Sabal Beach

The property is almost equidistant between Placencia and Punta Gorda. You can easily boat from either location. You can also drive to Monkey River and boat from there. 

Money not an issue? Have Astera drop you off by helicopter.

The economics actually do not work out well to buy and run your own boat over hiring someone to pick you up unless you are coming and going frequently. Wanting one is a different story.

In 2009 we sent the majority of our materials by truck to Monkey River and then spent 3 days with 4 boats ferrying supplies south.

We have lived at Sabal Beach for 8 years continuously. Initially we shopped weekly. After a few months we learned to be more efficient and generally went to town twice a month to shop. Punta Gorda has everything you need and is 20-25% cheaper than Placencia. Placencia has most of what you may want but is more expensive.

There is also usually someone coming / going every few days and for a bit of gas money they will do a bit of shopping for you if you are neighborly.

NEMO (National Emergency Management Organization) is surprisingly efficient in this area since they know that many people do not have their own transportation. In a storm situation they always come out and pick people up.

The Coast Guard and TIDE rangers also operate in the area.

Bottom line though – you will be best served by having a few local captains you work with to get you quickly if needed.

The existing solar system is more than sufficient to supply power to the house and cabana. It consists of: 4.9kw of solar panels, 1020 amp hour battery bank, 2 x charge controllers and a 3,000 volt inverter, battery monitor and control system.

As a backup we have a small gas powered generator that can recharge the battery bank in an afternoon. In the 8 years we have lived there this has been necessary about twice a year – typically around September or October in the height of the rainy season.

This area gets more than enough rain to keep the water flowing from May to early January. From mid January to the end of April you need storage tanks.

We have 5,000 gallons of water storage with the house and an additional 3,750 gallons at the cabana. Each building also has an additional 250 gallon tank on the roof as a short-term gravity fed backup.

Both the house and cabana have Bio-Digesters installed by Eco-Friendly Solutions, Ltd. 

We produced 2 drum-size bags a month of plastic, metal and glass waste. Renters typically produce that in about a week if you are intending to rent to tourists.

SMART cell phones phones also work well in Punta Negra. DigiCell cell phones do not without a booster antenna.

Yes – Belize Telemedia Limited provides tower to tower (a small one on your roof) service. It is not incredibly fast but is sufficient to surf the web, check emails and make voice calls using VOIP.

SMART mifis also work sporadically but not as well as BTL point to point systems.

While not officially in Belize yet, we have tested Starlink at this location and had speeds of 45MB down and approximately half that speed up. We were able to make 2 simultaneous video calls without issue and the dish was not optimally mounted as we just set it up for a quick test.

No cables so no. Download while you sleep via BTL and watch on your own schedule or get a Starlink system and you will be able to stream video.

Punta Negra is gorgeous, unspoiled by humanity, full of wildlife, affordable, has a great beach that is 5′ above the water line (rare in Belize), and has great people living there.

It has a marine reserve (Port Honduras Marine Rerve) and a national park (Payne’s Creek National Park) behind it which means that unlike SO many places in Belize Punta Negra will never be overrun, crowded, and noisy with new buildings obstructing what you thought was going to be your view.

We lived onsite at this location full-time for 8 glorious years but when our daughter was 3 we relocated for her to have access to better schools (at the time Starlink was not available or we may have thought more seriously about home schooling).  

There are few places left in the world that are beachfront (with a high beach), affordable, in a peaceful country with excellent property ownership laws with low taxes, and in a warm climate. This is one of them.

For someone with the desire there is demand for more rentals and one could generate an excellent return if they wanted to invest in additional cabanas and work onsite.

We do not have all of the answers but we do have a lot of experience in Punta Negra and with construction. We also have 2 other businesses in Belize and know how to get things done.

We are happy to share what we know within reasonable time constraints for a serious buyer.