Focusing too strongly on one short time period [is] completely useless, and overall, the Caribbean real estate investment market not only continues to look good (compared with other investments), but indeed as the recession continues, and new political and market forces dictate world events, it will look even better. In this piece, I would like to take a closer look at the fact that in times of uncertainty and stock market turmoil, investors revisit their real estate portfolios, especially in the high end, low density, politically stable parts of the globe.
 
And let's be honest, where else should one turn and invest? The banks? The stock market? No doubt, the performance of today's investment markets must have many wondering where to turn to make a profit and as a result, many are now seriously considering the opportunities opening up in the Caribbean real estate market. There are numerous factors which indicate that Caribbean real estate market (especially in the high end sector) will see a huge upwards trend for the remainder of this decade and well into the next. General contributing factors, especially to American buyers, are:

The next boom market is going to be in Caribbean real estate and it will be a lasting, sustainable boom, especially as we recover from the recession, because as smaller economies can be more dynamic than larger economies, they can grow faster and are less burdensome to analyze and manage.

 

In choosing one's offshore Caribbean real estate carefully, one stands a very good chance of surviving the economic downturn in the USA. And yes, the first buyers of "safe haven" Caribbean real estate during this recession will make the largest profits!  Caribbean real estate is not just a timely and excellent investment, but can also serve as a vehicle to withdraw from a negative situation and relocate to a more positive one.

H.G. Christie Agents at the Annual Top Producers Awards Luncheon at the Lyford Cay Club, from left to right: John Christie, Donna Jones, Neil Aberle, Rhonda Waton, and William McP Christie.

 

In appreciation of their contributions, the Top Producing sales agents for 2008: Neil Aberle of Abaco, Rhonda Waton of Eleuthera, Donna Jones of Grand Bahama, and Elbert Thompson of New Providence, were invited to an elegant awards luncheon held February 26, 2009 in their honour at the Lyford Cay Club in Nassau, Bahamas. During this event, the agents received their complete awards packages, which were comprised of useful tools and resources for career development. The pinnacle of this package was an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Conference in San Diego, California.
  

Not in attendance at the luncheon was Elbert Thompson of Nassau, shown at left.

We are proud to announce that our H.G. Christie affiliate in the Turks & Caicos, Titus De Boer of Lucayan Realty, was recently named a notary public by His Excellency The Governor, making dealings with the Turks & Caicos even more client friendly. 

 

Congratulations yet again Titus!

I received an email from one of our H.G. Christie agents, Dwayne Wallas, asking me to submit his thoughts on the state of the real estate taxes in the Bahamas to our blog.  Read on to get his take on the matter:

 

"In the past, the government's revenue generation from Stamp Tax has rivalled the income generated by the import duties on automobiles (which has duty rates from 60% to 85%)...."

To see the full text and for more information on this and other topics visit us at our blog - Horizons.