INFO PV

One of Mexico’s leading homebuilders, Homex, is planning on building beachfront villas and condos in top vacation spots like Puerto Vallarta to sell homes to American retirees and vacationers.

Homex hopes to sell 100 of the homes in 2008 for between $400,000 and $900,000 in its first push into the expatriate market, said Chief Financial Officer Alan Castellanos. The goal is to tap into theincreasing numbers of American retirees as the baby-boom generation looks for retirement homes in warmer climates.

The plan is a marked change for Homex, which has grown for the last decade by building and selling smaller, cheaper homes to Mexico’s poor.

The company will keep its focus on mass-produced homes that sell for less than $40,000, but with efficient building techniques could make good profits in high-end housing as well.

Homex has already bought land and obtained building permits in Cancun and in Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos on the Pacific coast. Construction on the villas and low-rise condos is planned to begin soon.

“We’re not taking any risk on location,” Castellanos said.

Foreigners are banned by Mexican law from owning land close to the coast, but Homex plans to offer the homes under 99-year trusts.