Today I want to talk about one of the most beautiful places in this part of Colombia: Isla Baru.

This is a spectacular island not so far from Cartagena, one of the Rosario Islands, more or less an hour by boat. This place really does seem like the Caribbean; white sand crystal clear water, palm trees – it’s lovely. A perfect place for a home, a real dream and a FANTASTIC  investment.  At least that is what the glossy brochures will tell you. The truth is that Isla Baru is unique, but personally speaking I would never put my money there and there are several reasons for me saying this.

Namely there are many ongoing disputes as to who actually owns the land. Bulldozers have been there on several occasions demolishing everything in their path. Other “owners” of hotels in the area now find themselves in the position of having to pay rent for the hotel that they built on the land that they paid for. Another reason for not falling in with the “gringo crowd” is that this place is REALLY hard to get to. Please, oh please, don’t listen to the developers. We have all heard about the approved local government project for building a road to the area. Forget it, it’s not going to happen any time soon. Sure you can get there by boat, generally speaking the outward trip is ok, but the return journey can be very rough, in fact it almost always is. I can only imagine the problems of getting a freezer and plasma TV to you new dream home on the Isla of Baru – that should be fun! Joking aside, the only way to get there is by 4x4 jeep (only in the dry season) or by boat.

Several properties are going up as I write this and many people are waiting for the resort on Playa Blanca. Hey, things take time. This said, there are some interesting developments way underway that may prove to be a good investment. There are also plenty of voices about the future also: I have heard that Donald Trump is planning to build a resort there. I wonder????

Lots of great, and much safer, alternatives for investing in Cartagena, we’d all like to live on an island, but I don’t think Baru is the right one. At least not for the time being.

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11/2/2010 07:46:43 pm



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Jaime H Rivera
4/3/2013 07:17:02 am

Well, As of april 04-2013, the road is built already, and the bridge that will connect Baru with the mainland is being built. ( unbelievable) Yes is being built in a tremendous fast paste. The problems with the lands and to whom they belong have been pretty much solved. You dont hear about this kind of problems anymore.
Baru is soon to be what everyone dreamed it would be. The problem now is that of course with all this fixed the prices have risen, and it's pretty expensive, and it will be even more expensive by may of 2014 when the bridge will be up and running.

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    Author

    Nicholas Webb is one of the partners of Balin Ltda a Colombian company dealing in "direct" real estate investments. Balin currently owns real estate (properties and land) in Bogotá and Cartagena. We love it here and wouldn't change, but foreigners do need to tread lightly before throwing money around buying land or property. We hope to offer a little help.

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