Land Scouting for Eco Village Building: Starting Out Right
Since we have written our business plan for a Guatemalan Eco Village we have had the great honor to create several other business plans for conscious communities, regenerative organizers and green action initiators around the world. Since our ground operation in Guatemala alsohas picked up speed and we have acquired more land ourselves at the Atitlan lake, a lot of learnings have come through which we as BrainHive Green Business Planning want to share with the impact community here on the Atitlan Alliance blog.
The list of potential errors when buying land is long and intrinsic, even more so when trying to build a “closed circuit” impact community hub. There is nothing worse than noticing a year or two in that you have put your money into the wrong corner of the world or the wrong patch in the right corner. New challenges such as climate change dynamics and travel/tourism industry shakeups alongside a growing number of general social and political problems in the world have rudely awakened one or the other land and business owner that they have planned for the wrong type of future to manifest. Since we here at BrainHive are for the last 13 years all about business planning, it is only a logical step that BrainHive will grow to be one of the best go-to consultancies for all types of planning work, including real estate development planning for impact and regenerative purposes.
Because we have built our virtual reality studio / laboratory in Panajachel it’s been our pleasure to sell the odd visualization of a cafe interior or the mapping of some farmland for organic cacao cultivation in the north of Guatemala. There is a lot more intelligence though that wants to be shared in these regards than the regular means and mediums will allow and so it is with great joy and curiosity for reception that I present to you our most important learnings drawn together from hundreds of conversations had in the sphere and a lot of personal insight added in for value and entertainment.
K.O. Criteria #1 for Eco Village Land: Naturally Disaster Proof
Us here at the Atitlan lake have a long list of different topographical benefits (cloud forest volcanic lake at ~1.800m above sea) but also hazards specifically in the landslides, earthquakes and tropical storm department and there is a very specific set of criteria that we apply to a potential piece of land becoming available for purchase. That is because of our location in the world and the study of the history and future in the context of looking out for potentially devastating external impact events. Just like a company’s stock value can fall to zero when the company defaults and goes bankrupt, wiping out investment portfolios as the worst case, there is something similar in the case of real estate investment. Unfortunately though such a type of default (apart from land fraud, deportation or squat/annex) this can destroy not only your construction investments but it could potentially cost the lives of you or your family / residents. So the first thing when looking at a piece of land you want to ask yourself: is it safe?
What used to be safe for example in the northern hemisphere could potentially not turn out safe at all when certain freak effects start kicking in such as the gulf stream dropping off, large, repeated fires creating desertification due to climate change, invasive species or new types of floodings because of rising sea levels, torrential seasonal rains and hurricanes. The socioeconomic dynamics, spiritual polarization and restrictions from political and justice malpractice, crippling taxation or narco/extremist activity; all of these factors have shown in the last couple of years to become more dire and add in volatility in most parts of the world. This gives us even more aspects to consider when we choose our highest ground to settle down our most laborious creations.
There is so much more to talk about in this category of assessment alone that we must leave it at that and specifically remind ourselves that we should also look at which civilizations have enjoyed climatic and geostable environments for long enough to create uninterrupted human legacies running for six to eight thousand years straight. We will find that these high cultures have followed a certain pattern of settlement to create their artifact cities with sometimes seven digit numbers of inhabitants. If we just map out how our ancestors have dealt with the smaller and greater bucking and jumping of cycles and greater cosmic events we may yet be able to identify the most resilient and highest grounds where we can rest assured that mother nature will allow us to continue on for millennia.
Finding Eco Village Land: Size, Price & Quality
Another thing that is sad to witness is when the boundaries of the land do not permit to really fulfill the original purpose and you notice that you have to plan for a much smaller and contained operation, possibly having to rub shoulders with neighbors that do not share your value systems and can create restrictive conditions that can hurt the recreational qualities of a potential impact business that is being run out of the Eco Village (sound, smoke, chemicals use, radiation, contamination etc.). It is so very important to do a lot of scouting and to find the best land for your budget which is why a local price scout is often vital because what we notice is that the most resilient land from the sheer natural resilience perspective can often be found in emerging countries or developing countries where the legal frameworks and the measures of creating information symmetry in the real estate market are not at their most functional. We are struggling to really make sure that all papers are in order and there are no hidden risks or zoning problems, water title difficulties or macro infrastructure developments that could hurt the value of our investment or even knock us out in terms of our original development planning. Land quality has many different levels, and we need to get all of them right, even the hidden ones.
