Housing

The following information is provided to give you an idea of the building methods, costs and considerations of building a home at Manatee Bay. 

In general, housing construction costs in Belize are about half what they are in the States.  Of course, costs totally depend upon what you want in your house.  You can build a simple wood frame house with basic amenities for about $25US per square foot.  Or you can have many custom details such as imported marble and fixtures, hand-made doors and windows, etc. for $100 per square foot. Most commonly, you’d expect to pay about US$50 to $60 a square foot, so a 1,500 square foot home would cost US$75,000 to $90,000 to build. 

Keep in mind that exotic tropical woods are inexpensive and commonly used here, so for a nominal cost you can have hardwood floors and custom-made mahogany cabinets that in the U.S. would be found only in the most upscale homes.

Of course you'll be outside most of the time so having wide, covered verandahs will allow you to enjoy the outdoors in comfort. Think about whether you want an air-conditioned house or one primarily cooled by the natural breezes. To take advantage of the breeze, your floor plan should, as much as possible, be one room deep.  Let the air flow through the front and back without full partitions to interrupt the flow. If you can design a plan that allows for full cross-ventilation, you should be comfortable without A/C. If desired, wall unit air conditioners can be used for certain rooms.

Imagine sitting on your verandah and looking across the ski lake to a beautiful view of the lagoon with mountains in the background...breathtaking!  


We encourage you to build your house on 8 foot stilts to take advantage of the view.  Also, an elevated house captures more cooling breeze.  The area under the house can be used for a garage, workshop or storage.

There are several Mennonite home builders in Spanish Lookout that build pre-fab cabanas and deliver them to your site. Because they must be delivered, they are limited in size to 20ft x 40ft or smaller, however if you need more room, 2 or more can be connected with verandahs (see examples in the pictures below.)

We have visited several of the pre-fab builders and were especially impressed with Linda Vista's homes.  Their craftsmanship and attention to detail were clearly evident.

Here are price lists from two builders as of October, 2006.  These prices are in Belize dollars. To convert to US dollars, divide by 2.      Linda Vista    Plett's

The following are some pictures of houses and construction methods.  Click on the thumbnail picture to display a larger version.  Click on the arrows to the left and right of the thumbnails to scroll through available pictures.

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