Where to Buy?

Welcome to the forums.  You are right to check out many areas before deciding where to buy.

We also recommend you rent and live there before buying if possible! 

The northern east you refer to is Samana and.Las Terrenas.

Cabrera, Cabarete, Sosua, Puerto Plata, Costambar  are the North coast.  Further west is Luperon on the North coast. 

It will very much depend what you are looking for.  In most areas.of the North coast and the north east you will find prices more reasonable.

I have lived in many places in this country. It isn't one size fits all.  Each has pros and cons.  Keep an open mind and check out as many as possible.

It appears you have already starting exploring the country and perhaps are looking for suggestions as to other locations to consider for your investment.

I suspect your reference to northern eastern coast is in relation to the area near Miches which is indeed beautiful with a mountain backdrop and the excellent Playa Esmeralda. This area is taking off with a large Club Med resort recently opened and AM Resorts planning a large development there too along with others. I was last there several years ago before there was any development and the roads had not been upgraded. There will not be much in the way of villas or apartments to buy on the beach at this time.

'planner' has mentioned the North Coast areas, and apart from the whole Samana area which has great beaches and possibilities, perhaps you could look more closely on the Cabrera/Playa Grande/Rio San Juan area. Cabrera doesn't have a beach as such but there are a few nice beaches nearby. Another north coast area less developed but beautiful is west of Puerto Plata around Luperon, La Isabela and the gem of Punta Rucia.

Once you are away from the more popular areas, issues such as shopping for groceries and health care come in play and you will need to be mobile.

Since you are familiar with the east coast a little, why not look at Bayahibe and more specifically the adjacent new development of Dominicus. You will be surprised how clean, fresh and relaxing this resort town with a lovely beach area.

Two other wild card suggestions are Playa Nuevo La Romana and Punta Arena (which is west of Santo Domingo on the south coast and is the new next big destination in DR). Both have there own threads here on expat.com

I do think that your budget could work well with research.

DR has so many lovely beach destinations as well as mountain and tropical lushness and one could go on making many other suggestions, but you have a few pointers above to consider and ask other posters about their experiences.

Also check a look at Juan Dolio, is not that busy and close to Santo Domingo.

On the same topic, we will be looking to buy soon and we're looking for the area which attracts the largest amount active expats? I'm finding it hard to find this information.

Punta Cana or other?

We visited Cabarete but it is not quite as developed as we would like.

What ever you decide to do, do not buy anything for a year. Get a feel for the different parts of the country and remember that it will be much more difficult to sell that it is to buy. When you buy in the Dominican, you are married to that property for a very long time. In the event that you realize this is not the right piece of paradise for you, owning a property becomes a heavy burden.....

Good advice!  Here you don't buy and sell easily!  Easy to buy and much harder to sell.

I prefer Barahona which is just starting to be developed for tourism.prices are good and scenery is bio reverse going from arid to mountains , rainforest,lakes,rivers,beach.But considering you like more beach check out Luperón,west of Puerto Plata, happy hunting.

Barahona is certainly an upcoming tourist area. Currently it lacks development but I am sure that is on the way.

Great place if you want a truly Dominican experience as there are not many expats.  It is beautiful there! 

Luperon for.beaches?  Great place for boaters. It's fairly removed and not all services offered there.  Great place for a.laid back life.  As I understand it there are a good number of expats. And it is very beautiful!

Planner (or others), you seem to be quite knowledgeable and have a lot of great advice... where do you think we should start with a rental, considering we are looking to be close to the beach, want to be active and near MANY expats? We are leaning towards Punta Cana, even though it is more of a tourist destination, we want as many social opportunities as possible. Golf, gym, tennis, and many expats...

Punta Cana / Bavaro  area sounds like a decent fit for you.  They have all that, close to beaches  AND its more expensive then some other areas. It is also more spread out! 

North coast you will find  much of that,   nice beaches, gyms, fewer golf courses and tennis and many expats.  It is generally less expensive. 

Do you need to work or retired?  If you need to work that is a whole other discussion.

Thanks for the feedback Planner! You're a gem! There is so much information online, but it's hard to get the answers we're looking for...

We will NOT be working but we want a FULL, active and fun lifestyle with a great social life. It would be nice to avoid the cost of Punta Cana and still have access to many expats and beach, gym and a golf course.
We love the climate, people, beach, affordability but we don't want to feel isolated in any way. Cabarete was just not developed enough for us.
Is there another city aside from Punta Cana in the north coast that we should check out? Perhaps up and coming with many expats already?

Thanks again, this feedback is priceless!
Mitch

Happy to help.  I lived 8 years in Puerto Plata /Cofresi / Costambar area.  More built up than cabarete, lots of expats and beaches not far away. 

Cost of living is lower then punta Cana and only one decent(not fabulous) golf course. 

It's 20 minutes to Sosua and sosua bay
It's 40 minutes maybe to cabarete.
It's an hour and a bit to Santiago

There are very nice areas to live and really bad areas you don't want to live in.

Darlene

Whilst DR gets about 6 million tourists every year, there are only about 80,000 resident expats in DR and only about 20% of those are anglophile. The expat numbers increase a little during the winter with snowbirds.

Most anglophiles have chosen to live in the Puerto Plata/Sosua/Cabarete area which seems to be not to your liking/developed enough. There is a golf course between Puerto Plata and Sosua in the all inclusive hotel zone of Playa Dorado.

You want golf, beach and gym and a lively nightlife, so your best bet would be to try the East Coast in the zone between  Punta Cana/Bavaro/Uvero Alto which receives most tourists and has developed beyond the many inclusive hotels with condominiums and nightlife. There are golf courses here, beaches and likely gyms. you will find a growing community of expats of all nationalities.

For golf, beyond that, you can try Juan Dolio on the south coast which has a smaller expat community and beaches and golf courses adjacent. I have not mentioned Casa De Campo and other exclusive communities with golf courses.

https://www.godominicanrepublic.com/

Thank you everyone, you've been so helpful...here's another idea. Buy a nice condo in Punta Cana/Bavaro/Samana somewhere touristy, live there while we explore and then when we find our true home, we put the condo on Air BNB?

That would work just remember that once you buy it's not easy to sell.  If you can't rent enough to make it worthwhile then you are stuck. Why not just rent for 6 to 12 months?