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70 September 2016 - Business View Caribbean Business View Caribbean - September 2016 71
sion expanded into the current 90-room hotel,” Lomont
continues. “Marco saw there was an opportunity for
something even bigger. In 2004, there was a property
available, which he saw would be a wonderful aspect
to add to the hotel. At the end of the year, we started
groundwork on what is now The Placencia Residences.
It was an idea thought to be premature for its time, how-
ever having all that groundwork started allows us to be
in a very unique position today, due to the amount of
work accomplished when nobody was thinking in this
direction. We now have fully-paved roads, our own wa-
ter system in-house, and underground power as well.
We have made many big jumps over the years.”
“We have 156 lots within The Placencia Residences
and there are currently 50 homes constructed or in
partial construction,” Lomont continues. “So we’re
about a third of the way through with constructing
homes within that part of the development. Some are
built over multiple lots, so there will be around 140
homes when we’re through. We have full-time own-
ers, as well as owners using their homes for vacation,
with the intention of moving down full-time upon re-
tirement; others have their homes as an investment
property. A lot of people who never expected to move
here full-time have done so. Belize has become more
and more attractive for full-time living.”
There are several reasons why that is so. Lomont
stresses the country’s demographics (Belize has one
of the lowest population densities on the planet with
just over 330,000 people); its unspoiled, natural envi-
ronment; and the fact that it is the only Central Ameri-
can country that is English-speaking and functions un-
der British Common Law, having once been the colony
of British Honduras. In addition to those appealing
aspects are the country’s very friendly economic in-
centives. Belize has no property purchase restrictions