Reasons to Retire, Invest, or Buy Real Estate in Honduras

Honduras is a country for dreamers…a place where Caribbean breezes lift fresh ocean air through your windows…where the sunlight glints off the water at odd angles…where the sound of waves lapping at the shore is just hypnotic enough to spirit away the dissonance of your past life.
But this is a country that appeals to realists as well. Where you can indulge your dreams…but do so even on a limited budget. Not only is Honduras a place of great natural beauty, but Honduran property prices are reasonable, the cost of living is low, crime is almost nonexistent, and health care is top-notch and inexpensive. In addition, it's home to some of the best-preserved Mayan ruins in the world, and, with the second-largest barrier reef on the planet just off its coast, offers some of the best scuba diving in the world.

Natural Beauty Springs From a Varied Landscape

The country's landscape is varied--the coast meets a backdrop of high-country mountains and cloud forests that slope down into valleys at intervals to make way for rivers. Vast expanses of land on a central plateau are farmed for coffee, tobacco, wheat, fruits, and vegetables. Large cattle ranches occupy much of the flatlands. Along the Mosquito Coast, a waterlogged terrain produces fields of mangroves. Mahogany and other hardwood trees flourish further inland. The Bay Islands, formed by the tops of an underwater mountain range, provide unparalleled Caribbean beauty--dense tropical foliage spills out onto white-sand beaches to meet warm, blue tropical waters.

Affordable Property and Low Cost of Living

Just as the landscape is varied, so are the populated communities; some spots in the country will certainly interest you more than others. Some regions are almost inaccessible, others overcrowded. In several communities, the best property buys are long gone, but in others, you can still find great bargain deals.
You might choose to live in a simple wooden structure on the sand and take your pleasure in the landscape. Or maybe you'd prefer to build your dream home, a Spanish-style villa with earth-toned stucco walls, native oak floors, and handmade mahogany furniture. You can build whatever suits your needs (or your imagination).
Construction costs begin as low as US$15 a square foot. For a more substantial home made of concrete construction, you'll pay closer to $25 a square foot on the mainland, and for the same house on Roatan in the Bay Islands, you'll pay about $60 a square foot.
You can live very well in Honduras for less than $1,500 a month. Of course, some towns are more affordable than others--parts of the Bay Islands have been "discovered," and products have to be shipped to the islands by boat, so the cost of day-to-day living tends to be slightly higher there than on the mainland.

Tax Incentives Make Residency and Investment Very Attractive

If you choose to retire in Honduras, you'll find that the Honduran government won't tax your U.S. Social Security and pension payments. In fact, as a foreign resident, you'll be entitled to tax breaks. And the government encourages foreign investment in the tourism industry--a promising sector that has been largely neglected until now--with attractive tax incentives.
If you are involved with a government-approved tourism project--and that could be anything from a restaurant to a hotel to a souvenir shop--you'll pay no income tax on your profits for 20 years. Even if you make $10 million, you will not pay one tax penny to the Honduran government.
Though its history is riddled with stories of colonial domination, war, and conspiracy, in recent years, Honduras has shown remarkable, sustained peace. The last two democratic elections have proven to be models for the peaceful transfer of power--no mean feat for a young democracy struggling to gain a foothold in an enormous world economy. Tremendous natural resources and a willing workforce have also come together to put Honduras on the path toward prosperity. That bodes well for those expatriates who stake a claim there now, before the rest of the world gets wind of the changes underfoot. There are still property bargains in communities all around the country, the local market for goods is strong, and active production facilities encourage increased import-export profits.