Across The Table with Dionysius
Welcome to 'Across the Table with Dionysius,' where your host Dion Williams, a Mortgage Agent from Ottawa, Ontario, takes you on an exciting journey. Our podcast brings you the voices of leaders and professionals from across Canada, providing exclusive insights into trending topics and critical issues. Our mission is clear: to keep Canadian residents informed through the experiences and knowledge of our remarkable guests."
Across The Table with Dionysius
From Bureaucrat to Beachfront: Why He Left Canada for Mexico
What makes a man leave a 20-year career in the Canadian federal government to start over in Mexico? In this episode, Dionysus sits down with Ogi Vukos, a former public servant turned real estate developer, who now helps Canadians, Americans, and Europeans buy property in Mexico — the right way.
From his early days investing in Ottawa duplexes to living in a gated community in Mérida, Ogi shares how real estate became the key that unlocked his dream life: more time, less stress, and a lifestyle most only see on vacation.
This isn’t a retirement fantasy — it’s a calculated reinvention. You’ll hear:
- The myth-busting truth about living and investing in Mexico
- How real estate funded his exit from the 9–5 grind
- Why land is the smartest play in emerging markets
- What Canadians don’t know about Mexico’s legal protections
- And the mindset shift that helped him finally slow down — and live
If you’ve ever dreamed of a life beyond the border, this episode is your blueprint.
Contact Ogi on WhatsApp at 819-328-8664 or by email at Ogi@squarecapitalmx.com to learn more about Mexican real estate opportunities.
Find Dion at the following:
DION WILLIAMS
Mortgage Agent
Website - williamsmortgage.ca
Email - dion@williamsmortgage.ca
Phone - 613-902-2313
Welcome to Across the Table with Dionysus, the show that brings you closer to the movers and shakers. While mortgages are his bread and butter, this show isn't just about interest rates and loans. It's about diving deep into the minds of extraordinary people. Now, here's your host, Dionysus.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Across the Table podcast. I'm your host, dionysus. Welcome to Across the Table podcast. I'm your host, dionysus, and today we have a special guest, augie Vukos. So this is a little unique podcast in the fact that we're going to be talking about real estate. So jump right into it, augie. If you and I met, we've obviously met before. But if you and I met at a bar and I asked you what you did, what would you say?
Speaker 3:I would tell you that I lived the dream and that's what I do. But a part of that dream is that I help Canadians and American and European investors acquire real estate in Mexico in a very easy way estate in Mexico in a very easy way. So it's a seamless process that I created for them to help them live the dream that I live. So maybe to get back to that one, sentence yeah, it's, I sell dreams and those dreams become reality. Okay.
Speaker 2:Nice, as I mentioned, you and I go way back. Yeah, full disclosure, yuri, you're married to the wife of a very good friend of mine, not to his wife, to his sister, so his sister. Yes, you weren't always in real estate. No, specifically Mexican real estate. So walk me through that transition. How did that happen? And a little backstory there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I originally, after graduating from university, I started working in a federal government and I worked there for almost 20 years. Okay, wow, I worked there for almost 20 years, also in executive positions. But at the same time, when I started my government career, I started to invest in real estate and I bought my first apartment as soon as I Locally here in Ottawa, locally here in Gatineau.
Speaker 2:Okay, in Gatineau.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then when I met Daniela, who's my wife now, she had, hey, daniela, hey, she had acquired a house in Finley Creek, okay, and then things became more serious in between us and then we bought an apartment together, okay, and all of a sudden, within like a year, we had three properties in our portfolio. Yeah, we had three properties in our portfolio. And then, well then, we got married and wanted to have a family. Then we bought a house, and then, okay, and that's how this real estate story started for us. And for as long as I can remember, with good friends of mine, I have been talking about real estate, about, hey, it would be amazing if we could have a building. Hey, imagine if we build here. Look at the lake in Mont-Tremblant, look at this piece of land. So all my conversations were leading to talk about real estate and the opportunities of real estate.
Speaker 2:So not just necessarily buying real estate, but development as well, developing real estate and the opportunities of real estate.
Speaker 3:Okay, so not just necessarily buying real estate, but development as well. Developing real estate, okay, and that is still a dream for me that I do want to accomplish, and I'm looking every step that I'm taking right now is for that.
Speaker 2:Okay, nice, nice. We talked about the Mexico. That's your focus right now.
Speaker 3:So, for someone who's never been walk me through a day in the life in Mexico where you work like where you are, so the important thing, like just for the audience and everyone who's going to listen to this podcast I live in the state of Yucatan, in the capital called Merida. It's a city in the Yucatecan Peninsula, 20 minutes away from the ocean, from the beach, and it is the second safest city in all of America that has a population that is above half a million people, after Quebec City. Okay, so I will answer your question and let's have this in the middle.
Speaker 2:Before I get started, I hear it. How many languages do?
Speaker 3:you speak. I speak four languages, so my mother tongue is Serbian. My parents immigrated to Canada in 95 and I was 11 at the time. We lived at that time was called Hull. Now it's all Gatineau.
