WHAT is paradise? For me, paradise on earth is just a state of mind. It is always a bias based on which country you have been born and raised. If you were raised in Madrid, paradise for you might mean seeing the miles and miles of coastline by cruceros in the Mediterranean provinces such as in the Andalucian community. But even in the urban confines that is Madrid, there can be paradise in itself. If you are just creative enough to decorate your own condominium unit and lease it to other persons, then surely you can have a booming business. You don’t need to hire a professional interior designer and decorator to do that, that’s just a waste of money. Just be imaginative. To attract prospective buyers in your new, rather refurbished, condo unit in the middle of Madrid, you place lots of lampshades in strategic corners of the room. This will make the interior beautiful. Then have the cover of the lampshades change to either pink, green or blue so there will be a blend of colors in your interior environment and it will be smooth to the eyes. Do away with the rest of the incandescent and flourescent lamps; they will just be a waste of energy and an increase in electric bills. Only encourage the use of table lamps when you need to read or write something on your working desk.

To illuminate your living room at night, have some imagination again. You may want to install in some sort of projection of a nebula or a constellation to illuminate your ceiling. And you can also attach from the ceiling a model airplane. This can really a fascinate the child in an adult vacationer. And above all, focus on the practical uses of a condominum unit. Have your whole house wired and set for an alarm security system. This may take some investment but you can easily recoup your capital once there are lots of vacationers who have booked your condo units for the next few months or so. And then be practical. You don’t need a new heater or a new air conditioner to go with your new vacation home. All you need to have is your existing appliances. If all they need are paint jobs, then settle for that. In the urban areas, though you need lots of telecommunications utilities. You have to have a wired and wireless Internet connection in your own home. You also have to have cable television.

But if you’re staying close to the Mediterranean, then there are other alternatives that you can invest on. For example, if you’re staying in Costa del Sol, then you can always buy a piece of land near a nudist beach and erect (no pun intended) a vacation home there. Then be very creative in the design of your home. Have it sport an all-wooden interior to have that tropical feel because Mediterranean is nothing but fresh seafood and beautiful sea waves. Or if you’re in such a place as the Pyrenees, now is a great opportune time to have a real estate investment there. There are lots of wintry vacationers in these aresa during the Christmas season and beyond. Even during summer, places like the Pyrenees, the Alps and even Lake Tahoe in California are real estate havens as far as investors are concerned.

Or maybe you want to invest in a tropical country like the Philippines. There are also lots of upper middle-class families right now in that country who have chosen to move into new and more trendy and upscale locations. I can cite to you one place – Century City. When I went there a couple of weeks back, construction of the new Century City is currently in full bloom. If you purchase there a unit or two and lease or even sell it to your countrymen, then you can surely recoup the price. But go beyond Manila. Even in other urban areas in the country such as Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao, real estate investments have never been this good. There are numerous subdivisions on the rise such as those erected by Ayala Land, Filinvest and A. Brown. Real estate boom here is akin to what is currently a fact in places such as Taiwan, Dubai and even Shanghai.