- quality of the property title before the courts
- quality of the land’s soil,
- quality of the communities around you
- quality of the immediate neighbors
- quality of the data signals that you can get
- quality of the water that comes out of your tubes
- … (list continues)
I invite you to think of these dimensions of quality and really try to zero in on what the land can offer, the quality of the air, the quality of the existing trees, possibly natural water bodies. There is so much to keep in mind and we are talking of planning Horizons of 10 to 30 years or even generations. Look at the map and think of how settlements eventually grow and connect, think of where people find employment or find academic qualification, where people escape to for the weekends or how the overarching demography of the country is currently creating tidal or ebbing Dynamics in the sheer quantity of human beings distributed in a given area.
When it comes to the pricing of the land there are again a lot of factors that can lead to beneficial and disadvantageous conditions. Right now what we are observing in almost any desirable part of the world is a rise of real estate prices and especially within the estimated green belt (the most resilient land at a 100 to 150 year time horizon) we are observing price hikes of 10 to 15% p.a. and sometimes more. So it really is important to map out according to the general disaster resilience parameters the land that is still undervalued, of which we find most between Mexico and Colombia and in parts of Africa, especially Western Central Africa. In all these places it is so very important to batch together in communities and to identify places which are far enough from the cities and yet close enough to the roads to allow for the ideal investment that has no immediate correlation with the mounting systemic global and National risks.
There are real estate agents and expat groups, there are trustworthy locals and Chambers of Commerce of developing countries and a host of other business helpers and connectors that fulfill functions in the area of scouting, negotiations, auditing papers and assuring the transfer of funds as well as auxiliary services in the area of connecting the land to public services and segwaying into planning and construction works. the existing networks are strong in most of the regions which are of heightened interest for typical ecovillage designers and so as the sphere clumps together further and further we will hopefully see the prices converge more and more to the real fundamental value of a given piece of land and it will be much easier to distribute and develop each piece in the way of the greater Eco Village campus, which is the higher vision.
Every new investment placed around the original investments made leverages the asset value of the investment, thereby creating multiplier value that allows us to grow and consolidate at the same time. Buying together, pooling resources and deciding to develop integrated visions will always lead to real estate Investments being more worthwhile and accelerating the wealth and abundance creation between groups of intentional living enthusiasts. Therefore mostly everything should be at a really good price because the value of land really is priceless as is the feeling of freedom as you stand and create following a hivemind plan of united visions for a more beautiful coexistence.
K.O. Criteria 3: construction/planting difficulty
While the purchase price of the land is often only a tiny fraction of the development cost depending on what the land is to be used for, it is something that developers of ecovillages sometimes underestimate. I have talked to a lot of permaculture and organic construction designers and even if you build with the most lightweight and compact tools and materials, it can still add 25 to 50% to the regular efforts required to build and maintain spaces that are far-off roads and public utility grid work and it is indeed for very specific purposes that one should look at cheap land in very undeveloped places and it is so very important to budget for the additional efforts. At BrainHive we always feel that the pioneer should get special credit, well-wishing to those that venture deep into the blue ocean but to organically and intelligently create the mycelium of ecovillages spread across the most resilient regions of the world we also encourage the founders to build on top of each other, creating chains and nets and to go in as groups and teams assembled by complementary strengths. In that same regard we should always try and latch onto the existing streams of transportation and pipelines because it makes life a lot more efficient and easier.
If the land is very inclined and if it is very rocky you will find it more difficult to dig and to create plain space and you will either have to be very creative or you will have to invest into the development to make the terracing and go through possible additional labor to dig out septic tanks or secure the first material drop-offs. All of these factors which are part of what you are looking at when you first survey the land will affect the building budgets. Sometimes you can piggyback on the knowledge of how the government is planning to evolve a certain area of the country and then you can make land purchases 3 to 5 years before the anticipated connections are created. This will often slash many percent off your construction budgets because if you have grid electricity or if you can bring in big trucks and machines the building is a whole different process.
Our land is often in areas where manual labor is not that expensive. But if you’re trying to be professional then it is very important that you have the access and it will sometimes come with needing to reach out to neighbors or even create right of way certificates (notary) to make sure that you have and keep access. And then it is of course always wise to purchase land that already contains its own building material which you can use to more efficiently produce the first structures that you need for the land to be activated.
