real estate in Martinique

My fiance and I have decided to retire. We are interested in purchasing a 1400 square foot one bedroom, two bath condo with porch or balcony overlooking the Carribean Sea. We understand that buying property on Carribean Islands may be risky since the governments are not stable. We believe that Martinique, because of its unique connection to France may protect our investment. Could you please research if this is true or not and more importantly, we would like to make use of the web to view properties with the above charatrictics within the 300,000 price range.
Hi there, Political stability is an important factor in selecting a Caribbean property, but I suggest that you also consider the local economic climate as well as hurricanes and volcanoes - which could also affect you as property owners. Although you can get insurance for property damage, you should consider personal safety and the effect on the economy of hurricanes and volcanoes. Martinique%26#39;s Mt Pelee erupted in 1902 killing 29,000 people: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_mt_pelee.html Regarding colonial connections helping with political stability, there are other islands which also meet this criteria: %26quot;The islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and French Guyana on the mainland are so-called %26quot;départements d%26#39;outre-mer%26quot; (and thus part of France%26#39;s sovereign territory and part of the EU; France%26#39;s longest land-border is with Brazil); Anguilla, the Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands are British crown colonies; the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are dependencies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Puerto Rico is associated with the USA.%26quot; http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/en/infoservice/download/pdf/lateinamerika/karibik.pdf I have found for you some reports on the relative political stability of Caribbean islands, followed by web sites where you can browse Martinique properties for sale (all in French unfortunately), and then some links that you might find useful. %26quot;Since the process of decolonisation got underway in 1962, there have been several serious threats to the security of the small states of the Caribbean. Here, national security is defined in a limited sense to refer to a condition in which the state is protected from internal insurrection or external aggression. The most grave threats have been direct invasion, incursion, intervention or mercenary attack. Two states - Belize and Guyana - have been threatened with invasion and territorial seizure by Guatemala and Venezuela, respectively; one state - Grenada - was actually invaded by the USA. The second threat is secession, especially in multi-island states. Anguilla successfully seceded from the colony of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla (1967). There has also been strong separatist sentiment in Nevis, Barbuda and Tobago, serious enough to warrant special constitutional measures for the devolution of power. A violent rebellion broke out in the Rupununi region of Guyana (1969) with the aim of secession and with the support of Venezuela. ...The fourth threat is that of insurrection carried out by local bands of dissidents with the aim of replacing the government; such actions include coups d%26#39;état, military mutinies and revolts. Grenada was the scene of a successful coup d%26#39;état (1979); Dominica (1981), Jamaica (1980) and Trinidad and Tobago (1970 and 1990) also were threatened with conspiracies or unsuccessful attempts to overthrow their governments.%26quot; Taken from %26quot;Security and stability in small states: the Caribbean community%26#39;s achilles%26#39; heel%26quot; http://www.guyanareview.com/ppig/dag02.html %26quot;The dependent territories also attract investment by virtue of the absence of %26quot;Sovereign risk%26quot; ; and with it the fear of expropriation, sudden changes in the treatment of foreign investors, inflation, controls on capital and profit repatriation, etc.. This contributes to a high comfort level for investors and tourists, who feel that they can count on the protection of the metropolitan government should the need arise. ...With small and fragile ecosystems, these entities are highly vulnerable to the effects of the annual hurricane season, as well as to intermittent earthquakes and volcanoes (7). The economic implications of natural disasters are magnified by their dependence on tourism and/or agriculture to sustain living standards. Another aspect of vulnerability is the sensitivity of the dependent territories to decisions taken by their respective metropolitan powers. The smaller island states are also impacted by decisions taken by their large and powerful trading partners, as the dispute over access to the EU banana market so clearly demonstrates%26quot; http://www.unesco.org/most/girvan.htm %26quot;Most Caribbean countries differ from their Latin American neighbours in terms of their relatively long histories of political stability. Yet this stability could change quickly in the absence of several important changes. Despite decades of relative political calm, the economic security of the Caribbean%26#146;s population has not improved. Poverty is ever-present, and nearly half the region%26#146;s inhabitants currently live on less than one US dollar per day. ...Increasing poverty in a number of countries has become a source of considerable tension, and rising social frustrations have been directed towards political institutions in particular.%26quot; http://www.focal.ca/images/pdf/caribbean.pdf These people selected the Bahamas based on similar criteria to your own: %26quot;For several years we researched the islands of the Caribbean with an eye to relocating to a tropical location... requirements were: a stable government, a predominantly English-speaking population, and the facility for non-nationals to own property... Although not technically part of the Caribbean, the Bahamas seemed to meet most of our requirements with minimal culture shock. In particular, we liked the outer island of Eleuthera.%26quot; Excerpt from %26quot;Four reasons why we retired to the Bahamas%26quot;: http://www.escapeartist.com/international/0700_actualities.html Sites that list properties for sale in Martinique: http://www.martinique-immobilier.com/prod01.htm http://www.immoplisson.com/ http://www.vad-immobilier.com/html/index2.htm http://www.horus-immobilier.com/ http://www.zantilles.com/annonce/annonce.asp?id_annonce_categorie=1 If you need to translate the websites from French to English, I recommend these free services: http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran.cgi http://www.worldlingo.com/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html And a currency converter: http://www.xe.net/ucc/full.shtml Real Estate Agents in Martinique: http://caribbean-connection.com/martinique/realestate.html Here are some more links that you might find useful at Escape Artist: Dominica Remains an Excellent Choice for Economic Citizenship http://www.escapeartist.com/efam23/assets.html Belize%26#39;s New Residency Program http://www.escapeartist.com/efam8/Belize_Residency.html Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Living, Retiring %26amp; Investing In Belize http://www.escapeartist.com/efam28/Adapter_Kit_Belize.html List of articles ordered by country at Escape Artist http://www.escapeartist.com/expatriate/countries.htm Real Estate in the Caribbean: http://www.caribpro.com/webclients/ http://www.internationalrealestatedirectory.com/ http://www.escapeartist.com/Exotic_Real_Estate/Caribbean.html http://www.oceanfrontproperties.com/sales.html http://www.caraibinvest.com/realestate/ Search keywords used: %26quot;buying property%26quot; Caribbean ://www.google.com/search?num=30%26amp;hl=en%26amp;lr=%26amp;ie=UTF8%26amp;oe=UTF8%26amp;newwindow=1%26amp;q=%22buying+property%22+Caribbean stability Caribbean governments Dominica Martinique Haiti ://www.google.com/search?num=30%26amp;hl=en%26amp;lr=%26amp;ie=UTF8%26amp;oe=UTF8%26amp;newwindow=1%26amp;q=stability+Caribbean+governments+Dominica+Martinique+Haiti Martinique immobilier ://www.google.com/search?hl=en%26amp;ie=UTF8%26amp;oe=UTF8%26amp;q=martinique+immobilier Good luck with such a big undertaking! As always, feel free to request a clarification on any aspect of my answer. Best wishes, from robertskelton-ga