Speaker 3:So the first language that I learned here was French, then English was kind of you know, I learned English very late in. Like I learned English in my twenties because I was like in a French environment, school was in French. I did not learn English till my twenties and actually, like my wife will always say that she fell for my broken English Right, I made her laugh so and then I learned Spanish. I learned Spanish Daniela, my wife, she's Mexican and she always spoke to our kids in Spanish. So I got to understand Spanish, I would say to 80%, before we moved to Mexico and when I got there I was able to get around, like to ask for things. Like you know, I couldn't get lost. I could simple things, order food, go to stores and ask simple things, but not to have a conversation as we're having right now.
Speaker 3:Then the thing that I did is I remembered coming to Canada. Number one thing if you do not know the language of the country that you're living in, it could be very difficult, especially for what I wanted to do. I did not go there to retire Well, kind of, but we'll get to that as well but I went there to start a new life and we had a chance to start over and maybe to tie everything up. What we talked the real estate is what got us and permitted us to be able to live this dream that we are living now, because we kind of sold a lot of our real estate at the peak in 22. And now we had a chance to. You know, probably people from my former colleagues are going to watch this, but I had a chance to do something that I really love and I'm passionate about.
Speaker 2:You can hear it in your voice.
Speaker 3:So you know. So now the real estate got us there and for me it was important to learn the language because I know, if you, once I got there, there's tons of expats. Okay, so you can get by never learning Spanish, having friends, spending your days with foreigners.
Speaker 2:Now, is that specifically to where you are, or would you say overall? I would say Southeast Mexico.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is like that. Okay, okay, but I didn't want that, because I wanted to learn more about the culture, I wanted to integrate myself, and without the language that was impossible. So the first thing I did is I had private classes three times a week for two hours, and then I looked for Mexican friends. So I wanted to speak Spanish.
Speaker 3:So I started playing soccer in a fully Mexican team when, at the beginning, I would like to explain a play or something, but I couldn't. I realized, okay, now it's no longer una cerveza por favor, now you need to talk a little bit more, right? So I put myself in this position. Where again I went from, and I think what helped me is that at 11, I learned French. So at the beginning you know you're learning language, you're making mistakes, whatever. Then English was later. So for me now, picking up another language and making mistakes, I don't care, like, what I want is that you and I can have a conversation and you understand what I want to say. So that's what I did, to the point where now I take business meetings fully in Spanish.
Speaker 2:Wow, well done, well done. You just educated me in terms of the southern part of Mexico, in terms of expats. What would you say are some of the biggest myths associated with Mexico?
Speaker 3:I'll get to that. Let me just get back to the life in Mexico.
Speaker 3:I think this is an important I think. It's going to uncover some myths and it's going to make people discover what life in Mexico is Okay. So, and one thing that I sell is not and I always tell people and it is the hardest part to sell it's easy to say look, this is a beautiful home, has granite counters, has marble floors, has a huge pool. That's easy to sell, anyone can do that. And the hardest thing for me when I talk to to because my clients are 99% foreigners it's to sell the lifestyle. Okay, and I can tell you a little bit about the lifestyle that I live there.
Speaker 3:One difference in between, I would say, north American lifestyle in Mexico is the time that you have for yourself, for your family, quality time that you spend. So and I always call it there's the American dream. In the American dream, you will acquire everything, all materials that you can, but you won't have that much time to enjoy all of that. The Mexican dream is different. You are maybe not going to acquire 100% of things that the American dream will let you have, but you're going to have more than enough and then you're going to have a bunch of free time to enjoy your family, enjoy your friends, your and and everything like.
Speaker 3:My everyday starts with waking up, stretching, driving my kids to school, and then I come back and then I do sports every day. So and that that's not just for me I live in a gated community, and that gated community and we'll get to that is not for security reasons, it's more for luxury reasons, and I do live. When I said I live a dream, I'm going to be honest. I do live a luxury life there at a very good cost. So I start my day by going to the clubhouse. Our neighborhood has a clubhouse, so I'll either go to the gym, I might play tennis, I might play paddle with friends, I might be swimming, and everyone from the neighborhood not everyone, but a lot of people from the neighborhood will come to the clubhouse in the morning to exercise, and that's where you're networking, talking with people and all of that. And this is where the American dream you'll wake up and go to work as soon as possible. Where in the Mexican dream, well, you're going to wake up and take care of your health.
Speaker 2:So what I'm hearing is, I guess, would that be a large community gathering without really creating it, just people just coming in, working out, doing their thing, and that fosters the community, feel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that will be, and that's where you, you, you create contacts, right and and and, and. Then kind of you, you, you finish your exercise for two hours, you go have a breakfast. I have coffee with my wife, we talk, have breakfast, shower, then I go to work, okay, okay, and I do that all the way until I have to go pick up my kids. So, yeah, I do. Sometimes when we have clients, I have to. Sometimes I work 10 hours per day, but my days are usually not. I get to do everything that I need to do in those hours and then the quality of life and services that you can afford there is incredible. I mean, the only tool that I have in my house is a screwdriver. Okay, like, again, I'm going to be fully transparent I do not do anything over there. Like, I have someone that comes washes our cars every Tuesday. So this is not just car washing. They detail your car. They spend three hours there for two cars they're usually two or three guys With tip. That cost me 20 bucks, okay. Then we have a cleaning lady that comes twice a week. She works for about six to seven hours, cleans the entire house. My driveway when she leaves smells like lavender and she costs 25 bucks. There's a pool guy, there's the gardener, there's all these services that are available to you that are affordable, right? So then, all of a sudden, you are spending, right, right. So then, all of a sudden, you are spending more quality time, you're less stressed because, okay, let's be honest, who loves to wash their car? Right, right, maybe you like to wash it in May, when the spring is there, and you're like, okay, I'm going to wash my car, but after, do you want to wash it every week? No, right, and you don't have time. And then those become so chores disappear in Mexico. And then, obviously, the weather, the gastronomy, everything is more affordable. The weather is nice, merida is sunny 350 days in a year, so all of that builds a quality lifestyle.
