In these difficult financial times we know a lot of people are re-thinking their investment and retirement future. Some are concerned about losing their jobs, others have been hit by severe stock market losses, and many are anticipating receiving retirement checks that will be far smaller than they had planned.

One thing is clear, change is coming.

But at the same time we’re remembering that with change often comes opportunity.

We’re seeing this in our users - people interested in researching real estate in Central America. There’s a renewed willingness to explore new options and an increased openness to reinvention and change. Some are actively seeking destinations that offer a lower cost of living and more affordable healthcare, while others simply wish to move a percentage of their assets outside the US.

In these turbulent times it’s more important than ever to access reliable information for decision making. Yet people often don’t get the information they need.

The basic problem in Central American is the lack of consistent and objective data on property prices. Market comps are hard to come by and there’s not much in the way of data available from property institutes, registries or central bank database. You won’t find the equivalent of zillow, redfin, or trulia serving up market comparatives, neighborhood statistics and price trends. This means that investors often have to rely on information supplied by self-interested, and sometimes ill-informed, vendors and real estate agents.

Filling the data gap in international real estate

It’s into this information gap that investor guide sites like Global Property Guide and expert weblogs such as the Panama Investor Blog and Overseas Property Blog have launched. And it’s in response to the lack of reliable market data in Central America that we built our database of real estate developments in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Belize with standardized price comparisons; collated market data and reviews of overseas property hotspots (see for example for San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua and collected country indicators relevant to real estate investing (see for example for Costa Rica real estate.)

The International RE.net has still got a long way to go, but the good news is that the improvements are coming at the right time – just when finding good value, in the right location and within budget is more important than ever. Armed with better information than before, international real estate investors can make decisions with more confidence.

Increased transparency is coming to real estate in Central America and that kind of change can only be a good thing.