The time until activation is crucial to know. How soon can the real estate investment start yielding fruits and create cash flow for you? As soon as the environment can validate your Eco Village and fill it with life, incubate the different impact businesses that are usually run out from these places, the sooner you can start getting more funding and telling the story. The brand will grow in value, the offerings will fill up faster and faster and eventually you can leave the space in the hands of the facilitators, volunteers and managers and go and develop your next project. Some of the land that you will find will take longer than other pieces to develop. And it depends on your own mood and hunger if you want a piece that you can exit from sooner or if it is maybe your life’s labor that will be expressed through the choice of the land.
In that case maybe you are not looking for a return on investment or even to create maybe that much positive external impact in the world but rather you’re looking to have a really sacred experience and you are developing a monument. In this case all the rules here given on the land development are warped and you are looking to get for example a cabin deep in the woods all by yourself or something of an ivory tower up on a hill and these constructions are for the legacy and the exemplification of the builder/designer. Part of the additional effort needed to create such artifacts are integrated into the energy as a sacrifice to honor a special spot in the world. I wanted to add this last part to not create the impression that Eco Village design always should be around efficiency, productivity and scaling effects but rather should also be a form of devotional practice and bring the human experience to sometimes far away places that simply merit the worship in the form of manifesting a temple space in that exact location.
K.O. Criteria 4: Community
If you are trying to build a monastery Eco Village there are a different set of things to keep in mind. Here in this article we are focusing also on the idea of bringing together communities and forming a compass that in and of itself creates the gravity to attract a lot more people than just one center could do by itself. There is so much that a community is of value and we can see it here at the Lake Atitlan especially in San Marcos la Laguna. Here probably around 300 impact pop up and spiritual as well as social and green entrepreneurs and a huge amount of tourists and followers have created for about 20-30 yrs. a vibrant mini Bali, the only one of its kind in all of Central America, only perhaps rivaled by hot spots in Costa Rica and at Lake Ometepe in Nicaragua.
The sheer amount of value that the co-creation produces stands in absolutely no relationship to any other hotspot of output anywhere in Guatemala having led to visible municipal tax surplus so that San Marcos is the only town on the entire Lake and probably in all of Guatemala of its size that can boast an amphitheater, a top of the line basketball court and an entire stadium alongside two beautiful nature reserves and a plethora of NGOs and local initiatives that assure the welfare of the roughly 8,000 indigenous that share the valley with them and that are not immediately profiting in the form of top-notch employment opportunities or direct ownership of businesses serving the expat community.
Superabundance phenomena such as San Marcos prove that it makes sense to plan and walk together and to try and get efficiency out of the common interest of the collective good intentions and that is not possible when you are too far off the bat. What we want to do is to settle in one spot together and create the framework of a functioning microcosmic economy.
We are perhaps getting closer to the moment of forming exploration and development caravans where let’s say 150 to 300 people get together and they say hey let’s build a 10,000 acre community in some far-flung place and get the local administration to build the roads and power lines. One of the only groups that have ever been able to do this in modern times is around Hinduism and other cults but we should yet want to see the purest parts of the impact, permaculture and adjacent spheres to come together, really map out large chunks of available and resilient land and plan something like Auroraville. What we want to do is look at the communal assets that a given location has in store for you when choosing your land because there’s nothing as valuable – and nothing potentially as unsafe or otherwise hazardous, troublesome – as the larger community around your Eco Village or co-housing project.
K.O. Criteria 6: Views & Energies
I used to do a funny thing with my nose whenever a fellow digital nomad talked to me about some spectacular view they would have from their Airbnb or hostel and I would always try and save a buck and go to the cheapest place for my money. It is only recently that I have learned about organic building and the ayurvedic vastu architecture / feng shui of constructing spaces that have temple qualities. I have sensitized my perception of energy that is healthy and clear since I have been able to adjust these principles to my own workspaces, resting place and places of food preparation, as well as body energy practices, all different platforms as well as the building of sacred fireplaces, plunge pools and temascales.
It is absolutely incredible what can be achieved through simply following the rules around energy. Many of the people who select the most beautiful altar land do so by going in barefoot, doing certain sets of energetic analysis work and then listening into themselves and trying to hear what the land itself wants for itself. I have seen them build communities within months afterwards and never a natural disaster strikes into their mids, they live in health and financial abundance and there is never a quarrel or conflict reported from their sides.
