Sanctuary Belize from Buy Belize

Make sure you research very well!!   We have worked with David Kafka in Placencia (Remax).  Highly recommend speaking with him with any questions or listings in the area.

Thank you much.

Sorry, when I looked at it it was a criminal enterprise.  There are a lot of posts on this place.  Please find them and read.  I was lucky to get my deposit back. they claimed a few years ago that they changed management, but they were just other relatives.  My advice:   Stay away.

I would suggest you search the Belize forum with the key words "Sanctuary Belize" and read the opinions of others over the last couple of years relative to this development.  There are some very strong opinions about the development, and I would say the majority are negative, but you will have to make you own decision. Good luck in your endeavors regardless of what you decide.

Hi my name is Steve kenuk  and I am a property owner at  Sanctuary Belize  and I can emphatically object to the posters claim that the Sanctuary is a criminal enterprise. This rumor started a few years ago  Buy some uninformed disgruntled visitors to the very early phase of the development.  Also there was a negative article posted in the blog  TechNewsWorld by a man named Rob Enderle in January 2014 but a week later Rob  amended his opinion of sanctuary Belize.  You should search for that article and read it for yourself it has some interesting information in it but most importantly is the following quote from his amended article:

" Financial Controls
The CFOis critical in a project like this. The CFO make sure that reserves are in place, that revenue exceeds expenses, and that executives aren't treating the company like their personal piggy bank. I'm an ex internal auditor for IBM and I spent most of The afternoon last Thursday grilling Sanctuary Belize's CFO Rod Kazazi. Rod has an impressive background and a good grasp of the fundamentals. We really hit it off, and I'm genuinely sorry I didn't meet him much sooner.

Rod previously has been CFO of American Apparel, a public company, and he has experience in strategic planning, as a director of finance, and in a variety of multinational financial roles. There is substantial rigor to naming a CFO for a public company, and this means Rod understands financial controls, reporting, risk management and financial oversight. He has a degree in business with an emphasis in finance from USC."

I purchased a 2 1/2 acre river lot that has a couple hundred feet of river frontage on the Sittee river and I also purchased a residential lot at their brand-new nearby development called Kanantik  which used to be an eco-resort.  I did purchase these properties as investments in an effort to diversify my investment portfolio. **

Lawsuit by property owners against sanctuary

I am in no way associated with this group nor a property owner, but let's be honest here, these are 2016 proceedings, I watched a video of about 50 lot owners very distraught.

Thanks! This is a real eye opener!

For someone who wants to retire in a  small country as Belize, why complicating life to get with a condominium sort of project.
May be it is okay now, But later may be not.
You will be always wondering if the association is respecting your wishes and dealing well with the expenses and maintenance.
I have no clue who is Santuary.  Purchasing in the States in such endeavour, I could understand but in a foreign country I would never.
You can purchase your lot anywhere on the water from Cancun to Punta Gorda and create your own wall.
There are airports, everywhere and good doctors as well. No need to belong to a community to have access.
Just my opinion being 70 and having a property on the water, having lived and worked around the world most of my life.  Just retired now.

You mentioned diversify your portfolio.  I find it risky to diversify within same entity per say.
How many years, you feel it will take to gain anything?

I looked at the IOSB site and read a lot of the information and history about SB - begun 13 years ago. Personally, I would stay away from this enterprise. Very vague and convoluted ownership, investment, and development. There will be a court case heard in Belize on July 22nd relative to the development of SB, or lack of development, depending on your perspective.

The high pressure sales tactics looked like every other "flea bag used car salesman", or time-share type sales. 

Once we had viewed our lot, the sales people put us in a high pressure meeting to commit then and there --- claiming there were 2 other parties waiting for our decision and would pay more for our lots --- they claimed that that our pricing was a mistake made in error, but they would honor their mistake.

This "meeting" occurred about 48 hours before the tour ended, on a Saturday night. The tour ended on Monday afternoon. 

Further, they also suggested that if we build the home quickly we could lease back the house to SB who needed housing for their construction staff and in return they would pay a very high dollar monthly rental for the first couple of years.  Another cheesy tactic that turned out to be false. We cancelled our contract within my 72 hours so we were legally entitled to a full refund.  We got the deposit back, eventually.

