The Top 5 Emerging Coastal Regions for Property Investment

When it comes to buying property there are 3 types to choose from: city, rural or coastal. However, when it comes to investing in emerging market property overseas, the majority of people opt for the comparative safety of the major cities, with most again going for the capital itself.

However, some coastal regions have a lot of potential, and could be very profitable for the bold investor. I have listed five such destinations below:

Sihanoukville - Cambodia

This is my personal favourite. An undiscovered coastal paradise soaked by the warm waters of the gulf of Thailand. At the moment looking for property in Sihanoukville you will find that it is mostly plots of land that are on offer to overseas buyers.

This is because Sihanoukville is as yet undiscovered, and waiting for the type of development we have seen in other emerging markets. The person who buys in first will make the biggest profit when Sihanoukville is discovered, after the world's economy has recovered.

Saranda - Albania

Saranda overlooks the Greek island of Corfu, which is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the world, yet property in Saranda is available at a fraction of the cost. What's more Albania has joined the blue flag program and is determined to make its beaches some of the best in Europe.

With a similar climate to Corfu, a great and improving beach and the low living costs in Albania, it doesn't take a genius to work out that Saranda will see massively rising tourism in the next few years. With few hotels of international quality, owners of the low priced property in Saranda will make very good yields during this time, and capital appreciation will also be at least 200% over the next 10 years.

Calabria - Italy

Again Calabria is one of the favourites because of the low priced property and its location. Calabria is a region spanning the south-west of Italy, the heel of the boot. It is surrounded by ocean on three sides, and slopes upward as you go inland. This means that the further you get from the coast the more impressive the view of the coast.

Calabrian property is currently available at a fraction of the cost of Italy's long-popular regions, and is one of (if not) the cheapest place to buy beach property in Italy. It is currently rising in popularity as a tourist destination. At the current occupancy levels 4-6% yields are possible, and these will improve as occupancy rises. Capital appreciation will be 15-20% until prices catch-up with the rest of Italy, and the will slow to the established market average of 8-10%.

Cabarete - Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic is the cheapest place to buy property in the Caribbean, and also has one of the fastest growing tourism sectors, this is a powerful combination for property investors. You can buy a studio in an apart-hotel in Cabarete right now for under £30,000, with a 9% guaranteed rental yield, and that is not off-plan but ready to use.

Predicting capital appreciation in the Dominican Republic is difficult and has proven to be an inaccurate science, but if you go over the long-term, property values should double and hopefully treble in the next 10 years.

Chiriqui - Panama

Even as the world falls into the worst recession in decades, the International Monetary Fund forecasts 3% growth for Panama this year and 4% next year. This is a lot slower than the 10% averaged in the last few years, but impressive none the less.

The Panama Canal, which accounts for almost 3 quarters of Panama's GDP is currently being expanded to become one of the most important transport waterways in the southern Hemisphere.

This has made Panama a centre for investment, and will see economic growth remain strong until it is completed in 2014, at which point the Canal's capacity being tripled will provide a massive boost to the economy.

Economic growth will cause property prices to grow on its own, but then you have the fact that the Panamanian economy is dollarized, making it one of the most popular destination for American holidaymakers and the most popular destination for American retirees. Yet you can currently buy an off plan property in Chiriqui for a little over £50k.

You can rest assured that those properties will have at least doubled by 2014, but they could be worth three times that amount, if not by 2014 then certainly by 2016.

Of course there are many more promising emerging coastal regions around the world for overseas property investment, possibly even a few that will do better in the short and long term than those above, but in my view those are five of the best.