FAQ's About Living and Owning Property in the Dominican Republic

The truth is, the Dominican Republic offers some the least expensive real estate, and one of the largest percentages of virgin beach front property in the entire Caribbean. The Dominican Republic offers the best value for real estate and investment in the entire Caribbean. 

What is it like living in the Dominican Republic? What kinds of things are there to do?

Although the Hispaniola Island is the second largest Island in the entire Caribbean, you never really feel like you are on an Island. There is plenty of diversity, culturally and topographically. High mountains, large plains, tropical forests, big cities, small romantic villages, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, caves, and a lot of gorgeous beaches! Friends who have lived there for many years and love to travel, still have not yet managed to see all the beauty this country has to offer. The climate is tropical, yet gentle, and has a very pleasant impact on your health and your sprit.

And if you are concerned about modern conveniences, access to shopping or leisure activities, you should not be. Tony Roma’s, Outback Steakhouse, The Gap, Radio-Shack, Price-Smart, Carrefours, brand new movie theaters with the latest films in English, Robert Trent Jones designed golf courses, and modern medical facilities are all here for you as well.
You will find all the necessary commodities right here: Shopping, Restaurants, Hospitals, Schools, International banks, Theaters, Concerts, Museums, and Exhibitions, direct daily flights to Europe, North America, South America and the other Caribbean islands.

Dominicans are friendly and open towards foreigners. Like many other island paradises on this planet, there is a great deal of individual freedom to live life the way you want to! Everything on the island, compared to Europe or the US, is still quite inexpensive. Since almost everything is available here, you are only limited by your imagination in fulfilling any of your dreams.

The island has a more or less stable economy, monetary system and political leadership. Look at the World Bank publications on the Dominican Republic to find out more about this. There are more then 40 nationalities living permanently throughout the Dominican Republic.

Learning a new language...Living a new life!

Once you are here either to enjoy the warm winter sunshine or on a permanent basis, of course a few words of Spanish will make your life here much more interesting, and will be helpful in getting around. There are many schools that can assist you with this. 

Best of all, just go ahead and mingle with the people who will be happy to help you learn their language!

The Spanish here is simple and you will find yourself progressing amazingly soon.

What about getting there?

The Dominican Republic is only 3 and a half hours from New York with flights daily and 90 minutes from Miami. There are plenty of International flights from the DR to Europe and South America.

You will find a vast amount of incredibly inexpensive charter flights daily out of the US and Europe from most major airports. This is due to a full all-inclusive package tourist marketing. Check with your local Dominican embassy, but most nations do not even need a visa to get here. A 10 USD Tourist card filled out an the entry will make you eligible to stay here for at least three months.

Regarding Residency and Naturalization in the Dominican Republic?

Please visit this link on  www.thedominicanrepublic.net for more information on this.

In regards to the idea of the Dominican Republic as a relocation or retirement destination, it certainly is true that the country offers some of the most affordable real estate in the entire Caribbean. This is especially true when you begin investigating the costs for apartments or homes in places such as the Bahamas, Bermuda, St. Martin, Aruba, Turks & Caicos Islands, etc. If seeking a second home close to the beach or a brand new luxury apartment in the modern capital of Santo Domingo, it is not difficult to realistically find either one in the US$75,000 range for something in the upper end real estate category. In comparison, if you have ever attempted to shop for real estate in some of the other Caribbean Islands, you will quickly realize what a bargain this is. 

Another interesting and important point is that bank account interest is also Tax-Free for residents or non-residents alike. The fact that one can earn up to 10% in US dollar investments or up to 24% on deposits in the local currency, the Dominican Peso, means that an early retirement income derived from banking investments is a reality and not just wishful thinking. As an example of this idea, this of course means that it is very possible, should you have US$300,000 in liquid assets as an example, to buy a home for cash, put some funds into Peso investments with the idea of actually living off your bank account interest (try doing that in North-America these days), and invest the rest into some quality mutual funds or whatever else you might like. 