4 years in living in one of the most beautiful places in the world and spending a lot of time with some of the most far-traveled natural medicine alchemists and holistics experts of the world I have given up my inner resistance to talk about what actually is meant by the “energy of the land”. It spreads as far as feeling into how much light and how much grounding, how much vulnerability or jaggedness is in a piece of land, whether people have fought and died there, have gone through motions of bliss and despair, if someone’s childhood memories are connected with this land or even the tradition of an entire culture (in Guatemala it’s actually possible to have ownership or rather stewardship of actual artifact land) and sometimes land can in fact be inhabited by a special kind of spirit that for example will influence or amplify the way that potential residents will experience their emotions. All of this decides whether a space should be used for residential purposes, practice, industrious exploits, agriculture, healing, education or utilities / logistics, security or decontamination / treatment and so on.
It is possible to mistreat the land in such a way that either the actual energies ruling the land or the people living around it will invite problems to the steward(s) in a million different ways and that can thwart the vision of an Eco Village forming there. So it is so very important that the way the land is opened, operated on and brought into a higher function is in alignment with the spoken and unspoken symbols present inside it and around its vicinity.
Creating the most spectacular visual design has become ultra important to lend superpowered radiance to the messages produced through the Eco Village movement. Today a space has to be both beautiful and inspiring and it cannot just be naked and functional anymore. Especially where residents are expected to accept a simpler style of life such as the dry composting toilets or the recycling works, painting right designs over for example simple furniture will create the ability to live a life in beauty. In many Eco villages around the world there are special corners that are available for the residents to add in layers of love over the years and to together praise the creation thus far achieved.
Bringing in the spirit of purpose and togetherness in the intentional is a special unique selling proposition that is imbued in the different brands of co-living manifestations in the landscape. Whenever choosing a piece of land, keep in mind what will be the photographic vectors and as soon as possible heed the different nodes, veins and heart pieces of the land and make sure that all the construction is done in such a way that you do not have to deconstruct or undo any of the foundational work. Look out for the different gestures and omens that come up during the construction (listen to the right indigenous workers) because developing sacred land is a sacred work and whatever the serendipity and the coincidence that express the will of spirit. Whatever gesture given to you in that regard should be made part of the hard instructions, the manual that the land reveals to its true owner, as to how it wants to be made into an instrument or rather left alone because it is already serving a higher purpose and our coming towards it is an intrusion and will be met with resistance.
Conclusion: Ideal Eco Village Land is Special and Arduous to Find
From all the different impact real estate development types, finding an ideal patch of land for an ecovillage is perhaps the one requiring the most careful considerations. Not only the typical scale in terms of size and number of structures and inhabitants, also the manifold requirements for logistics, utilities and amenities for business incubation indicate the high level of intricacy confronting the ecovillage designer. However, the desire to create conscious communities is very present in the sphere and there are many smart and hard-working people involved. Really all it takes is the organizational aspects to function well and that the ones who know how to lead and gather can meet the ones that know how to fund and legalize and then that the ones that love to live in such communities and build them to become knowledgeable around how to join the groups of stakeholders that are moving around in their respective fields of interest.
As the world changes in faster and more erratic ways Eco villages become resilience communities slowly developing off-grid capacities and self sustainability. They will become much like the Kibbutz communities, self-standing, semi-autonomous and hotspots of conscious impact business activity and they will attract the kindest and brightest in the same Spirit. This process is accelerated by the evolution of the remote work movement as much as the metamorphosis of the world in the wake of the late health crisis of 2020. It will be the case that the new migrations that we will witness will also cause new investment incentives and their united effort will make bigger and more complex projects possible.
As we here at BrainHive continue to develop business planning models that join the collective intelligence of the impact sphere and other movers and shakers in the adjacent movements, we will more and more often come across land purchase and real estate development challenges because this is the original currency, the land itself. To make sure that every piece of currency going towards the pooling of our greater resource body can give the maximum yield to founders that approach BrainHive, it will continue to remain a topic of exploration for us that contains even more excitement as the relevance of the term resilience will grow in the perception of society, and we encourage the readers to stay tuned for more beautiful publications like this one to go live on our blog.
