Editors Note
Well, hello there! Long time, no speak.
We have been swamped in this boom real estate market.
When we published our Greater Asunción Property Investment Report back in May, we had every intention of keeping you updated each month on what was happening in Paraguay’s property market and sharing with you what we were learning and experiencing.
Well, that was the plan!
The reality is that we’re working in the middle of a booming real estate market, and between helping investors plan their property portfolios, buy properties, get them rented, negotiating with developers, managing rentals and looking after our clients, we’ve been putting in some very very long hours.
The good news is that ETICO has grown, we’ve brought additional staff on board, and we finally have a little more time to share what we’ve been experiencing and learning on the ground.
And there’s certainly plenty to talk about — far too much to cover in one newsletter!
We’re putting everything we’ve learned over the past few months into an updated Greater Asunción Property Investment Report, including a special section on must-have clauses in property contracts. We hope to share it with you by the end of October.
In the meantime, here are three things we thought you’d find particularly helpful and interesting.
From construction projects running six to twelve months behind schedule, to investment opportunities offering potentially exceptional rental yields, and some valuable lessons about what you should negotiate in your property contracts.
We’ve learned a great deal over the past few months, and we think some of these insights could make a real difference to anyone currently investing in Paraguay or still considering it.
So, let’s catch up!
Nicola Grace & Alexandrine Al Hakim
In this Newsletter
When Developers Miss Deadlines |
Best Investment in Greater Asunción |
Property Contracts — What to Negotiate |
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When Property Developers Miss Deadlines
With so many residential developments under construction across Greater Asunción, we’ve been keeping a close eye on whether developers are meeting their promised delivery dates.
It’s a mixed picture. Some projects are now more than 12 months overdue, others are running six months behind schedule, while some are delivering right on time and even ahead of time. The delays can effect your overall yield if you intend to rent, or disrupt your plans if you are wanting to move in.
One thing we’ve noticed is that developers with established construction teams tend to stay on schedule. Their teams have worked together across multiple projects, know the systems and have established working relationships. Consistent employment and reliable payment also mean fewer disruptions from workers not showing up or having to recruit new teams.
Weather, of course, can still cause delays but the team becomes an important focus for you as an investor to do your due diligence on.
Our Suggestion: Before buying en pozo, find out who’s actually building your apartment (the construction company), not just who’s selling it (the developers marketing department).
Ask whether the developer is using the same construction team from previous projects, how many developments they’ve completed together and whether those projects were delivered on time.
If they’re assembling a new workforce, ask why and how they plan to manage potential labour shortages or delays.
Also ask how many other projects they are doing simultaneously or in a rollout schedule.
Where possible visit one of their completed developments and speak to owners. Did they receive their apartments when promised? Were there construction defects or unfinished works at handover? And how quickly did the developer resolve any problems?
Finally, ask to see the construction schedule. You may not get it — developers in Paraguay aren’t always accustomed to this level of questioning. So be polite and diplomatic. If they can’t provide a detailed schedule, ask what they can show you to demonstrate that the project is well organised, progressing to plan and being professionally managed. It’s not just about getting answers, but gaining confidence that the developer knows what they’re doing.
Best Investment in Greater Asunción
We’ve been telling our investors for some time that we believe Marena offers the best combination of capital appreciation and rental yield potential in Greater Asunción.
After spending a weekend on the beach at Bali in the Aqua Village, San Bernardino, we’re even more convinced. What we experienced there opened our eyes to just how much we may have underestimated the rental income potential of lagoon-style developments.
Imagine staying in a beautiful resort that feels almost empty, yet being unable to find another apartment available to rent anywhere in the development!
That’s exactly what happened to us.
It led us to take a much closer look at Marena’s potential short term rental market, the growing demand for resort-style accommodation, and why we believe Marena could outperform conventional residential developments.
We’ve put everything we’ve learned into a comprehensive new investor report, including rental yield scenarios, capital growth potential, who is going to buy all these apartments when we reach oversupply, and who is going to rent them at these high prices, Plus why we believe Marena is so well positioned for the future.
