Aldea Zama condos successful investments: the good return of premium real estate

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Zama Village, an excellent vacation rental business

Zama Village, an excellent vacation rental business


Just after 8 months of the completion of Zama Village, the first condo building at Aldea Zama, the investments has proved to have hefty returns.

Zama Village was totally sold (a few units available for re-sell) by its developers, Kaua Group, and Real Zama, the second building is also almost sold (less than 5 units remaining). Real Zama, located some 200 yards away from Zama Village is a smaller building, with smaller 2 bedrooms/2 bathroom condos, selling from US$ 170.000 on average (penthouses from $250k), a 20%-25% more than the price of Zama Village. Due to the success of Zama Village and Real Zama, Kaua will start developing a third condo building, Zama Gardens, with prices again increasing other 20%, while spaces becoming smaller.

In addition to the Kaua projects (Kaua has some shareholders in common with the owners of the Aldea Zama development), there are other 2-3 buildings under construction, and some other 4-5 in the pre-sale phase.

The services and infrastructure of Aldea Zama are impecable, with miles of paved roads surrounded by jungle waiting for the construction to start.

The ownership of condos at Zama Village has also turned a good business. In addition to a 20% appreciation, owners are receiving a vacation rental income as high as 10%-12% annually (after deducting maintenance and management fees).

El Hechizo, best restaurant in Tulum

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Simple decoration, the food is what really matters

Simple decoration, the food is what really matters


El Hechizo es the best and most sophisticated restaurant in Tulum. Its chef and owner, Stefan Schober is a highly professional chef, with a long experience as chef of the Ritz Carlton hotel chain. From Austrian parents, the mexican Schober met her wife when she was in charge of the Ritz Carlton Singapore patisserie. Ying-Hui Thai Low (Hui) now is the pastry chef of El Hechizo, and the responsible of the best dessert I ever had (not having sweet teeth): Dark Chocolate Fondant Torte with Coconut IceCream and Passion Fruit Coulis.

After going through the menu, we were too tempted by what we found in the upper section, we had two appetizers and a main. The home made tagliatelli with black truffle oil was just perfect. The truffle flavor densely but finely integrated in a creamy sauce. The sea scallops with prosciutto envoltini were also great, specially the scallops, really fresh and with the right texture (the tricky part of cooking scallops).

Our pick of main was the lobster tail on potato gnocchi, another great dish. Amazingly, we ended up fighting for the perfect gnocchi instead of the lobster mini-chops.

The wine list was disappointing, just 6-7 reds, four of them Chilean. As Stefan explained (he presents and explains the menu to every table), it is really tough to have and properly maintain wines in Tulum. It is very usually to find rotten wines even at the best restaurants, because of the heat. So Stefan’s decision to stick to the very few rotating wines he knows are well preserved may seem the right one. Maybe you should bring your own grand vin (there is a good La Europea wine store at Playa del Carmen, 40 miles away) to try to match the quality of the perfect food.

El Tábano restaurant, creative menu, based on traditional mexican cuisine

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Laid back El Tábano restaurante at the Tulum beach strip

Laid back El Tábano restaurante at the Tulum beach strip


El Tábano is one of the restaurants always mentioned by travelers in Tulum. The place has a reputation of good food since 2003, one of the oldest restaurants on the beach strip. El Tábano owners, Gerardo de la Vega (better known as “PAF”) and Laura are also the creators of the Tulum Food Festival, an event happening every early December and featuring wine and food tastings, cooking workshops and special prix fixe menus at the participating restaurants (for just about US$ 50, including wine matching for every course).

The food is based on traditional mexican ingredientes and recipes, including mole, pipián and spicy hot habanero chile. Fish and see food made the base of the menu, also featuring some chicken and filled chiles. But these ancient ingredients and recipes are given a modern touch to present more creative dishes.

We tasted a fish ceviche as a starter, and we were disappointed: the “modern touch” was adding pineapple to it, and it ended tasting too sweet. No matter how much habanero chile and red onion we added to it, we had to let it go.