Initially, we were told that they planned to sell out the project over 3 years.  Once we were back in the states they changed their tune and stated they intended to sell out within 18 months.  They continued to try to re-sell us on buying the lot, but we held our  ground and got the bank involved.

What realty Company did that?

The sales team from Sanctuary Belize that flew in from Southern California.

Yikes. Sorry you had that experience. Glad you were able to get out of it.

Wow , I'm sorry but anybody that has bought a lot at Sanctuary Belize need to look up the ISOB of the owners of SB get informed before it's too late , there is are law suits going on right now !

Hi I just want to let you know that about 300 property owners are in court as we speak , we are called the IOSB Independent Owners Sanctuary Belize
And the problem is the people that sold  these properties have many projects like Kanantik , Sanctuary Belize , just in Belize but they have more and also in Mexico it is a scam on a large scale , SB may be finished someday but not to the speed and scale that was described when we bought  so if you know anyone that has bought and Is wondering what is going on ,tell them about the IOSB it's a lifeline, if we win we will unravel all this corruption and build our project to what it was supposed to be !

The company doing all the scams is called GPA here are their projects
there are now 4 GPA projects in belize;

SB
Kanantic
Laguna Palms (www.lagunapalmsbelize.com)
and another new one, Bamboo Springs. (www.Bamboospringsbelize.com)

They are also morphing Buy Belize into Buy Paradise.

Almost there    I couldn't help myself when reading your post the last line about
changing   "Buy Belize"  to " Buy Paradise" my mind went to the Carly Simon song and i was sudenly singing    'And put up a parking lot'    Think I shocked the cat. and now it wont leave my head, the song not the cat.

We are doing our best not to put a parking lot lol , but all joking aside there are many crooked people taking honest people's money and they need to be stopped.

Thanks

Actually about 350 Sanctuary owners fighting to remove the corruption that is there now , once the corrupt board and developers are removed we can start building with right people in place , don't forget that there is many problems with the Government also and it may all be related .

Wait until they meet me lol. Seriously though, it happens at home here too,especially in the remodeling business. That is why in addition to following a lifelong dream of mine we have decided to do business in Belize. People deserve better.

AHHHH So. This is why "Paradise" is still a 3rd World country.......

Just reading through the posts and saw your comment. I've been doing a lot of research and I'm familiar with the developments that GPA is doing currently as I still get emails about their new projects as I requested information from Buy Belize a little over a year ago. 

Your info is correct, however, one correction I would make is that Kanantik Belize development and the Kanantik Reef & Jungle Resort has nothing to do with GPA.  They are completely independent with their sales from the brief discussions I've had with some of their staff. So far it looks very appealing with the progress they have and their timeline. I've had no pressure from them at all, which is refreshing and I've learned a lot about Belize and the surrounding area as well.

My wife and some friends will be visiting the Kanantik Resort after the New Year and will certainly keep everyone posted on what we see there.

Lots are very expensive.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/961 … 07062aefb2

Here is a link to a letter drafted by the IOSB president, Tom Herskowitz. The IOSB was responsible for assembling a group of disgruntled owners and spearheading this frivolous lawsuit. In this letter, he finally acknowledged the truth. Wow!!

My sincere hope is that we begin to move forward as a community and hopefully mend the broken relationships that Hershowitz and company have caused.

Several owners (including myself) have vehemently tried to explain what was really going on in our development and it's refreshing to finally have some sort of vindication.

I would stay away. I visited several years ago and have seen many unhappy people and lots of unkept promises.

This community may not have been for you, but an opinion based on what was seen and heard several years can't truly give an interested party a true and accurate depiction of today. 90% of the people living there or who have homes there, love it to include myself. It's unfortunate that the vocal minority of owners that were unsatisfied spoke the loudest.

Walk away and don't look back.  It's a trap.

Nope....Joni Mitchell.....but close enough....

I went back in 2013 and it was obvious a rip off back then. A lot of people lost money