With Paraguay’s Minister of Tourism setting an ambitious target of increasing annual tourist arrivals from 2 million to 10 million, developments such as Marena could be exceptionally well positioned to benefit from growing demand for short-term holiday accommodation. If these tourism ambitions are realised, investors in resort-style properties could see significant opportunities for increased occupancy and rental income.
Not to mention that for us beach lovers, it’s just a cool place to live in landlocked Paraguay.
Could the Market’s Biggest Blind Spot Be Your Greatest Investment Opportunity?
>>> Download our full Marena Investment Report here
Property Contracts — What to Negotiate
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned working with developers, buyers and property owners is that not all property contracts are created equal. Knowing when and what to negotiate can make a significant difference.
We’re dedicating an entire new section of our updated investment report to must-have contract clauses and what investors should negotiate before signing.
For now, we want to highlight one of the most important: what happens when your developer fails to deliver on time?
We’ve heard from investors who are still waiting for their apartments more than a year after the promised delivery date.
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned negotiating en pozo contracts is that a promised completion date means very little unless your contract clearly spells out what happens when it’s missed — and gives the developer a financial incentive to finish the job.
We recommend negotiating three important protections:
- A maximum six-month grace period beyond the agreed delivery date. Developers need some flexibility, but it’s a red flag for us if a contract allows more than six months of delays without compensation or another remedy for the buyer.
There’s already talk that the coming year could bring El Niño conditions and heavier rainfall, so don’t be surprised if you start hearing a lot of “clima, clima, clima!” from developers.
And while weather-related delays can be perfectly legitimate, your investment still needs protection. A six-month delay is significant, whether it’s caused by rain or something else. Make sure your contract clearly defines when compensation begins and doesn’t allow weather-related extensions to continue indefinitely without remedy. - Monthly compensation for delays. Monthly compensation for delays. We’ve negotiated clauses providing compensation of 0.5% – 0.9% per month on the amount you’ve invested, helping offset lost rental income while you wait.
Not all contracts include this automatically, so make sure you ask for it. Some developers may not give it to you, but if you don’t ask the answer is already no. - A remedy if construction runs more than 12 months late. Ideally, you should have the right to terminate the contract and recover your investment. However, developers are understandably reluctant to agree to this outright.
A more realistic approach is to include a clause requiring both parties to enter good-faith negotiations or mediation to agree on a remedy, which could include a refund, additional compensation or a revised delivery agreement. - Don’t overlook force majeure. Developers need protection against genuinely unforeseen circumstances beyond their control, but these provisions shouldn’t become a way to extend delivery indefinitely.
Any 12-month remedy should expressly address genuine force majeure and not include general rain conditions. Make sure you have spelt out clearly what force majeure covers and what it does not.
In our next report, we’ll take a deeper dive into these important contractual protections, sharing real examples of the clauses we negotiate, what we’ve learned from discussions with developers, and the strategies that have helped us secure better terms for our clients.
Keep an eye on our Asuncion Real Estate Research WhatsApp group and your inbox for the next edition!
An Updated Greater Asunción Property Investment Report Is Coming
These are just some of the developments, observations and lessons we’ve gathered from working directly in Paraguay’s property market.
We’re bringing all of this together in an updated edition of our Greater Asunción Property Investment Report, including the latest construction progress, developer performance, contractual considerations and the investment opportunities we’re seeing across the market.
Stay tuned — there’s plenty more to share.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already read our latest Marena Investor Report, we encourage you to take a look.
Even if Marena isn’t on your investment radar, we strongly encourage you to read this report anyway. It goes well beyond the project itself to tackle some of the biggest questions facing property investors in Greater Asunción:
Who is going to buy all these new apartments?
Who will rent them at the prices developers are projecting?
And what will actually drive capital appreciation over the next 20, 30 or even 40 years?
What’s happening in Luque now and in the future?
We explore the economic, demographic and lifestyle changes reshaping the residential market, and why development is increasingly pushing beyond Asunción’s city limits into neighbouring Luque. In particular, we look at what’s happening along the Luque corridor, just across the Asunción border, and the infrastructure, investment and changing demand that could shape property values for decades to come.
>>> Download the ETICO Marena Investor Reassessment Report — October 2026
ETICO Property Managers
Independent insights from the property market in Paraguay.