Building a house in Granada Nicaragua

  

 I hope this blog give you some good information about construction and building a house in Granada Nicaragua. I'm remotely building a vacation/retiring house in Granada Nicaragua from Anchorage Alaska. I had a difficult time finding someone whom I could work with to build my house. This is why I decided to do this blog. 

Construction cost will vary tremendously depending on who you contract with or if you decide to do it without a contractor. Finding the right workers and someone who can help you and guide you through every process could be very challenging. The are wonderful people to work with in Nicaragua, but there are also a few who are trying to take advantage of you. 

I talked to a few contractors only to find out that I could not completely trust them and that their quotes were outrages for Nicaraguan standards. I said to one of them, "If that's how much it's going to cost me, I should be looking at properties in Miami for that price". 

 This is my second construction project from beginning to end in Nicaragua without needing a contractor. The first construction project was in 2007 while I was living in Granada Nicaragua. I've been doing this second one remotely from Alaska where I'm currently living. This time though I'm keeping track of every single cost of this project with the help of my mom, Xiomara Bodan, who is a retired accountant and who directed the tax department for the municipality of Granada for over 20 years. She is having so much fun tracking every penny in her multiple spreadsheets. I'll do a post on the costs of this construction project in Granada Nicaragua. 

 My brother, Romel Ortega Bodan, is the “project manager” who is helping with everything on the project. Romel is not a contractor nor he is in the construction business. He is an accountant who happens to know people in construction and knows a lot about building a house as well as buying material and saving money in Nicaragua. Building his own house gave Romel tons of experience and he is now advising me, so I don't make the same mistakes he made. Romel and my mom are the ones buying the necessary materials and contracting the transportation for it whenever necessary. Both are doing a great job and saving me tons of $$$.

 I'll be posting steps necessary to start your construction project in Granada Nicaragua. 

Today May 2, 2021, my construction project of my retiring home is 50% complete. 

First things first: Get all the documents and permits necessary before you start construction

Sep 1. Make sure the title of the property is under your name. Once the property is under your name, you can do all the updates necessary for the utilities and also request different permits before you start your construction project in Granada Nicaragua. If you won't be able to be in Nicaragua for all this process, you can leave a power of attorney to allow someone you trust to do all of this on your behalf. 

Sep 2. You will need architectural plans. You can do them yourself or you can hire someone to do them for you. I will write a separate post on what plans are really necessary in order to get the required permits. These are the plans required (complete list of requirements is at the bottom of this page): 

• Architectural designs
• Water and Wastewater
• Structural plans
• Electrical plans (already approved by fire department)

The person responsible for doing the visit to the site also required us to provide a "Hoja de calculo", which translate to a calculation sheet. This is done by a structural engineer who make calculations on how thick the columns need to be and such. I believe this was required for my project because my house in Granada Nicaragua has a second floor. At the end I paid about $200.00 (too much for Nicaraguan standards) for it and it was not even looked at or requested when the visit took place. Learned lesson!

Sep 3. You will need to provide the municipality (Mayor's office) with an estimated budget for materials and for labor. This should be provided by the builder who you will be working on your project. 

Below is the complete list of requirements by the municipality of Granada in order to receive the permit for construction:

1. Letter requesting the permit (explaining what will be built, specify how many square meters of construction, exact address) signed by the owner of the property or legal representative. 

2. Photo of the building site.

3. Copy of the registered (public) title of the property.

4. Proof that the property is up to date with taxes (from IBI office).

5. ID of the owner.

6. ID of the builder.

7. Budget of the construction project.

8. Designs/Plans:

• Architectural designs
• Water and Wastewater
• Structural designs
• Electrical designs (Already approved by the local fire department)