When I think about safeguarding wealth, I don’t picture a vault or a brokerage account. I think of my homes.
I picture ocean views and long horizons. Afternoon rounds of golf on world-class courses. Blue skies, fresh seafood, and easy days in places that feel a world away.
For me, diversification doesn’t mean shifting money between Wall Street tickers. It means waking up in Cabo or Portugal—and knowing each of my homes is a safe store of wealth and a place to live life fully. Knowing my portfolio of investment properties across seven countries is tapping into different markets and earning in different currencies. A source of income when I’m not there, and a route to huge capital appreciation.
I’m almost 100% invested in international real estate. Virtually no stocks. No crypto. No vaults of gold. Real estate has given me freedom, both personal and financial. I own real estate in seven countries, hold passports for two, and residence in three more.
Why? Because international real estate is tangible and global. A strong portfolio of foreign real estate insulates me from shocks in any one country, market, or currency. My Cabo condo rents in dollars. My Portugal properties rent in euros. My properties in Brazil and Ireland tap completely different tenant bases. Each market moves to its own rhythm, but taken together, they give me a balance no paper portfolio ever could.
As the 19th-century financier Russell Sage said, “Real estate is an imperishable asset. It is the most solid security that human ingenuity has devised. It is the basis of all security and about the only indestructible security.”
That’s what I call the Offshore Real Estate Escape.
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The Offshore Escape in Action
Step through the gates of Quivira in Cabo San Lucas and you feel like you’ve crossed into another world. It’s a private, 5-star resort community carved into the cliffs and beaches of the Pacific, where golden sand stretches for miles, migrating whales breach offshore, and a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course winds its way along the oceanfront. Restaurants, a swish beach club, luxury spas, and miles of hiking trails make it one of the most prestigious addresses in Mexico.
In 2015, I bought a two-bed condo there in what was a killer deal exclusive to my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) club. I’d negotiated an off-market price with the developer for RETA members. The RETA-only price was from just $336,156 in Copala at Quivira. I bought alongside members, initially as a pure investment—part of my wealth-building strategy.
I didn’t plan on spending a lot of time in my Cabo condo. But I was confident that no matter what I did—rented, sold, held—it would work out as a great play. And it has.
Today similar condos in my building list for $630,000 and I can rent for $3,000 a month.
And I now use my Cabo condo a lot. I spend time there in winter. I can watch migrating whales pass by, play any number of incredible golf courses, dine on the best of food, explore the raw beauty of the Baja peninsula, and I’m only a short ride from the international airport, which, when your job is scouting international real estate opportunities, is a must.
In the far north of Portugal, I own a historic mansion in an area called Caminha. From my garden—big, shaded and private, with lemon and avocado trees and vines crawling over trellises—I can look across glass-flat water to Spain. Pan to my left and I see waves crashing on a Spanish beach…pan a bit more and I see tides rippling onto a golden-sand Portuguese beach. Inside, my historic home is immaculate…furnished with original pieces that came from Brazil with the first owners at the end of the 1800s.
My Caminha home spans around 5,000 square feet. But my wife and I got it for around €410,000. Convert to dollars, and that works out as less than $90 per square foot!
This property is not just a personal haven and store for my wealth, I expect it to be a great investment. While it once flew under the radar, the Caminha region is now fast being discovered. I’ve viewed Caminha as a “sure thing” for the past 12 months. But even I’m taken aback by the scale of the transformation now taking place there. Two years ago, there were five great and inexpensive homes for every buyer. Today, the ratio is now more like 1:1…and things are heading fast for five buyers for every nice home.
I expect my home to be worth €1 million within five years, because my wife and I bought best-in-class real estate, at a great price, before the crowds arrived.
About three-and-a-half hours south of Caminha, on Portugal’s Silver Coast, is the prestigious community of Praia d’El Rey where, in 2020, I bought an ocean-view condo for €300,000. From my living room there I can hear the Atlantic waves. My terrace looks over miles of untouched sand.
You can’t even build this close to the beach anymore—regulations don’t allow it. But mine is grandfathered in. That rarity makes it incredibly valuable. A local agent wanted to list my condo for €450,000—€150,000 more than I paid. But I’m not selling.
