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I'm sure people will see my comments below as just a cheap way to advertise, but I just wanted to make a few comments from a developer's point of view.

A year ago I purchased a large parcel of beachfront land in Northern Nicaragua near the Cosiguina Vocano.  I was traveling in Nicaragua with my wife and three teenage children and fell in love with it.  The beaches are incredibly beautiful, the people are kind and Nicaragua is statistically the second safest country in the Americas.  I am from Canada and that was important to me.

I am in the early stages of creating what I believe will be a beautiful eco-friendly community and contrary to popular belief, not all developers are evil, money hungry devils who simply wish to exploit the country and leave.  My goal is not to lose money of course, but equally important to me is to have the right people purchase in our development and be my neighbors.  I have been fortunate financially in life and wish to give back in a meaningful way.  We are very focused on a number of key concepts.  Firstly, to enjoy the beauty of the beach and hotspring volcano while positively impacting the area, not exploiting it.  Positive impact comes in two forms.  Firstly, to help the environment and the natural beauty of the area be maintained.  We will have strict rules on eco-friendly homes and on our clients helping with reforestation, protection of the turtles on the beach, etc.  Secondly, to help the local people improve their way of life by having our community members pass on their skills whether they be in construction, technology or in teaching a new language.  Of course creating a new development also creates a lot of construction jobs, rental management, caretaking, etc.  I am also going to take a significant portion of our profits (assuming we have some!) and put them back into the local communities by helping improve schools, clinics and even building baseball fields which is an extremely popular sport down here.

So as I said above, many people will think I am just advertising with my comments and feel free to take shots at me, but the truth is I wanted to say from a developers perspective that not all developers are trying to exploit the country.  I am working on a partnership with other eco-friendly developers who are local Nicaraguans and they too wish to make their country better through their development, not worse.

Is the amount of interest in Nicaragua real estate down from a couple years ago, yes and no.  When the cost of land in Florida falls in half one can certainly expect an impact on Nicaragua or any other competitive location.  However, I have no intent on dropping our prices.  They are very fair.  We are well funded and have no reason to give away some of the most beautiful property in the world.  We also have the added advantage of lower infrastructure costs because as a "green" development our homes are strictly solar/wind powered so there is no power lines to the property, we are not paving over the property to make parking lots, etc.  We offer beautiful nature powered luxury living without a damaging impact on the environment which frankly saves us money upfront and saves our clients money both upfront and in the long run (no power bills, etc.)

OK, that's enough standing up for developers!  One thing that people might also find intriguing in terms of interest in Nicaragua property lately is that with the economic down turn we have noticed more interest from people looking for a retirement location.  People that used to believe they could afford to retire in the US, Europe or Canada may have found a large part of their net worth evaporated on the stock market.  So the thought of living in a luxury beachfront paradise and being able to do that in style for $1000 a month in total quite easily is very appealing.  So when I said yes and no to the question of whether interest has waned, what I have seen is some people looking for a vacation home may be holding off but others looking to retire are looking to Nicaragua more than ever.

So to answer the original question from my perspective...there may be some developers who are panicking with the economic downturn and running for the hills, dumping off their property as they go if they are desperate for cash.  But there are certainly many developments that have a long term plan with core values and may be giving some discounts now but are really focusing on the future when the economy turns around.  It is pretty hard to argue that Nicaragua is going through a very similar development pattern to Costa Rica 15 years ago, Mexico 25 years ago, etc.  And I think almost everyone would have loved to have got in on those beautiful locations then.  Both for the enjoyment of the location and for the incredible increases in the property values.

That's my two cents.  I'll put my shields up now for the responses!

Patrick.