Fact: You don’t need any sort of license to be a real estate agent in Belize.
Any Belize resident can sell real estate and advertise their real estate services. And that can lead to scary results for people buying Belize homes or Belize property.
This is not to say there are not many excellent real estate agents in Belize. There are. But no governing body regulates their expertise and commitment (although there are plans in the works to add oversight.) But if you’re buying real estate in Belize, especially if you’re a foreigner without roots or many connections in the country, you need to tread carefully. Because the bad apples out there will take bad faith measures to separate from your money; a worst-case scenario might involve buying Belize property that doesn’t have clear title.
This is is certainly not to dissuade you from buying real estate in Belize. In fact, Belize offers a bunch of unique advantages for your money:
- All official documents and contracts are handled in English
- Stable laws and a democratic system that upholds them
- A tradition of private property rights for natural born Belizeans and foreigners alike
- Large expat communities and a general population which is diverse and relatively free of racial tensions
- Low-tax environment (lack of a capital gains tax, inheritance taxes, etc.)
- Fixed currency exchange rate
- Connectedness with North America (new daily nonstop flights to Houston, for instance) and the rest of the world via world-class telecommunications
As far as finding the right real estate agent, well, our Belize law firm doesn’t do that. But our Belize real estate attorneys have years of experience working with high-quality real estate agents, and we’d be happy link you with the right one for you and your goals. All you have to do is ask.