I tend to use this condo in spring and fall. Then, when I’m not using it, I rent it out short-term through a rental manager. In 2024, my condo generated €24,136.60—a more than 31% increase on the previous year and a more than 8% gross yield. I didn’t actually buy this condo as a financial investment. I bought it primarily for lifestyle. But it’s become both. This is what I love about finding and buying the right real estate...
It gives me choices. A beautiful home base. A bolt-hole. A source of rental income. A store of wealth that grows in value while I enjoy it.
Don’t get me wrong, some international properties I buy are just entries on a balance sheet. A parking lot in Brazil...a rental in Britain...but many others are also places to live, rent, or share with family and friends.
That’s the essence of the Offshore Real Estate Escape: wealth that’s real, useful, and gives you freedom and choice.
Even when I buy in dollars, I’m diversified. That Cabo condo is tied to Mexico’s economy, its legal system, its rental market—demand there comes from Americans, Canadians, and wealthy Mexicans alike. In Portugal, my penthouse is priced in euros, rents in euros, and sits inside the eurozone. These aren’t abstract hedges. They’re real homes in internationalized destinations, each powered by multiple demand drivers—tourism, expats, retirees, locals—that make them resilient and profitable.
In recent years, I’ve bought a home on Costa Rica’s Gold Coast and a condo in Cap Cana—a mini-state of Caribbean luxury in the Dominican Republic. I’m also awaiting delivery of a condo in the master-planned community of Corasol on the fringes of Playa del Carmen, an ideal location with a perfect beach on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. These were RETA-only deals. That is, they were exclusive off-market deals just for members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group. In a moment, I’ll tell you how I get these, but let me give you a taste of how these RETA deals can work out in practice:
Panama is one of the world’s great safe havens, a bastion of international trade and finance. Attached to the heart of Panama City by a causeway, Ocean Reef is one of Latin America’s most exclusive communities, comprising two man-made islands. I brought RETA members an off-market deal here in 2019 that has seen uplifts of as much as $212,000.
Portugal’s Algarve is a beloved international destination where, in 2020, I brought RETA an opportunity in the historic beach town of Lagos. Folks who know say this town is like Southern California…only the oranges are sweeter. RETA members could snap up penthouses in a community called Adega for €480,000. Within a few years, they were selling for around €1 million. And doing gangbusters as rentals.
Some of our best opportunities have been on Spain’s Costa del Sol. For instance, one member bought a penthouse for €129,000 in 2015 and sold it in 2020 for €254,000. The entire buying and selling process was handled remotely, and she rented in between for income, too.
Europe’s newest Riviera and home to the super-rich is on the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. I got members a deal there on condos in Royal Town Kotor, close to the walled medieval town. Less than a year later, prices were already up by as much as €64,824. A textbook case of getting in early, ahead of the rush.
Cap Cana is a vast micro-state of luxury in the Caribbean, twice the size of Manhattan, where I spent years seeking the right deal for my RETA group. In September 2024, I brought members an off-market deal on two-bed condos in Crystal Garden from $382,400. Within seven months, they were listing for $470,000—an uplift of nearly 23%.
And here’s the key: RETA members don’t just hear about these opportunities. They get them first. Before the public. At prices negotiated exclusively for them.
The examples above aren’t speculative paper gains that disappear when markets shift. They’re real homes in real destinations—places you can live in, rent out, or pass on. The appreciation is backed by demand from tourists, expats, and locals alike. The rental income is supported by growing economies and thriving travel markets. And the lifestyle value—morning walks on the sand, golf with friends, a base in Europe or the Caribbean—is something no stock certificate or digital coin can deliver.
That’s the Offshore Real Estate Escape in action: assets that protect and grow wealth while giving you choices and utility in the real world.
Here are a few other advantages to consider…
The Best Asset for Building Wealth
For many folks the core question is: how do you protect and grow wealth in this world of uncertainty?
Real estate is a hard asset with versatility no other class can match.
You can rent it long- or short-term. Use it as collateral for financing. Hold and let it appreciate. Or simply enjoy it yourself as a winter escape or a family legacy.