Even if your means are more modest, having a monthly pension or income of US$2,000 per month affords a very comfortable upper middle class lifestyle in the Dominican Republic as well. However, aside from some very attractive reasons to consider living in the Dominican Republic, as we hinted at earlier, the country offers a very simple and uncomplicated process both for residency status and naturalization (citizenship and second passport) also. Before we dive into this theme though, there are some initial questions that some people may have, such as: Why would someone be interested in going through a process for residency status or even a second citizenship? Is this legal? What are the benefits?

For most people, it would seem the reasons as to why someone would consider a second legal residency or even citizenship has to do with taxes, banking or investments, and personal safety, usually in that order. On the taxes issue, chances are that if you currently reside in Europe, your personal and corporate income taxes could go as high as 65% or more. If you live in the United States or Canada, perhaps things are not so bad tax wise in comparison to the Europeans, but there is a good chance as well that when you calculate both income taxes and social welfare taxes (social security and things like unemployment insurance, etc.) you are paying close to 50% also. So relocating to another jurisdiction might be a matter of legally opting out of the current high tax state you live in at the moment. How so? Well, for Europeans and Canadians especially, citizens of such jurisdictions can declare themselves legally non-resident for tax purposes. Meaning, if you can prove that you are legally resident someplace else, most European governments will allow you to check out, so to speak (without giving up your citizenship, which is another matter). The logic behind this is, if you are no longer living in your previous home country, you are not using the various government services you would otherwise pay taxes for and use, and therefore you should not have to pay for something you are not using. This makes sense to me and many other people as well, but that reality is unfortunately different for Americans. However, there is a bright spot in that Americans can exempt up to about US$80,000 or so (this figure is indexed up each year) if such a person is both living and working outside of the US. So, again, if Americans can prove they are legally resident elsewhere and drawing a salary from work done outside of the US as well, then there is a tax savings in terms of salaried income (tax exempt up to the amount indicated). In either case, having proof of a legal residence status elsewhere can certainly allow for a tax savings, especially if the new residency is from a country with low or no taxes.

On the topics of banking and personal safety, it is very sad but true these days that Americans especially have a difficult time establishing a bank account, brokerage account or other kind of investment (mutual funds) outside of the US as a US citizen. Why the difficulty? Well, it certainly is very legal for a US citizen to own a bank account or investment account outside of the US (in terms of US tax laws or regulations). In addition, it is very legal in most countries for foreigners to establish accounts as well. The problem then is not the legality of it, but rather the internal policy of many banks or investment firms. Meaning, many such firms will not accept US citizens as clients because they do not want the aggravation of being harassed by the US tax authorities (which is really what this is all about). So, they simply do not accept US citizens as an internal policy. However, the answer is, why not become something other than a US citizen? Obtaining a second citizenship is perfectly legal for Americans and for many other nationalities as well (which is also true for the Dominican Republic). In this regard, Americans who are not Americans, or we can say, can provide something other than a US passport as a legal identity document (such as a passport from another country) can get around this problem.

Why Residency in the Dominican Republic?

While there are very few countries offering what are called instant citizenship or economic citizenship programs these days, certainly every country has a process allowing you to become a legal resident, and eventually at some point in the future, a citizen (entitling you to a passport). And this is true when it comes to the Dominican Republic, and a long list of other countries. However, the real difference might be the costs, requirements and waiting time. Stated another way, it is not a question of whether or not you could become a legal resident or citizen in another country, but rather how difficult or how reasonable this process might be. It is with this theme especially that the Dominican Republic stands out head and shoulders above many other jurisdictions and why many of our clients have elected to call this wonderful island nation their second home.

What else you might bring later on:

Once you have found or constructed the perfect place to call home, you might want to move your personal belongings to the Island. In the first year in which you have your residency you are entitled to bring your personal belongings into the country mostly tax-free.The maritime transportation and the handling of a 22 Foot Container will cost you roughly 2000 – 3000 USD, depending from where you are shipping.

