Live in Barbados

Do you have anything to say about Jack Fagan’s claims below?

Prices for apartments and villas start at over €1m in hotspot where the property market is still booming, writes JACK FAGAN

BARBADOS IS hopping right now. Even though sales of holiday homes have slumped on most Caribbean islands, Barbados appears to be bucking the trend with a high level of inquiries and a significant pickup in sales as the island is once again packed for the peak holiday season.

London estate agent Knight Frank draws an analogy between the property market in Barbados and that in London, pointing out that in a slowdown, prime locations in London hold their values better and recover faster.

via Barbados – A-list island bucks trend with busy sales – The Irish Times – Thu, Jan 21, 2010.

Barbados still up there at the top……

The Caribbean, the playground of the rich and famous, has been getting more affordable. The depreciation of the US dollar against major currencies such as the British pound and the euro, has made Caribbean properties more attractive.

More affordable… but still not cheap! Property prices in more popular and developed islands can easily reach over one million US dollars for a house and lot near the beach.

In its latest survey of Caribbean property prices (March 2008), the Global Property Guide finds that in Bermuda, the average price of a three bedroom house and lot is around US$1.5 million.

In Grand Bahama, Bahamas, a similar property costs around US$1.4 million, according to Global Property Guide figures.

Property prices in highly-developed areas such as Bermuda and Bahamas exceed US$7,000 per sq. m.

Coastal properties in Barbados are also expensive, at around US$6,700 per sq. m. In the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the US Virgin Islands (USVI), real estate prices are around US$5,000 per sq. m. Sint Maarten also has expensive properties at around US$5,300 per sq. m.

See full article here.

I have generated this report, which is actually just a list of facts about each of the listed Caribbean islands, just something interesting for everyone.

Antigua is an island but this is also a word, do you what this means? Antigua is a Spanish word and means Ancient, it received its name thanks to Columbus, who named it after a church in Santa Maria!

Do you know what the National Flower of Barbados is? This flower was thought to only grow on Barbados, and it is called the “Pride of Barbados” it is a form of Hibiscus flower.

St Lucia now known as the luxury island of the Caribbean, used to be a land of war and battle. The British and the French went to war over this island at least 14 times, earning it its name “Helen of the West Indies”.

How many people do you think live on Jamaica, just a rough guess, and I bet that you get it completely wrong. There are many more people living here than you think i bet? I doubt that you were very close, the number you are trying to find is somewhere in the region of 3 million!

Cuba, the state stuck in the 60’s, well I want to shed something more interesting on this place for you. Bearing in mind the regime and all the restrictions set on this island, it is by far the most culturally diverse of all the Caribbean islands!

Grenada is a sovereign state, and has taken advantage of its natural beauty as much as possible to exploit tourism heavily. However Grenada has another name like Zanzibar, it is known as the Spice isle. This island produces much of the spice in the whole of the Caribbean, including items like Nutmeg from mace.

Finally we have Bermuda, well without stating the obvious superstitious stuff about this place, let’s find out something else. Bermuda may be referred to as the singular, but it is in fact made up of more than 130 smaller islands, the mainland is usually called Bermuda.

Worldwide Property Group reports that for the third month in a row figures show an increase in confidence amongst property investors.

Their survey, conducted monthly, states 88% of November respondents say now is a good time to invest in UK property, compared to 87% and 85% for October and September respectively. Further results show an increased percentage of people expect house price valuations to go up by 5% over the coming year.

The most interesting statistic for BPL readers is that although the percentage of people considering an overseas property purchase has decreased, the Caribbean is now the most popular location!

Despite a persistent economic downturn with no clear end in sight, luxury hotels are cropping up on islands big and small. The suites are lavish, the spas are pampering, and as for infinity pools, there seems to be no end to them.

With guarded optimism in the air, airlines are adding flights to destinations across the Caribbean, and entrepreneurs and tourism boards are rolling out new activities like kite-boarding festivals and historical zip-lining tours.

But will this new outlook stand up to the continuing effects of the downturn, which caused a loss of about a quarter-million American tourists for the region last year?

via Something New Under the Caribbean Sun.

As of November 1st tickets went on sale in the Caribbean region for next years 20 20 World Cup.

See link for further information: http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/

The credit crunch has had a strange and wonderful effect on Caribbean property markets; it has made them affordable.

According to an article in the Telegraph October 24th demand for Caribbean property has been increasing since the spring, because a number of factors have converged to make Caribbean property more affordable than at any time in the last decade.

Briefly the factors were:

* Caribbean property prices have fallen between 15 and 20% since the peak in 2007.
* Developers are removing non-essential luxuries like moorings and spas to make properties even more affordable.
* And Caribbean property is priced in US Dollars for the most part, giving British buyers a further advantage in that the Pound is currently worth about 30c more than it was at the start of the year.

The rising demand is evident in the fact that you can read such a positive article in the Telegraph. For the last year or so, when there has been very little appetite for overseas property from the British public, there has been very little coverage in the UK press. Now that the appetite is returning we can see positive press coverage of overseas property markets increasing also.

See full article…

I’m not sure how accurate HomesOverseas.co.uk’s data is, but we admire and encourage the positivity about Barbados. Also, Holidaylettings.co.uk cite Bottom Bay as one of their most popular areas, I wonder if that is the same experience for on-island agents? We see some interest in our St. Philip category, but not as much as other areas.

Properties in Barbados, where it is widely claimed that values have never fallen, is the most popular destination with property investors and holidaymakers buying homes and visiting the Caribbean, according to fresh research.

The data comes from the number of Caribbean holiday homes currently advertised on Holidaylettings.co.uk, which has significantly more properties in Barbados compared to the other Caribbean islands, as a consequence of the island’s popularity.

via Property in Barbados remains most popular in Caribbean.

What are your thoughts?

Things are looking up!

There’s plenty of talk of green shoots in overseas property investment, but house price indices are probably the only true indicators of what is really happening in the markets. Indices recently released by Knight Frank and The Economist appear to show that property investment abroad is indeed taking a turn for the better.

The Knight Frank Global House Price Index for Q2 this year opens with the affirmation that ‘global housing markets show signs of tentative recovery’. The Economist titles its index, ‘House prices are creeping up again’. However, in spite of their upbeat beginnings, both indices are cautious about announcing definitive recovery.

The Knight Frank Q2 report finds that property investment in almost half the locations in the Index is positive. House prices rose in 15 countries during the April to June quarter. Further good news comes from the fact that there were no falls in house prices of over 10% anywhere. (Several countries – headed by Dubai’s spectacular tumble of 41% – saw double-figure decreases during Q1.)

See full article here.

A MUST SEE!