This is why, over the last two centuries, roughly 90% of the world’s millionaires have been made by real estate. And not just any real estate—but real estate bought early in markets on the rise. Which is at the heart of what we do at RETA.
When the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco analyzed 150 years of returns across 16 wealthy nations, they found something striking: residential real estate outperformed every other major asset class on a risk-adjusted basis. It delivered equity-like returns, but with far less volatility. Real estate wins: The average return taken from 16 of the wealthiest economies.
For wealth protection, that matters. For wealth creation, it’s a game-changer.
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Free Report: Best Places in the World to Buy Real Estate
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Inflation as a “Moat”
Some folks call inflation “a form of theft.” Reagan called it “as deadly as a hitman.” However you describe it, inflation destroys the purchasing power of savings and fixed assets.
But real estate? It thrives.
When building costs rise, when land grows scarce, when demand keeps increasing, existing property becomes more valuable. Historically, U.S. housing values have risen faster than inflation—and when you buy ahead of global demand, the gains are amplified.
I see inflation not as a threat, but as a “moat”—a form of wealth protection. When you own scarce, desirable real estate in places the world wants, rising costs only reinforce your advantage.
You’ll find people piling into real estate during periods of inflation. It’s without doubt the best hedge against it.
If you bought a $100,000 home in 1967, it would be worth $1,111,795 today. This doesn’t account for any rental income you could have also collected, and over 58 years that would be a significant amount. Just like real estate values, rental income also tends to rise with inflation.
But here I’m talking about if you buy ordinary real estate, in a matured market.
Take a global view, invest in real estate in the right places, and you can hedge against inflation while also benefiting from buying in a market on a major upswing...
Myself and fellow RETA members own in multiple markets, across multiple continents. This means we spread risk and are less exposed than real estate investors who stick exclusively to their home market.
Members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group and I tend to buy in internationalized places that always have an influx of tourists, expats, or long-term renters. So, even when the world is rocked by war or pandemic or economic catastrophe, I can still do OK from my properties. And when times are good, I can do exceptionally well.
In fact, when the dust settles on big crises, the markets in these internationalized places jump to the next level. Fresh waves of people come seeking everything these places offer. Demand explodes. We saw this after the global financial crisis and after the COVID pandemic.
For instance, with my ocean-view condo in Cabo, Mexico, as I said, I bought in 2015 when the RETA-only price was $336,156. Recently a similar condo listed in my building for well $630,000. That means an uplift of $293,844.
The first summer I rented out my condo, it made me $1,800 a month. Not bad, even if renting to a friend of a friend meant that it was below market rate. Then COVID hit, and Cabo’s long-term rental market exploded. First, rental prices hit $2,500 a month. That seemed huge...until it went to $2,750 a month. Now I can command in the $3,000 a month range.
When you get in on the right real estate deal, in the right place, positioned ahead of growing demand, then inflation can be a big benefit. It makes future supplies of real estate more expensive to create. The materials for construction go up in price. Labor costs rise. This is a recipe for values to pop.
So, if you’ve locked in a true deal and a killer low price, your potential gains and yield stand to be even higher than you might first have thought.
The point being that when you invest right, inflation can be good news.
Real Estate is... Real
Unlike a stock certificate or a digital coin, you can live in real estate. You can sit on the terrace, watch whales breach the Pacific, or share dinner with friends. You can lend it to family or pass it on to your children.
It’s also inherently limited. You can print dollars, but you can’t print beachfront land in Cabo or a grandfathered condo on Portugal’s Silver Coast. That scarcity, combined with global demand, is why values rise—and why RETA members and I see six-figure uplifts again and again.
You don’t need a complex equation to figure out what happens when more people want a scarce thing: the price goes up. As the price goes up people start panicking that it will go up more, so they feel they need to act, and someone offers you more money than the property is worth and you sell.
Buy in the right place, and at the right moment, and you can see values double in as little as three years on top of income. Over the course of my investing career, I have found these buying moments in Ireland, Panama, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, and elsewhere.
The other side of having a tangible asset is its “liquidity.” By liquidity, I’m referring to the volume of transactions the market can handle and the speed at which it’s possible to buy or sell at any given time. I love real estate’s lack of liquidity.