But the main courses were amazing. We had chile ancho (a wide red dried mildly spicy chile) filled with fish, gratinated with cheese. It was a great combination of flavors. We also had shrimp in habanero chile butter, it was also excellent, and not too spicy despite of the habanero (the chile flavor was integrated in a fine way through the butter). It was too hot to order the place’s specialty: jalapeño chile filled with pork.

The list of wine is starred by mexican labels, most of them marry well the mexican flavors of the food. There are a few spanish alternatives in case you do not want to go local (what I do not recommend, these mexican wines are worth trying).

The coffee was also excellent, but the whisky list was poor (justs JW Red Label and Dewar’s).

The service was impecable, and warm. It is a cash only restaurant.

All in all, a restaurant you must pay a visit. El Tábano is located at the beach strip, on the Boca Paila road, km 7, about 3 miles away to the right when you get to the beach road. The restaurant is on the jungle side of the road.

Fashion models, celebrities and Hollywood stars crowd Tulum

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Actor Ewan McGregor at the local supermarket in Tulum

Actor Ewan McGregor at the local supermarket in Tulum


Tulum has been increasingly becoming the hot spot for fashion models and other celebrities who want to spend a relaxed holiday away from the crowds of fans.

Tulum still offers them a somehow safe haven, where they can mingle with tourists and locals without being overwhelmed by people asking for autographs. However, considering the popularity growth of Tulum, and the amount of celebrities hitting its beach, most likely in the coming years there will be more paparazzi and autograph hunters.

Everything probably started with Nicolás Maleville, an ex Burberry fashion model who built his beach house at Tulum. He invited colleagues like Giselle Bundchen and Kate Moss to his nicely built stone and wooden house on the beach road to Boca Paila. Eventually, his beach house became the small boutique hotel Coqui Coqui.

Daria Werbowy, Kate Bosworth, James Rousseau, Rene Zellweger, Sienna Miller and Amy Sacco are amongst the celebrities who have stayed at Tulum’s Coqui Coqui.

Last week (December 2012 holidays) Demi Moore was seen around partying in different places after she broke with Ashton Kutcher. She stayed at the “bikini bootcamp” of the Amansala hotel (a frequent getaway spot for NYC models), but visited as many places and parties as she could (she had dinner at Posada Margherita and El Tábano, 50% percent of tourists in town claiming they had either danced or talked to Demi). Also, Moulin Rouge star Ewan McGregor was in town, with a lower profile, he spent more time at the supermarket (picture) than at parties (he stayed at a private house at the Sian Ka’an reserve).

Aldea Zama (Tulum Mexico) is progressing very fast, new condo buildings and commercial area ready

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In the last year the works at Aldea Zama Tulum have increased its pace and the changes are radical. The first condo building, Zama Village (developed by Kaua Contructores) was finished and delivered in time last May.

After the fast sale of the 34 condos, Kaua started building Real Zama, Zama Village’s smaller brother, just 200 yards away from the first project. Local realtors indicate Real Zama is also selling fast even though prices are some 20%-30% higher than the pre-sale prices of Zama Village. With very few high quality condo options, and the success story of Zama Village the appreciation potential is high. Real Zama has 2-bed 2-bath condos starting at US$ 170.000 (it also has 2 3-bed penthouses).

A third condo building project is under way: Prana, around the corner from Real Zama. Prana boasts 42 condos, starting at US$ 160.000. They are all 2-bed 2-bath units, with the exception of 4 3-bed penthouse condos.

All the common areas of Aldea Zama and the infrastructure is also developing very fast. The first commercial area was officially inaugurated and owners are expected to build the first stores before the end of the year. The architecture of the commercial area is really unique, with a pedestrian central street, lots of trees and everything made of low visual impact materials, perfectly integrated with the landscape. The internal roads are impecable, and they have also built a bicycle pathway leading to the beach. Bicycle is the tourist’s favorite mean of transport in Tulum, and something that makes Tulum a very different place from Playa del Carmen or Cancún.