Speaker 3:At the beginning, I was calling friends because I was excited about my new life. I was I. I just realized that I was no longer stressed, that the stress levels drop right. First I said, okay, this is because I see sun every single day. It's sunny. And we just, I think before, before we, before we got here, we were talking about the weather and how like it was to me. Me.
Speaker 3:Now, it's the third summer I come to spend here in Canada with family and friends and I was saying, okay, people say it's been hot and I've been saying this is the best summer ever. I spent here like I've been here for five weeks. It rains, like for three days. It was sunny every day and I'm like, wow, it was great. And I took advantage of that to do things that I don't do in Merida, like like the bike paths here that are beautiful and you can go bike forever and and you know so, I'm like so all of that, the, the, the, the first, the weather and everything else, the, the chores that disappeared and you know, now you're spending time with your kids and you don't have things at the back of your head.
Speaker 2:You're present with your kids because you're not worrying about you know, oh, I got to clean the car. Oh, I got to cut the lawn. I got to get dinner ready. I got to do all those things.
Speaker 3:And I have to say this, and we'll close this question with that is, obviously it's a different culture, right? Like, even though it's a different culture for my wife as well. Like, she was born in Washington, she lived in Canada almost all her life. Now it's first time for her living in Mexico. It's no longer. You're no longer going on vacation, right? So, and I'm happy this happened to me in the first weeks, and this is where I realized, okay, I need to adapt to Mexico. Mexico is not going to adapt to me. 140 million people are not all of a sudden say, oh, maybe we should live like Augie, you know. No, so you need to adapt. And what happened?
Speaker 3:It's funny there's a gardener in the neighborhood and I asked him to come cut my grass and he told me ahorita, which means right now, in a bit. And you gotta get the ahorita term is the funny one because everyone says ahorita in Mexico. All it means is that they will do it. Maybe, maybe they will, maybe they will not, but usually they'll do it when the ahorita, which means uh, like in a bit, yeah, it's not in a bit, I can tell you that. So so I don't know where I went and I called daniela and I said, hey, the gardener is going to come to to cut our grass. And she's like, okay, so whatever, I go to grocery shopping and I don't know, uh, and I come back and I'm like, oh, where was juan? And she's like, oh, he didn't come, so he doesn't come that day. I see him. I see him, uh, the next day. I'm like, hey, juan, you didn't come to cut our grass. He's like, oh, I'm gonna come this afternoon. Long story short, he doesn't come that afternoon. He comes the next day and cuts my grass.
Speaker 3:And I said, like, did I need to be stressed that he did not cut my grass on Tuesday, but he cut it on Thursday? What did really happen in my life? So, here in North America like Mexico is North America, but I want to take United States, canada we expect things to happen when we want them right, like I need this right now. Yeah, well, no one's going to die. You need to relax a little bit. Things are going to get done. They don't, and I live it. Things do not need to be necessarily done at the moment. You want them Right, right, right, because nothing's going to happen. Yeah, and that is that helped me to integrate myself in the culture and I realized okay, the grass was cut, it's nice, it's all good, it's all good. So that is the lifestyle, you know, and that's the dream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds appealing. I'm not going to lie there. What are some of the biggest myths?
Speaker 3:There are quite a few myths when it comes down to Mexico, and I think the biggest one is that it's a poor country, and it actually is not. It's a rich country. Closing 2024, mexico was the 11th economy in the world. It's a big country and there's a lot of people. Yes, there's poverty, let's not lie. There's people that are poor there but happy, and I can tell you about that as well. They are happy.
Speaker 3:Mexicans in general are happy people, but there is a lot of people that have a lot of money. There is usually a lot of. When people buy houses, they buy them cash. They don't take out mortgages. People have businesses. People live really well and I can tell you I lived permanently in Canada for 27 years. I never met billionaires here, but I have met them in Mexico and quite a few, and so that's the biggest myth. And then that myth continues where everything is maybe better here than there, and that is not true. Like, just if we talk about hospitals, okay, health care, health care. Health care in mexico is first class, it's a five like. Private hospitals are five-star hotels and I'm not joking. I I've been to to to one. Unfortunately had some stomach issues. I could not believe about the service I got and I went to emergency and I thought it was going to cost me like An arm and a leg.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it cost me $400. Okay, but the insurance for my and at that time I did not have a private insurance because I didn't think about it. Right, you weren't aware, I wasn't aware. But then, once I learned that it's $2,000 for my entire family for a full year with full full coverage, I said wow.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:This is amazing. So I think that's the biggest myth that things are, that Mexico is poor, that everything is not of quality or worse than here or in other, what we consider developed countries.
