Real Estate Vilcabamba - Quintas for sale
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A "Quinta" in Ecuador is a block of land usually in a rural area and large
enough to build a house and have gardens, an orchard, grazing areas for animals.
A typical size for a quinta would be around 1 hectare (1 hectare = 2.5 acres).
Larger blocks of land such as the Cutanpamba property itself are called "Fincas"
The word "lote" (translation of the English word "lot") is used
for a smaller piece of land such as the like in an urban subdivision.
We will use the word "quinta" or "parcel" ("parcela"
in Spanish) from now on and not the word "lot".
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17 quintas in total are available on the
property. The number of parcels is intentionally limited to give homeowners great
privacy and preserve the natural beauty of the environment. The sizes of the quintas
vary between 1 acre and 4 acres (1/2 ha to 1.7 ha) approximately.
The remaining land will remain unsold, undeveloped and protected by land covenants
(see HOA Guidelines)
to retain the natural character of the surroundings. We will refer to this land
as "the common land" while the
quintas for sale are referred to as "the private
land" We are in the process of creating the legal entity (a
homeowner association) that will own and control the common land
and in which each owner of a quinta will have shares and voting rights.
To further preserve the natural beauty, we encourage features such as living fences
(it is easy to do here using Yucca trees for example). Grazing animals such as donkeys
and horses can move freely on the common land between properties which is what they
have been doing for years. The common land has many attractive features: forests,
walking trails, springs, large mountaintop grazing areas, views.... for every homewoner
to enjoy.
Prices vary between USD 25,000 and USD 100,000. Each owner receives a registered
deed (escritura) and owns the private land but at the same time each owner has the
enjoyment of the remaining 60 hectares. Our aim is to reduce interferences between
the private properties to a minimum. This is achieved in different ways:
- by spreading the quintas out over the usable space on the 70 hectare property
- by having buffer zones of common land between the quintas so that most lots do not
have a boundary with any other lot.
- by restricting the location of the building site on some of the quintas
- by taking advantage of the natural features to hide one building site from another.
The property has many forests, ridges and gullies and no artificial way of preserving
privacy (walls, fences) is necessary on any of the quintas.
Another aim is to facilitate and encourage the use of the common land by making
sure that the existing trails do not cross private land. In the future these trails
will be maintained and marked for easy access. For example, there is an easy walking
trail starting from the road leading to a spring and then carrying on all the way
to the western boundary of the property.
The services will include a quality unsealed private road all the way from the river
to the top, water (the best water on earth) and power (reasonable use according
to some guidelines to be published, e.g. not for heating or electric stoves or other
high energy electric equipment). We will look into the feasibility of hydro electricity.
We are also very interested in alternative ideas with regards to electricity. Fast
Internet will be available at a cost.
The driveway as well as all other shared resources will be under the control of
the homeowner association.
Note that this is not a “community”.
The families can interact as much or as little as they decide, we have no involvement
in people's lives except in setting some basic rules as far as using the private
and public space (e.g. no motor racing, no hunting on the property, no further subdivision
of the private land, a height restriction on some building spaces, some rules about
cutting down trees or taking rocks from the river ...). It seems that the very nature
of the property and project attracts likeminded people who will naturally get along
and desire these rules to be in place. We visualise this to become a great nurturing
place and a development (with a small "d") to be proud of in the middle
of Ecuadorian families established in San Pedro/Sacapo.
At the time of this writing (June 2010) we have sold 5 quintas and a 6th one is
under contract. They are involved at a high level in holistic health and spirituality.
However, the prices of the lots vary in order to appeal to a wide audience and allow
people of all walks of life (expats as much as Ecuadorians) to acquire a piece of
this paradise.
In contrast to the larger developments in the area, this is not a gated property
with security guards and targeted at wealthy individuals. Having said that, to access
the property it is necessary to cross the Uchima river using a gated private bridge.
The river offers a natural deterrent against intruders.
We intend to keep the development of good quality but minimalistic and leave as
much of the natural surroundings as possible untouched. We also strive at providing
a place for the families to blend in with the wonderful local communities of San
Pedro and Sacapo.
Let's now look at the subdivision map and each quinta in more details.