The recent opening of Ecuador’s newest and longest bridge, represents a significant step towards opening up access to the country’s beautiful and underdeveloped northern Pacific coast. While housing and land prices in the area were low before due to the area’s limited accessibility, experts believe that the modern infrastructure expansion will lead to increasing real estate prices in the area soon. See the following article from International Living for more on this.
Last week, the president of Ecuador was in Bahia. He wasn’t alone. Bahia has never seen so many people and such a carnival atmosphere.
Restaurants and hotels were full. Visitors desperate to participate in the historic event camped on the beach. Many more watched on national television. Everyone was proud and excited.
Everyone was in town to mark the official opening of the bridge between Bahia and San Vicente. At 2 kilometers, the bridge is the longest in the country. It cost $100 million and the latest technology has been used.
The opening of this bridge has major significance for Ecuador’s north Pacific coast. If you like undervalued real estate, what I’m about to tell you will be of interest.
The stretch of Ecuador’s north Pacific coast between Canoa and the area just south of Pedernales is her finest. Getting here to enjoy the lush jungle canopy covered hills and empty beaches hasn’t been easy.
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Previously, you had two options to get here. A seven-hour drive from Quito… or a short domestic flight from Quito to the city of Manta, followed by a drive up the coast. Problem is, you could never tell how long the drive from Manta would take. That’s down to the bay between Bahia de Caraquez and San Vicente. Until now, it didn’t have a bridge…which meant relying on ferries.
Some days, if you timed it just right, you’d only have a short delay waiting for the ferry. Other days, with low tides or a lot of vehicle traffic, you could easily spend four hours sitting in line at Bahia to get on the ferry.
This bridge has opened up Ecuador’s nicest stretch of coast. Expect real estate values to rise.
But, this bridge isn’t the only infrastructure upgrade happening. In, fact it’s just one of three.
Until recently once you reached this nicest section of coast on the other side of the bay, you bounced around on roads riddled with potholes. Today, work is well advanced on the highway upgrades between San Vicente and Pedernales. Only a small number of stretches haven’t yet been completed. These upgrades are part of a government plan to make the entire Ecuadorian coast drivable.
This modern highway has already made a huge difference in driving times and comfort along the coast.
The new coastal road from Quito to Pedernales is complete…waiting on an available date in the president’s diary before he officially opens the road and hosts another fiesta. This cuts the drive time from Quito to Pedernales in half, to three and a half hours. It means that more of Quito’s residents can come here for weekends and vacations …and foreign tourists, too.
This is Ecuador’s nicest stretch of coast. Property prices stayed low because this area was difficult to get to. Now that this is the most accessible beach area to Quito, I expect that prices will change, too. It’s still not too late to get in at “pre-infrastructure” prices.
This article has been republished from International Living.
