Ivan Syrtsov

Ivan Syrtsov is the co-founder and CEO of Darien Village, a build-to-rent residential development inside the Próspera special economic zone on Roatán, Honduras. He develops property in charter cities and emerging Free City jurisdictions.

He founded Vilnyy, the largest coliving chain in Ukraine, before this, and says it was watching governance fail at home, through instability and inefficiency alike, that set him reading about how other systems are built. He began the Próspera project in 2024. Its first phase covers 55 apartments in five buildings in Próspera’s Beta district, with ten more buildings planned in a second phase and ground-floor space set aside for a café and coworking. He describes it as a European-style short-term rental neighbourhood for remote workers and entrepreneurs who want to try Próspera before committing to it. The units are built to be rented rather than sold off one by one, which makes the development a bet on the zone attracting residents who stay, not only investors who buy.

That is the harder half of the Free Cities problem. A zone can pass good rules quickly, but somebody still has to build the housing, and the housing has to be financed before the residents are there to fill it.

Syrtsov is one of the few developers who can compare a special jurisdiction with an ordinary one from experience. Asked in 2026 what Próspera’s regulatory model changes in practice, he said a building permit that would have taken him roughly four years elsewhere took two weeks there.