Speaker 2:Now, on a side, I think that the question is Is this something you educate your clients on as foreigners, in terms of the process when you're working with them?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, and this is the thing. I do believe that small details make the big difference at the end. And how I got into real estate, we knew going there that we were going to do something in real estate. We just didn't know what exactly and we wanted to take some time off. It was an opportunity for my wife and I to kind of semi-retire at 37. And we wanted to take that opportunity. That did not last too long, but it was a time that we took to reflect on what is it that we wanna do?
Speaker 3:And this is probably the most time I spend in my life like having conversations with myself hey, what is that I want to do? What is it where, uh, you know where, I differentiate myself from other people, you know, and and that's a really interesting conversation to have with yourself right, because you cannot do that you're going to say, okay, I'm going to take a weekend, I'm going to go to a cottage somewhere, I think about this and I'm going to come back on monday and I'm going to have an answer, have an answer. No, it takes months of reflection and for me it was, um, it was really. I was always good with numbers, okay. So I thought, okay, I'm good with numbers. Maybe that's something where I could. I could use that, leverage that. And I said, no, that's a skill that you can acquire. You can hire someone to do that. No, that's a, that's not a thing. Numbers forget about the numbers.
Speaker 3:And then one thing that I said it's like I really know a lot of people and for me to, to, to, to make a contact is is just a second nature for me to strike a contact is just a second nature for me To strike a conversation with a complete stranger in the street and spend an hour talking to them.
Speaker 3:I can do it at any point. So I said, okay, this is like I know a lot of people and this is something that I have a big network and I love this. To me, I can speak for 10 hours a day, right. So so I said, okay, this is what I need to leverage, because, and and everything I think after that, like now, artificial intelligence is way more developed than three years ago, when I was having these thoughts and I think, like, the future is this social skills, right, that's where the future is. So, yeah, the machine might be able to sell you things probably will, but it's going to be that. I think people that will be able to have high social skills, be able to talk with other people.
Speaker 2:I think that's where we're maybe in 10, 15 years, those are the people that are going to have the I get the question often enough and I think part of it is the increase that we see on social media with the appeal of Mexico. Hey, I'm in Mexico, this is my lifestyle. It doesn't go in-depth to it. Me as myself. I'm a residential mortgage broker. I focus only on Canada. Walk me through what would be the process. So I come to you and I say you know what I'm ready to buy? My family and I are ready to buy a property or land. What does that process look like and how is it different than Canada or the US?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say it's very different, because now you are, it's global real estate market and it's very different. Let's say you lived all your life in Ottawa and you want to go live in Barhaven. You know everything about Barhaven. Now someone's just going to help you find the right house. Now you're going to a country that is foreign to you, a city that is foreign to you, a culture that is foreign to you, everything is foreign to you. And that's the biggest challenge for buyers. And that's where we come in to bridge that gap in between what their dream is, where they are right now, and to make that happen.
Speaker 3:So everything's about the destination, for for me, right. So first of all, they need to like the destination, they need to like the culture. Once they they see that and they love the place, then we talk about their real estate needs. So what are their real estate needs? Are they retiring and they want a luxury house? Are they investors that want to use this two months a year? Or are they, you know, they want to have a long-term investment? What real estate product is the right one for them?
Speaker 3:So that's kind of where we start and obviously explaining this lifestyle a little bit, not a little bit in depth and I try to keep it as short as possible. I'm sure we're going to come back to that, but it's to understand the destination, understand, try to explain the culture also, and and show them the, the, the, the benefits. Not everything is a benefit. Let's be honest, right, there's no perfect place on the planet. There are some things that work better here than than there and then, and vice versa, right. So then, once we, we understand their needs and I think it's super important, I think, like you're in business with, you're a mortgage broker, and often what I see is people want to sell you a product instead of listening to what you want.
Speaker 1:What you actually need.
Speaker 3:What you need right, and it's to understand people's needs and then help them get there and give them the right information. At the end of the day, right, I might like a certain thing that you don't, and vice versa. So that's probably the number one step. Then, what we really do and what we focus on is okay, you like the destination, maybe it's Merida, you want to be in Yucatan, maybe it's the Riviera Maya. You're younger, you want to go to Playa del Carmen, you like Tulum, so we establish that. And now we have a real estate property that you're looking for. Then the third thing is to work with reputable developers. Property that you're looking for. Then the third thing is to work with reputable developers.
Speaker 3:Okay, we square capital, the company where I'm a partner. I have a mexican partner who's a lawyer. In our inventory we have like 400 properties. Okay, we do not sell 400 properties to foreigners. Okay, it's different when a mexican buyer we were talking earlier. You know Ottawa, you want to go to Barhaven, and now your real estate agent is going to help you find a house. So if a Mexican client comes to us, I do not personally deal with them.