Once having arrived here, let us do the talking with the customs authorities to get your personal effects in as smooth and inexpensive as possible. Local port agents often share the same interest as the custom officer, and therefore it is not always wise to let them handle this independently. Regarding your vehicle, we recommend you sell it before you leave, and obtain an adequate equivalent here on the island. All makes and models are represented. Economy cars cost about the same as anywhere else. Luxury models are about 30% more than in the US or Europe.

How to get comfortably settled:

While you are here take a look around and decide where you would like to live..which town, village, part of the countryside or right on the ocean. You will eventually find magic spot to finally call home.

How much does it cost and how do I pay?

You will probably find the domestic loans and mortgages with interest rates from 12 to 25% not very interesting. Therefore you will find the best bargains and buys with a cash offer.

There are also some second hand homes and apartments around, some of which are amazingly inexpensive. Check the listings and have a look at whatever interests you.

In case this is too much of a compromise, you can always decide to build the home exactly suitable for you. Once you have selected the right place, and have obtained the land, we suggest meeting with our architects in order to design the house. During the construction period our constructer will provide you with an alternative house close to the construction site from which you can monitor the progress, and rest assured that things are developing exactly as you had imagined them.

Construction period will take somewhere between 3 and 12 months depending on what and where it needs to be built.

Calculate somewhere between  500 and 800 USD per square meter (1 square meter = 10.7639104 square foot) finished turnkey living area.

Land prices; there are more then 20 gathered communities just on the 15 km coast strip between Sosua and Cabarete. Lot prices vary from about 10 USD to 200 USD per square meter.

Depending on the community and on the location.

To give you an average idea, you can have your own house on about 2000 square meter of land with nice ocean view, less then 5 minutes by car away from the beach or town, 120 square meters of living area, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen living, parking swimming pool and landscaping all turn key ready to move in for 100,000 USD or even less.

What about the legal process of purchasing a home or property in the Dominican Republic?

We recommend that all your purchases here on the island are done with a certified and lawyer or attorney who will guide you through this process and will assure you that whatever you buy or construct is legally 100% in order, to avoid any kind of possible inconvenience. Calculate about 1% of the total transaction sum for legal fees, which is worthwhile to spend, and will secure your investment.

These agreements points out the condition of a later sale between a seller and a buyer in all the details. Approximately a 10% of the transaction sum will have to be deposited on the transaction lawyer’s account of trust. Then the property is reserved, and the lawyer has to clear control and transfer all the papers and titles to secure that everything is in order, and all the taxes are paid, before they can be transferred. This might take between 2 weeks and 2 month depending on the complexity of the object which changes its owner.

A lot of houses and properties are shareholder companies, which makes it easy and cost-efficient to transfer the shares into a new ownership. Once all the paper work is 100% cleared an in order, then the rest of the payment is due and the title of the shareholder company changes hands into new ownership. This way you will rest assured that your payment will only be forwarded once you receive 100% clear what you paid for.

Is it possible to find an Insurance Company with an office in the Dominican Republic?

You will find many International insurance companies here who will offer services to cover all types of insurance: the purchase of your land title, health, life, auto, and business. The coverage as well as any fees are very modest.

Is it possible to start a business or work in the Dominican Republic?

The Island is so inviting and full of adventure waiting for you, that you very likely will want to retire here. An excellent communication system provides you with the latest technology, and the amazing power of the Internet gives you access to manage and be present with your business wherever it might be. It opens up so much freedom and possibilities, that is only limited by your own imagination! 

If you are not into using the computer much, but have a profession you do well at, there will be most likely a need for it somewhere on the island. Or you might find yourself involved in a new challenge related to the countries' booming tourist industry.

Renting rooms or vehicles, running a bar, a restaurant, a massage center, a wellness center or even a zoological or botanical garden. Providing adventure trips, amusements, dive center, a windsurf school, a golf course, or a dolphinarium, just to name a few! The possibilities are endless and depend entirely on your own personal desire, vision, and skills.