On Uruguay’s Atlantic coast, a beach town is booming with celebrities and high-rolling foreigners willing to pay millions of dollars for a piece of this bohemian but ultra-chic getaway.
In the past decade, José Ignacio – 180 kilometres east of Montevideo – has become a refuge for members of the jet set in the region who want to escape noisy Punta del Este, the old line resort 40 kilometres away.
Colombian singer Shakira, Argentine television producer Marcelo Tinelli, Argentine magnate Amalia Fortabat and French actress Dominique Sanda own properties in the area.
Last summer’s visitors have included, among others, the son of Princess Caroline of Monaco and Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood.
The global economic crisis hasn’t reached this corner of South America. Real estate sales in Punta del Este shot up more than 53 per cent last year, with most of the increase seen in rural areas where celebrities have their spreads.
In tiny José Ignacio, with its lighthouse and scalloped beaches, the boom has been even more pronounced with a 157 per cent jump in sales, totalling $263.6 million.
“The trend in values has been up. Even during the financial crisis in 2008, prices rose,” said David Gasparri, a partner with the real estate firm of Antonio Mieres.
A vacant 0.2-acre lot in the historic centre of José Ignacio costs at least $500,000, although a seafront property could go for twice or three times as much.
And 12 acres of farmland more than two kilometres from the sea can fetch $1 million.
Seventy per cent of the buyers are Argentines – Uruguay’s biggest annual contingent of tourists – and the rest are Europeans or North Americans attracted to the area by the combination of nature, beach and high quality gastronomy, said Mr Gasparri.
“This is a paradise. The night is more peaceful. You live closer to nature. The kids can ride bicycles, go to the beach alone. You relax more,” said a 43-year-old businessman, who bought a charming white house facing the sea last year.
For tourists with the means to pay, there are places like Playa Vik, a luxury residential complex built by a Norwegian millionaire and inaugurated in December.
Designed by architect Carlos Ott, it combines rooms painted entirely by artists with self-sustaining, environmentally sensitive systems, which the owner had used before at a country inn nearby.
The town’s authorities, meanwhile, are fighting to control growth.
“We wanted a family-oriented place, a place where people come because they like the beach, the sound of the wind, the breaking of the waves,” said Javier Ruibal, a director of the Development League of José Ignacio.
“It should be a gastronomic hub, where people come to spend the day and at night go back to being a quiet little town,” he said, adding that following those rules has strengthened property values.
The town’s original inhabitants, however, are not too impressed by the changes. Eduardo Techera was born in José Ignacio 51 years ago and six years ago moved from the town proper to the countryside beyond it.
“From an economic point of view, the change is good, but I don’t like it at all. I don’t like the José Ignacio of traffic jams, of stress and craziness. I like the peace and tranquillity of the old José Ignacio,” he said.
About 800 people come every year to spend summers in the town, but barely 30 people stay on the rest of the year when, as a sign in the main plaza puts it, “Only the wind blows here.”