3 Days later and we are back in Australia with a little more of what’s gong on in Vanuatu and probably more confused than ever. The last few days have been a whirlwind.
Arriving late into the evening with Janelle not recognising us (yet after several emails…oh well) we crawled into bed with a plan of talking with Jack in the morning.
The morning talk is informative and we seem to narrow down what it is that we want Jack to show us. Jack now has to sleep on it and the plan changes to him showing us properties that may fit the budget tomorrow.
Jack asks us to have a look at the block next door and give him an idea of what we think it’s worth – I really have no idea and not wanting to look incompetent I probe a little deeper.
I seems that the block of 16 units is a strata title, meaning that you can buy individual titles or the complete block. The asking price?… about $900,000AUD the price that Jack believes they’re worth $450-495000AUD.
Jack tells us that in Vanuatu there is property that is for sale and there is property that isn’t for sale. What he was trying to say is that in Vanuatu the owners are unrealistic of the current market and if you strike the right deal there are winners out there.
We had to let Jack know that we had lined up a few properties and that we would be viewing them with the various agents. He seemed happy for the other agents to show us around and was confident in showing us some real gems after the others had finished.
A little confused as I thought Jack might have shown us something this morning we headed down town for lunch and planned our next meeting with Anne from First National Real Estate. We had planned for a 3.pm meeting (as we thought we would be out with Jack). Upon discovery that she had to juggle her day was a little awkward but we were soon looking over an awesome setting of a waterfront Restaurant that sits in the top 5 Restaurants in Vanuatu.
Our thoughts were that should we buy this business we could rent a house and have less of an initial investment into the country. But the more we talked with the owner and looked into the location we knew that, although the initial investment would be less financially the ongoing costs would be significant. The thought of a business that is controlled by a chef could prove catastrophic to our finance should anything go wrong.
The owner had picked the menu and was confident that the menu would not change and that the chef was following his decision, but as the restaurant was less that 2 years old and had already gone through several chefs we were reluctant to pursue the dream.
As Elena said, our long term goal is to travel we something funding it…. Owning a this particular restaurant won’t give us this option.
We had planned to take a look at a piece of land, but Ann sensing that this wasn’t working for us we headed back to the motel and planned for our meeting with our Ex-Pat Blog friends (who also happen to own a restaurant!)
Mayria and her family moved here from Brisbane and have lived here for 2 years. Now her daughter has made the transition to island life and recently her husbands parents took up retirement here.
The evening meeting with our new friends went well and we learnt a lot from them about the way in which things are done here in Vanuatu. It’s not like back in Brisbane where you see a house for sale and make an offer, there are traditional owners of the land to consider here.
The land in Vanuatu belongs to the locals and when buying you’re basically buying a lease on the property for up to 75 years. We were told that it’s best you get the current lease holder to “top up” their lease before buying, that way you know that you’re getting the best value for money. Some places that we were looking at on-line had half the lease gone already.
Buying land as a foreigner is never going to happen, the laws here allow foreign investment sure, but the traditional land owners will always be the Ni-Van people.
Bidding a fond farewell with promises to keep in touch we headed back to The Travellers Motel with plans of a full day of property hunting ahead of us.
C & K Caillard & Kaddour are the largest Real Estate company in Vanuatu and being a French operation are also base in New Caledonia. Our meeting on Sunday was with Margaret and as a bonus she had bought her husband along as our driver. The couple real know a lot about what’s happening on the Island and opened up to us about their travels and countries that they have resided in.
The properties we looked through were mixed, from 30 year old French built villa’s, hill top land and blocks of units we drove across the town of Vila. There are ample opportunities here, for us it’s deciding which one will really suit our needs the most. We know that the property has to be cash-flow positive.
After looking at a few properties (including a small boutique resort!!!) we stopped and contemplated the day with Margaret and Michael at Eratap Beach Resort, one of the top resorts in the world. To think that if we were to buy the small boutique resort next door we would be sharing the same white sandy beach – unfortunately the option was off the table as the resort needed some construction to be completed and it was at the very top of our budget. sitting and discussing it became apparent that the best option for us was to be looking at blocks of units (although I loved the old French build Vila), We need what ever we buy to be making money from the start.
With Jack booked in to show us what he had lined up we raced back to Travellers for our 3pm appointment. Jack we to show us around and then drop us to another motel as he we fully booked for Sunday night.
Jack had papers on a couple of blocks of units that were just around the corner from the motel and while being central they are rented out to the local Ni-Van people. We drove past, then up the driveway, reversed and drove away. Unfortunately Jack didn’t have the time to be able to secure viewing inside any of the units. We then were dropped of at Anabru Pacific Lodge, our next motel. Felling a little shocked as we had expected more from Jack we wondered if our budget was set too low, or if Jack actually had the right type of property for us. Jack’s speciality we feel is waterfront properties and after being here and looking for investments, our target is units for now and waterfront later. We know that Jack has some great waterfront properties and his knowledge of what’s going on is extensive. So while a little disappointed the knowledge gained was valuable.
Our mood were mixed on Sunday evening, after a rest and gouging ourselves on the complimentary paw-paw and bananas supplied as a welcome gift from the wonderful people at Anabru lodge (who happen to be best friends with Mairya from La Tentation) we walked it off and headed to town for beer, pizza and a movie at Nambawan Cafe on the Ports waterfront.
Tomorrow was to be our last day…. A day with the banks of Vanuatu….
Update…. After 4 Trips to Vanuatu we are now only days away from signing a contract and buying 2.75 acres with our own beach on the northern Island of Espiritu Santo. Can’t wait to get started on this project.