Speaker 3:It's my partner and someone from my team. So they say, okay, I want to live in that neighborhood, merida, that price suits me. I want to buy in that neighborhood, merida, like, that price suits me, I want to buy from that builder. Okay. Every time what we do is we make sure that all the legal aspects of the product, of the project, are checked Okay. And that's super important in Mexico, like super important, because over there anyone can be a builder Okay. Okay, they can buy land and they can start developing. Can be a builder Okay, they can buy land and they can start developing. But that doesn't mean that that development is going to ever be finished or see the daylight, right. So our job is to make sure that all the legal aspect for a project checks, all the boxes, that they got all the permits, that the land is in their name, that it's in a bank trust, all of that. So for our foreign buyers, we mostly work with three big companies, and I'm going to name them. They're going to be happy about that, probably.
Speaker 3:Desur is one of them. At the beginning, this company worked a lot in Playa del Carmen and that area. They are from Yucatan, but that's where they developed their business and as Yucatan and Merida started to be more and more popular. They also now operate there. Simca is another one. Simca is probably the biggest builder out there. They have the most projects. They have the biggest portfolio portfolio, that is for sure. There are two brothers. The suit is one brother, simca is another brother, with different partners in the company and we do sell their products. And the third one is Boma. Boma is a sister company from immobilia and immobilia is the biggest developer in all Latin America. They are on the stock exchange market. They are a public company and Boma is like a sister company where it's a private company and they develop. So these are kind of the three companies we work with, and with those three we cover all the segments of what a buyer can do, and then we take them to see the properties explain everything, and then there's the whole legal aspect of when you purchase.
Speaker 2:That's one of the things people are myself included would be worried about is like legal protection. You kind of touched on that, but I guess what does that entail in terms of we work together, I'm giving you money? You had mentioned that sometimes it goes in a trust. What does that look like?
Speaker 3:So the good thing is that to buy, to be owner in Mexico within 50 kilometers from the coast or 100 kilometers from a border, as a foreigner, you need to buy the property through a bank trust, okay, okay. So a bank trust has a fee. The initial fee is about $2,000 to set up the trust and then it has a yearly fee that is depending on the exchange rate, but let's say between $700 and $800. Okay, and bank lawyers that are going to look into the project that you are buying as a foreigner and that project needs to be bulletproof legally for it to be put in a trust. Okay, okay, in Mexico they work exactly like in Quebec. What they did, they called it the Napoleon Law, so they just copied the civil law from the French and that's what it's used.
Speaker 3:So for me who lived in Quebec, you were familiar with it. Yeah, I was super familiar with it, with the notaries and everything. So when a client comes to us, as I said, we are already the products that we are selling to them. We already know the companies checked all the marks on the on the legal aspect. Now, if we are we're closing on a deal we go to through a bank trust, we go through a notary, everything was notarized, everything signed, and and your bank trust.
Speaker 3:You're an owner of the bank trust, you can sell it, you can rent like your, your property. You can rent it, you can sell it, you can pass it down to your kids and and and, yeah, so you are very protected in that aspect. So sometimes people say, oh, yeah, but the trust I need to pay 700 a year. Yeah, but that trust also protects you, right? So, uh, I want to touch a little bit on the cost, because we just said the cost of seven hundred dollars a year, but your property tax are going to be 350 a year on a luxury home. Okay, right, so let's say, three thousand square feet house in a private neighborhood, wow, yeah, and then if you pay in January, they'll give you a 10% discount and if you have solar panels, they'll give you another 15% discount.
Speaker 2:Wow. Okay, speaking of property values, obviously, in terms of Canada, north America, it's an advantageous asset class, right? Because we see and we know there will be appreciation. How do property values in Mexico stack up to Canada in terms of expected appreciation year over year? Is it similar to that in Canada or is it more? This is my property, this is my house. I'm not necessarily going to leverage it the way I do in Canada and North America. Well, the US.
Speaker 3:Like the appreciation. Let's just compare it to. The appreciation is greater. Okay, why the appreciation is greater? Because the inflation is higher. Okay, it's simple as that.
Speaker 3:Like that's something that to borrow money there, like to do a project, it's going to cost you 15% okay, interest rate, annual interest rate. So think about it. Now someone is borrowing money at 15% to make a project, to make a profit, right? And the bank, if you just put the money, if you take your money put it in the bank, you have a 10% annual, okay. So when we talk about real estate, your money put in the bank, you have a. You have a 10% annual, okay, so so so when we talk about real estate, that's where the the math. Just just adding those two numbers, you are looking.
Speaker 3:I always say to people I like to be super ultra conservative when it comes down to to appreciation, but a 15% in Mexico yearly is a given. For example, the biggest mistake that we made we didn't only do good things, we made a couple of mistakes along the way, and that's how we learned is not buying a house. When we got there, we bought other things. We bought a lot of land, we bought an apartment on the beach. That is going to be ready, hopefully by next year. That appreciated by like 70% in three years. The land we bought appreciated also by a lot. But we did not buy a house and at the time when we arrived, three years ago, the Canadian dollar was much stronger. It was at 16 pesos per dollar. Today I think it's exchanging at 1360, but it went down to 1199 at one point. At that time we could buy a house 3,000 square feet house for about $270,000, $275,000. Like luxurious home.
