planet [Music] better leave midair we both panicked we hear a door pop open that's my fault guys it can't take me anywhere with that checked off The Bucket List we still haven't seen so much of what makes this country so unique there is a vast jungle across the country and 5 000 species that call it home there are 900 of these ancient sites all around the country so it was time to get away from the coastline so we boarded a PJ that means private jet if you don't know I'm sorry I had to do that the door is locked the other one was it was a cool moment so we took a selfie with our pilot as you do and we landed down in Punta Gorda [Applause] [Music] so this is the airport okay custom should be pretty chill luckily baggage claims ran pretty smoothly and our next stop was to the Belize famous kopal Tree Resort we've just arrived and the second we drive in through Coppola trees entrance it's just like Wilderness there's trees sheep chicken are those guinea hens there's howler monkeys that are going to be up here entering Garden of Eden hi good evening welcome to capacity Lots boom this is amazing it literally feels like we're in the set of Tarzan right now nothing but Treetops and mountains this place is deep in the jungle and will said the last time he stayed here you actually saw Jaguars up in the tree canopy gotta keep your head on the swivel you never know this is so stunning you can hear all the sounds of the birds I can hear some monkeys in the distance this is deep immersion in the jungle foreign how did you describe Belize yeah man no this is a special place back to that Barefoot living I regret it now ouch wow you can hear this like prehistoric dinosaur sound that's the howler monkeys it's basically our alarm clock for tomorrow morning you've literally been one of the best tour guides ever he's taken me from the island to the Jungle from the local to the luxury what's your take on Belize like where is the opportunity a lot of people who call me and they say well you know I wish I invested in place 10 years ago but the reality is a lot of people 10 years from now will be saying the exact same thing only it'll have been about today we have full foreign ownership you can have your name on the title of the property and you're in complete control will has an entire YouTube channel based around Belize if you guys want to check it out I will have his link down below it's been Evan the best thing ever to to take a DM from a stranger and to see where it led me you never know [Music] the final day yeah it kind of sucks to say that and it sucks even more because I'm not even in Belize anymore but this was a really special part of the trip from cascading waterfalls endless wildlife and the rich Mayan history it was time to see what this part of the country had to offer buenos dias chicas and Chicos what a beautiful day here in the Treetops today we're gonna do two very important things when your employees you need to see a waterfall and you need to see a Mayan temples we're chasing waterfalls today guys [Music] so we've just arrived here at slovantun that's like the entrance and there's nobody else parked nobody else here looks like we're gonna have a private viewing Chris so you can see guys the mines were very concerned about safety which I respect you know what they say what good is history if we can't learn from it [Music] like some tune Racine here this is the true meaning of Belize is getting lost and living life on the edge coming right here because it's a really special one for one I'm at this stunning waterfall sharing it with nobody else other than amazing friends but secondly this was the moment I decided to become a landowner here in Belize we're flying back to San Pedro and I'm gonna have this guy show me where I might be building the next lost Villa we got to get the perfect location there guys that moment at the waterfall was a critical moment it was a moment that I realized this was not just going to be another one of the countries I've traveled no this was the beginning of a new home with that we boarded our flight we flew right back to ambergris touched down and headed to the Re Max Belize office because time to make things official it's happening like all important decisions in life It's always important to consult a lawyer so I'm going to call in my legal specialist come here I'm gonna need you to read this real book this is the moment it becomes real to get started only 35 000 Simplicity of it all it's just so beautiful I'm a landowner in Belize with the name on the dotted line it was official I had signed the contract and I was now the proud owner of two plots of land but where you may ask let me show you [Music] got it welcome to the Future site of the Lost Villa Belize [Music] okay well uh that's my plot it's uh some dirt a bunch of bushes I don't really know what you expected but while it's not much to see today this is actually the land where the project habitat is soon to start construction bringing in a series of high-end Tulum inspired homes into the area and with the two plots I bought this is quite likely going to be the foundations to the next lost Villa it's kind of crazy it only took me four days in Belize with the right people to feel right at home and with that I'm leaving with my own little tiny piece of bamberger's key Rambo just keep hamburger is key and and burgress yeah ambergris key if ambergris K some amazing new friendships and the beginning of a new Foundation that I just can't wait to watch grow guys if you liked this video as much as I loved making it then please let me know it really matters to me and I'd love to hear your thoughts and if ever you want to get connected with will his amazing team or learn more about this then just check out that link down below and as always let's get lost again in the next one

Channel: Lost LeBlanc

Views: 118,742

Keywords: Lost LeBlanc, belize, belize travel, travel belize, buying land in belize, buying in belize, ambergris caye, Lost Villa, Building in belize, tulum, tulum vs belize, belize vs tulum, how to travel belize, what can i do in belize, things to do in belize, belize 2023, belize travel guide, best of belize, belize travel vlog, belize travel vlog 2023, will mitchell belize, secret beach, secret beach belize, secret beach belize real estate, invest in belize, lost villa bali

Id: t5depatWuQw

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2023