Finance » Nicaragua Vacation Guide

Another video of the Lot!
Roy just sent me this:
Schedule Issues
Until now I always thought that the design phase would take 3 months. After talking to Roy and Maria some more I realize that there are some thing I didn’t took into considerations. The design phase can take 3 months. It might be longer if I have many comments. After that it takes about a [...]
Video of the lot!
Roy just sent me a video he took on the lot this morning. I was discussing the “cut height” with him and Maria so he sent us this video of the lot so we have better idea at what we’re discussing. Here it is with some annotations I’ve added for orientation: It’s very exciting to [...]
Surfing Nicaragua
Nicaragua has some of the best surf beaches in the world! The pacific coast has many great surfing spots with a great offshore wind. Still relatively unknown, these amazing beaches are a great opportunity to ride amazing waves without the crowding so common in Costa Rica or the Bahamas. Your browser does not support iframes. [...]
Bird Watching
Nicaragua has an amazing wildlife and thousands of bird species. While bird watching can be challenging in the humid climates of Central America, the pacific coast of Nicaragua offers many birdwatching opportunities in a dry and comfortable climate. You can enjoy a stay in upscale, modern resorts, and take birdwatching trips. Ornithologists always have a [...]

Chosing an Architect

Apr 102010

Roy got all the approvals from the development management for the lot change. Now I just have to wait for the change to happen in the lot and in the official land registry.

I’m now faced with choosing an architect for the project. I really believe that I should use a local architect. I contemplate using an Israeli one, because it would be easier to communicate with him, but I think that employing a Nicaraguan architect has several significant advantages:

Intimate knowledge of the local building standard – what materials and techniques are used in Nicaragua and which a re rare or require a knowhow that simply isn’t there.
Ability to access the lot and get a first hand impression of the building site – I want the house to be part of it’s surroundings and not look like a “hump” that was placed there.
Much simpler ability to communicate with the builder and monitor the construction process – which means higher chance to reduce errors and problem during construction.
Cost. A Nicaraguan architect’s fees are few dollars per sq meter, which is significantly lower than the fees in Israel or the US, but I believe an even more significant cost saving stems from the previous 3 bullets. Using a foreign architect would open a possibility for two many mistakes on these issues that would end up costing a lot.

Both Roy and Marc noted that for a simple enough design I can create a rough plan myself and than hire a cheap architect just to create the actual building plans. That would lower the cost even more, but considering that the cost of the architect isn’t too high, and since I want to ensure that whoever sees the house really likes it I prefer to hire a professional architect.

Roy is gathering some names for me and promise to email me their portfolio in the coming days.

Cost of Building

Feb 202010

I discuss what kind of a house I can build on M25 with Marc, and other people. A rough guideline number for building cost is 85$ per square meter. This number is a rough estimate for a house build at high quality with good finishes and modern appliances. The number can move anywhere between 75$ and 100$ depending on the soil of the ground, level of finishes etc’. When calculating the number it’s reasonable to multiply this number with the total area, regardless if it’s enclosed (air conditioned) area or open area such as the lounge that has no walls. Considering the build-able part of the lot, and what most people are looking for when they get to the development, it seems that I should plan for a house around 2,000 square feet. From his experience Marc says that it should provide for a reasonable 3bedroom, two bathroom house.

One of the things the development offers is a building services program. The program basically means that the development provides an on-site point person to manage the complete process of the build. For some percentages of the cost of building, they will help in all of the design process, finding the right local construction company, monitoring the daily progress of the construction etc. It’s clear to me that without it there is no way I could build this house from afar.

Building Services Program

I meet with Roy, from the Building Services Program, and we discuss the different options of construction over the lot, and the estimated cost. Roy says that it’s very important to get soil samples of the ground to ensure that the lot sits on solid rock, like most of the development lots, and also to create a topography map to get a better idea of the of how we want to level the ground.

Basically, there are two options for ground leveling, cutting down the higher points down, of feeling up the lower areas up. Roy, as all others before him, claims that in Nicaragua feeling is very expensive while cutting is cheap. Even more so, since the development just purchased a lot of mechanical equipment so they can do all of the road maintenance themselves, now they have the needed equipment on hand right at the development. They might do the leveling themselves, for a small fee, so the construction company will be able to start working on leveled ground.

Some Calculations

Using a a small excel file I take from Marc I make a calculation of the project cost. Here are the items I have and some info about each cost:

Cost of the land – varies
Legal costs of land purchase – lawyer fees and mandatory taxes – about 4% of land cost
construction cost – $65 to $110 per sq feet
Architect – roughly $2 to $4 per sq feet
Land leveling – can be part of the construction, but in my case it might be a separate payment to the developer.
Topography map and Soil test – not mandatory, but worth doing – around $1500
Building permit – another $1000
Appliances – good quality (usually US made) – around $2,500
Infinity pool – depends on size – $15,000 was the thumb number I got
Building Services Program – usually costs about 10% of the project

To this I add the financing fees and try to figure out whether it’s a project I want to go for.