Speaker 3:Canadian or US, canadian, okay, canadian, yeah. And now today we're looking at like for that same house. We are looking at like closer to 400,000, you know, and some houses like I remember we were in a neighborhood, it was a townhouse, but like a big, big townhouse, I think it was around just a little bit under 200,000. And that almost doubled, oh, you know. So this is to give you the appreciation, but do people leverage their homes as much as in Canada to go get credit or things like that? No, I did not see it. Okay, not as much as here, that's for sure, that's for sure, that's for sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:You spoke a little bit about parts of mexico. What are the hot spots for investors right now, would you say?
Speaker 3:I would say merida, and the yucatecan coast is the hot spot. So you know, um, jeff bezos said that. He said. He said that when you're in business, you want to get. It's like surfing I'm paraphrasing him. So, it's like surfing you want to be on your board before the wave comes. If you are waiting for the wave to come and then you try to get on the board, well, you're probably going to fall, right, right. So so I would say that Merida, we are not at the beginning of the wave, but we are still at the early stages. And the Yucatecan coast, I would say it's, it's we. We are at the beginning of the of the wave, right, and how? How do we see that? So, three hours from there, we have Playa del Carmen, cancun. Everyone in Canada is familiar with that, with Tulum right. Playa del Carmen was established only in 1998. By 2014, it was the fastest growing city in the world. Okay, and now, when we go to Playa del Carmen, it's a fully developed city. Okay, tulum was only established in 2008. By 2016, was the fastest growing city in the world.
Speaker 3:And now, in a span of two years, you had two cities in Mexico that are 30 minutes from each other that were the fastest growing cities in the world. So what happened? There was a strong demographic growth in that area. Let me backtrack. I would call that like when we're talking about hotspots and investment. It's a two-step investment that I look at. First, it's supported by the demographic growth, okay, okay. And Merida right now is the fastest growing city in Mexico, okay, in terms of its demographics, okay. And then what happened in the Mayan Riviera is that then you had high tourism and then those two things were a perfect combination for real estate to take off, to take off Right. So just to close on the tourism part is three years ago Cancun had three terminals. Then they built a four terminal that had a capacity of the terminal one, two, three together.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:Okay, and they went from having 17 million tourists a year to 29 in two years. Two years In two years, wow, okay. And now we have an international airport in Tulum. So now we're going to wait for stats to see, to know what those numbers are, what those numbers are. There's an international airport in Merida. When we got there, they had international flights from Houston, miami and Toronto, okay, and now it's from almost 10 cities in the world. So, and also the important thing in real estate is to say follow the money, okay. What we are seeing there is the big, big government investments in infrastructure in Southeast Mexico.
Speaker 2:Unlike Ottawa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the highway was completely remounted from Merida to Cancun. It's a beautiful highway. It takes you three hours to get there. The fast train was built. It's called Tren Maya Mayan train. The fast train was built. It's called Tren Maya Mayan train.
Speaker 3:The 20 minutes from Merida is the closest beach. It's called Progreso. It's a town, progreso, that has a boardwalk that they copied exactly, ocean Drive exactly, and they built that. The government built that. Why did they do that? They wanted to have Disney crews to come to Progreso and one of the demands of Disney was to okay, you need to renovate this boardwalk. So the government did.
Speaker 3:Now it's the longest port in the world. Wow yeah, the port of Progreso is the longest port of the world. I think it's 10 or 11 kilometers long. Wow yeah. And so, as you can imagine, the cargos that come there, there's a lot of cargo and trucks and everything. All that was going through Progreso, through the streets of this town, and damaging the streets and everything. So now what the government did is now all those trucks are going to get out of the port and connect directly to the highway. They're going to pass above the town and going to connect directly to the highway and then the fast train Maya is going to come somewhere. I'm not 100% sure. Then the fast-trained Maya is going to come somewhere. I'm not 100% sure, but let's say no further than 10 kilometers from the port. And this is what we are seeing is we are seeing near-shoring, we are seeing foreign investment. Heineken just invested billions of dollars. They are building their biggest brewery in Latin America, in Merida, in Canassin, maybe 15 minutes from where I live.
Speaker 2:So Merida is the hotspot? Oh, it is Okay. So, in terms of investors, when they're buying properties, they look for those decisions that you just made right the governmental infrastructure, the private firms that are coming in like a Heineken. In your opinion, if I were to invest in in Merida, um, would it be a short-term Airbnb or would it be beneficial or more advantageous for like a long-term? Because those are the questions that I hear often. It's like well, do I buy something hold or am I getting a short-term Airbnb? Like, how, what's the, what's the best ROI for an individual in Canada who says you know what I want to be in Mexico long-term, but I know not right now? Um, how would you? How would you if I came to you and said that? How would you present that to?
Speaker 3:me Okay, let's, let's play that scenario and let's let, let let's say that you had a budget and money was no problem. Okay, Can we do?
Speaker 2:that Well? No, let's use your experience. What would you say is the average that someone comes to you and says I have $100,000, I have $250,000, I have… what would you say is that average?
Speaker 3:I'm going to tell you that most of my clients buy land, okay, and these are people our age. So what happens is that they are first, it's a good investment. Buying land is good because God ain't making any more and you're not gonna lose money investing in land right, okay, so now. Now let's just explain a little bit investing in land in Mexico, because it's different, because when I started selling that concept here in Canada, it was super foreign to people and they did not understand it.
