5 March 2019
Although some islands continue to feel the impact of Hurricane Irma, the Caribbean region as a whole is recovering well from 2017’s devastation. A sizeable number of the Caribbean islands were unaffected - including Barbados, Mustique, Grenada and St Lucia. - but the knock-on effect caused real estate sales to fall in Mustique and The Bahamas. British, US and Scandinavian buyers remain the most active, according to Edward de Mallet Morgan, head of Knight Frank’s Caribbean desk. Sales in St Barts are strengthening with significant investment earmarked to renovate some of the island’s landmark hotels. In Barbados, property prices have consolidated since the new Government’s radical economic policy was introduced in 2018. Investor buyers, who purchase in Mustique to rent out their villas, are primarily from Europe and the US. The Bahamas, still hugely popular with buyers from North America, continues to generate some of the largest sales volumes in the Caribbean. The Forbes Real Estate Council has tipped waterfront properties in the Bahamas as an “opportunity that will grow” for 2019. Waterfront villas are selling for ten cents on the dollar compared to the Florida market, which is only a 20-minute flight away for Nassau.