When an asset is illiquid and limited it creates the conditions for much greater profits. The crowd surges at the top of the bubble so you have a lot of buyers when it comes time to sell, pushing prices even higher.
For liquidity to be your friend you need to be comfortable and able to ride things out. With time, even bad situations can work themselves out (once you follow the basic rules)...and strong situations can truly snowball.
I guess the point here is that this is a medium-term journey, no rash buying or selling.
How to Put Your Offshore Real Estate Escape into Action
Building my offshore real estate plan has been the most rewarding experience of my life. And I shared everything I learned along the way in my bestselling book, Ronan McMahon’s Big Book of Profitable Real Estate Investing.
Today, I want to offer you a free print copy (you just pay $5.97 for shipping).
This book, which I’ve just finished updating, contains all my best strategies and insights from 25 years as an international real estate investor and scout.
Inside, you’ll learn about the critical first step before investing in overseas real estate...the seven locations on my international real estate beat right now that are primed for profit...how to get financing overseas…and so much more.
Claim your free copy here now.
In my book, I also share how I find the deals that I do for RETA members…
I call it “putting boots on the ground.”
Over the years, I’ve built a small, dedicated team of scouts who spend their time traveling and looking at markets and real estate. They’re not tourists—they’re professionals who know what makes a market grow. Together, we spend over a million dollars a year just on travel and research. That means flights, hotels, drivers, meetings with developers, and countless hours walking beaches, inspecting condos, talking to locals, and checking new roads, airports, and marinas.
Why do this? Because the best way to find the world’s best opportunities is to walk the beaches, drive the highways, meet the developers, and check the infrastructure that tells us where demand is about to explode.
Here’s the truth: 99% of what we see never makes the cut. I only bring RETA members the very best. That means real estate in world-class destinations, in markets set to grow, with the best of amenities—beaches, golf, marinas, communities that feel alive. And always at pricing that gives us huge potential for capital appreciation and enormous rental yields.
How does RETA get these off-market deals?
Simple: group buying power.
Developers love early, certain sales. It changes their financial model, helps them secure financing and launch their next projects faster. With RETA behind me, I can deliver that certainty. In return, they give us exclusive, off-market pricing you won’t find anywhere else. They win—less risk, faster timelines. We win—off-market pricing and prime homes in the best locations on earth.
This is where the Offshore Escape becomes real...
You’re not just diversifying on a spreadsheet. You’re buying in Cabo, where ocean-view condos we secured in 2015 for $336,156 are now worth over $630,000 and rent for $3,000 a month. You’re buying in Portugal’s Algarve, where penthouses similar to those RETA members got at €480,000 now list for €1 million. You’re buying in Panama’s Ocean Reef, where members are sitting on uplifts of $212,000.
Your Next Steps
Safeguarding your wealth offshore isn’t about fleeing the dollar. It’s about building a portfolio of real, global, tangible assets that governments can’t print, Wall Street can’t manipulate, and inflation can’t destroy.
For me, that means homes in Portugal, Cabo, Mexico’s Riviera Maya, Cap Cana, Costa Rica, Panama, and more.
For you, it might begin with a single condo in a rising market. A place that earns income, appreciates in value, and doubles as a vacation base or a family legacy.
Though whatever your goal, there’s an opportunity out there for you.
Check out my book, Ronan McMahon’s Big Book of Profitable Real Estate Investing, to learn about how to take the next step.
It’s yours free today (you just pay $5.97 for shipping).
And when you get your free copy, you’ll also get a free trial membership of RETA. That means you can…
Let me and my team do the hard work of scouting.
We’ll bring you the off-market deals no one else ever gets.
You pick which suit you and your portfolio and act on the deal.
Free Report: Best Places in the World to Buy Real Estate
Free Report: Best Places in the World to Buy Real Estate
Sign up for IL's postcards and get the latest research on the best places in the world to retire. Including boots-on-the-ground insights on real estate and rental trends. Simply enter your email address below and we'll send you a FREE report - The World's Best Places to Buy Real Estate.
By submitting your email address, you will receive a free subscription to IL Postcards, The Untourist Daily and special offers from International Living and our affiliates. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we encourage you to read more about our Privacy Policy.