Speaker 3:What a developer does in Merida they develop a neighborhood. They are not going to build houses, they are going to develop the infrastructure in your neighborhood. So it's all about the amenities that they are going to build in that neighborhood. I'm going to speak about a specific one. It's called Hacienda Quiquetel, and this is a neighborhood where I'm going to build my house. So what does the builder do? They pave the streets, they build parks, maybe a little bit like what the city does here, but in a private, gated community. And now they build a clubhouse with amenities. For example, in Hacienda Quictel you have, you're gonna have a restaurant, you're gonna have a bar, you're gonna have a daycare, you're gonna have a teens club and Spa, soccer field, multiple paddle courts, tennis courts, seven different parks throughout the project. Each phase it's 600 lots and it's divided in seven phases. Each phase has a huge park, like in phase one. You have a basketball court, you have a playground for kids, you have a barbecue area.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah, you have a jungle gym like this is all taken care of by the by the developer, yes, so now they are.
Speaker 3:They are delivering you, the neighborhood, the land. They they bring the infrastructure they're going to bring up to your lot electricity, water and the clubhouse and everything, the, the, everything that, all the infrastructure that the neighborhood needs. Okay, it's gated. You have private security 24 7 again in merida. It's not for, uh, for uh, safety purposes, it's more for the luxury purpose, okay. And and the earlier you get into a project buying, buying land more money you're making.
Speaker 3:When they start selling land in, like, there's always project starts with friends and family. They are barely, or maybe not even, covering the cost of what it's going to cost them. So, but they're not going to. You know it's going to be a limited, like, let's say, they're going to sell 20 lots, or 25, 40, depending on the size of the project. So the earlier you get in the project, the more money you make. And every, depending on the project. But let's say, always, when they sell 10 lots, the price is going up by at least 5%, okay, okay, and this is how they ensure that the value of their investors is growing. Obviously, once the neighborhood is developed and it's ready for people to build their homes, now that's where land is worth the most. Okay, okay, now, that's where land is worth the most, okay, okay. So 80% of my clients do this and I do this as well in there, because I saw people in Merida, like, when I got there, yes, there's a lot of foreigners, but there's also, like, mexican foreigners that came to live in Merida.
Speaker 3:So, merida maybe what put Merida on the map is in 2019, there was the first time it was by CEO ruled that the safest cities in the world were ranked and, like, people in Mexico looked at the study and they saw Merida and they said, wow, merida, they all know, okay, it's in Yucatan, whatever. But then people with businesses and money that live in Mexico City that's a city that I mean, it's a beautiful city packed with 30 million people. It's crazy, right so, traffic, space, everything, everything's crazy. And now you go to Merida where, like, you have all the infrastructure and everything, but you have a lot of space, there's no traffic, there's no crime. So people started coming there, right, like, so, a lot of these people from Mexico City, guadalajara, monterrey, people that came with money, were buying land.
Speaker 3:So I saw in my neighborhood, like that first year when I was figuring things out, I saw people oh, you know, I'm selling. I bought three years ago a lot in that project. Now the project's done, I'm selling it Like how much did you? Oh, I'm selling it for three times more than what I pay. I'm like, wow, what three years ago? Like how is that possible, right? So then I also started doing that so as early as you get in into a product. So to me that's a really good uh, um, really good product for an investor. For sure it does not generate a passive income you have to wait right but a rental unit, you don't even have to think about it. Save bet is your rent is going to bring you 7% annual 7% annual.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. As we wrap up here, just a couple of rapid fire questions. What's one thing people can't find out about you on Google?
Speaker 3:find out about you on Google. Well, you touched on that. I speak several languages, but in 2007, I was in Serbia and, for people that don't know, serbia has one of the biggest music festivals called Exit, and I partied with Snoop Dogg privately.
Speaker 2:Privately. I won't ask Snoop Dogg privately. Privately I won't ask. I won't ask Favorite quote or book that you would recommend everyone should read.
Speaker 3:Favorite quote is from a French rap group called I Am. I'll say it in French, translate it in English it's La Patience est un arbre dont la racine est amère et le fruit doux. Which translates to patience is a tree whose root is bitter but whose fruit is sweet.
Speaker 2:Hmm, Okay, that's deep. Yeah, you're stuck on an island. You can only bring three things.
Speaker 3:What are you bringing?
Speaker 2:That's a tough one, you know, people are not an option. People are not an option.
Speaker 3:People are not an option. I think I'll definitely bring a soccer ball, okay, you know. Okay, I would bring a Kindle with endless books I like it, okay. And a knife, okay. So the soccer ball, I would need to have some fun and I can use it in the water, outside of water, exercise, exercise and everything. Then I could continue educating myself and work the brain and then knife for survival purposes.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. You kind of touched on it.
Speaker 3:You did some soul searching, if you weren't in real estate right now, what would you be doing? I don't know if I would be doing that, but if I wasn't in real estate and again, sorry to my federal government colleagues, but I think my other dream is I would love to be a sports journalist. Okay, like if I would to you know, know, another career is to be a sport journalist, work on tv or a radio show. Radio show, yeah, I love. I love soccer, I love hockey. Uh, I love tennis.
Speaker 2:I mean, I love sports in in general yeah, uh, speaking of tennis, um joker federerras, who are you picking? For sure, Joker For sure I mean he's you know he's my brother, my Serbian brother.
Speaker 3:I know, but the numbers prove it. He beat I always say him and Federer played 50-some times and Djokovic beat him way more than he lost. But speaking of tennis, that's a thing I picked up in Mexico. Really, oh my God, I play four times a week. Wow, yeah, I have lessons twice a week. I should have got into lessons way before, but they're kind of expensive here and much cheaper over there. But I play. Yeah, I have two lessons a week. I play, for sure one match, sometimes two. I go to tournaments Okay, yeah, I have a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Selfish question here what are the golf courses like?
Speaker 3:There is not a lot, but there's good. One project which is made by Immobilia. It's the most luxurious project in Merida. It's called the Yucatan Country Club. I mean, that's one of the first projects when we were house hunting, when we first went to explore my wife and I in 2022 and our kids if we would like this city and if we would like to live there we went to see a house in the Yucatan Country Club and within like one minute that we entered the neighborhood, my wife said I want to live here and I was like, yeah, everyone wants to live here. The the golf course is Jack Nichols designed. There was PGA tournaments on that golf course. It's a spectacular neighborhood, so that golf course is absolutely amazing. There's few. There's newer golf courses that are being developed. There's a project called Provincia by Simca and Gran Provincia. They are the first, so right now you have nine holes that you can play. They're developing the other nine and this one's under the light so you can golf.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:Merida is very hot, so when you can golf without the sun hitting you and there's another golf course there and then you have other golf courses in the minor year.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know you as a social guy, so I'm curious on this question what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Speaker 3:best piece of advice you've ever received you know, maybe we talked a little bit about this is invest where the growth is happening, not where the crowd already is. So I would say that and then trust yourself. I think often I trust yourself and trust your dreams, like that's a cliche, but believe in yourself. I think my father always told me, like, do not expect someone else to do things for you. Trust in what you can do Right, what you can do Right, right. So you know, sometimes you talk to people friends, family and you know you might have dreams and they tell you that you dream too big. But I think that any person, if they put their mind to it, can achieve great things Nice.
Speaker 2:I agree with you Knowing what you know now. Is there anything you do differently? Yes, many things, many things, nice. I agree with you Knowing what you know now. Is there anything you do differently?
Speaker 3:Yes, many things, many things. I can tell you that one thing that I would do and I every week I talk with my kids about this I would start a business way earlier in my life. Okay, first of all, probably at university. I think that was like, if there's a younger audience that's going to listen to this, or their parents are going to listen to this, this is what I would say when you're in university and you have friends in university, start a business together, okay. If it fails, who cares? Right, you know. And if it doesn't, well, you are 100 steps ahead of everyone. I agree, because what is your risk at that time? You don't have family, you don't have kids, you don't worry about too many things, and this is the time, like you're maybe careless at that age, you're going to take more risk. But that can pay off, it will pay off, yeah, right. So that's something that I would do, knowing what I know, that's gonna. That can pay off, it will pay off, right, so so that's something that I would do if I, knowing what I know, that's that's what I would do, and I tell my kids every week I don't care what you're going to do in life.
Speaker 3:Like my parents were very strict, like with my sister and I. We had to go to university, okay. There was no question about not going to university. I do not care if my kids go to university or not. What I want them is to get an education in the field that they want to work. So if they want to be like I have a daughter that's in gymnastics If she wants to open a gymnastics club, well, she'll need to go finish in sports education and training to get the education that she needs for that.
Speaker 3:And what I tell them every week is have your own business, okay, and take all of these smart kids and make them work for you and make them make you money, okay. So that is one thing that I would do. Maybe and I think we are not educated about that at all Not here, not in Mexico, not anywhere, right, you know, I think the educational system is made for us to study, learn how to work and go work, get a job, right, okay. And one thing that I would do is like I would hire those good people. I would hire the best students in the university to work for me, okay, because if someone is paying you, let's say, let's make it simple. If someone is paying you $100,000, it's because you are bringing more than $100,000. And, as great minds say, it's better to make 10% of 100% of someone's work than to make 100% of the 100% of your work.
Speaker 2:That's a good one. That's a good one. We'll leave that there. So where can people find you?
Speaker 3:They can find me. The easiest way to find me it's on WhatsApp. Okay, if WhatsApp would go down for three days, mexico would collapse. Okay, everything's done by WhatsApp. So that is the easiest way. My Canadian number is 819-328-8664. We'll leave that for our guests. And by email Augie at squarecapitalmx and I also have my Mexican phone number, so those are the easiest way to find me.
Speaker 2:Augie, thank you. Thank you for giving us the light, and I enjoyed this. I enjoyed this. I enjoyed this. All right, we'll see you in the next one. You've been listening to Across the Table with.
Speaker 1:Dionysus Dion is a mortgage agent, but he has so much more on his mind, and on this show we pick the brains of some of the most successful people from all walks of life. We hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to like rate and review. We'll be back soon. See you next time on Across the Table.