No end in sight for Cayman’s property boom
Photo courtesy of Charterland
(CNS): The steady rise in property prices on Grand Cayman continued its trajectory last year, with a significant jump in the sale price of Seven Mile Beach condos, which had a 35% increase over the average value of similar sales in 2017, according to the current Cayman Property Review by chartered surveyors, Charterland. There was good news, too, for owners of two-bedroom townhouses in the south George Town area, where prices rose 21% over 2017, up from just over CI$200,000 to just under CI$250,000. According to Charterland partner Simon Watson, the real estate boom is particular to the Cayman Islands in the region.
“Generally, nowhere else in the Caribbean has experienced increases in average property values that we are experiencing in the Cayman Islands,” Watson told CNS. “The buoyant local economy is of course helping, but the big increases can be attributed to a healthy US economy.”
Noting the huge impact the US economy has on the health of the Cayman property market, he said, “This is most readily seen in the Seven Mile Beach condominium market, a large percentage of which are purchased by overseas buyers, but also in the more local market due the Cayman economy generally doing well when the US does.”
Land and condominiums in particular saw large increases in average value in 2018, though increases were less for single family homes and for inland properties east of Grand Harbour, Watson noted.
The Property Review found that the total value of the new construction projects approved in 2018 was down 54% on the total value of projects in 2017, from CI$727 million to CI$333 million, though the decrease for applications in the residential sector was down far less (15%).
Breaking this down in response to CNS questions, Watson said that 39% of all residential applications in terms of value were for new apartment developments, 13% were for new single family dwellings, while the remainder can be attributed to additions and alterations to existing buildings.
“Unlike the building boom after Hurricane Ivan in 2005/6, which saw an oversupply of 2-bed townhouses, the new developments are generally well spread across property types and sales prices,” he said.
Last November, the Legislative Assembly passed amendments to the Stamp Duty Law to close a loophole, which will kick in at the end of 2019. Developers use this loophole to help buyers dodge paying duty on buildings and only pay stamp duty on the land on which they develop.
Commenting on this, Watson said, “I think that the new, mid-range condominium market may be adversely affected by the end of the stamp duty assessment on land only for new condominium purchases at the start of next year. This loophole was to be closed in December 2018 but was deferred for a further year after lobbying from condominium developers.”
But generally, is there any sign that the boom will bust? “This is the million dollar question and one which is very much on everyone’s minds. We have now exceeded all previous records in terms of average values and the total value of property transfers in one year and so are in uncharted territory,” he said.
“In my opinion demand is likely to continue in the short- to medium-term, at least, with supply still lagging behind. The main risk to this being a slowdown in the global and, in particular, US economies, to which we would be extremely vulnerable, as we saw following the economic downturn in late 2008,” Watson added.
Category: Business, Construction, Real Estate
100 000 population is the golden number.
Oh it’s gonna be golden alright !
It’s gonna be Hell alright. Get an immediate headache just thinking about the future traffic gridlock.
Lol, 40 years onward I hope caymanians aren’t still buying this. Property boom for who to benefit ? People keep Your land and stop funding lavish lifestyles through undervalued sales and valuations, and outrageous commissions !
Just wait until valuations start taking into account the rising seas and global warning. Already started in the Keys and South Florida and in about 10 years time we are going to have a major correction in the Grand Cayman real estate market.
Amazing how real estate people here never talk about the rising seas here while so many people in American coastal areas are becoming very concerned.
where are the seas rising? the world is a complex system. You cannot just take it’s ‘ temperature’in Florida and assume it is happening everywhere.
So right….why would anyone live here? I would sell sea front reduced!!
50 percent off sea front! Wake up! We all are gonna be swamp land in ten years….Ocasio Cortez says so! Give the self righteous socialist party all your money and they will save the world from the sea rising, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes! Snake oil for a buck!
We’d like the RCIPS to start immediately put down their phones and start ticketing the speeding dangerously overloaded dump trucks blasting down the gears at every traffic circle using their illegal engine compression Jacob brakes. There are fleets of dump trucks at regular predictable intervals every day. You can set your watch to them. The public have been complaining about these inconsiderates for years – despite the merit of these concerns proving correct with life-endangering flippings and regular careening roadway spills, the RCIPS seem to be indifferent, almost as though they are under higher instructions to let this continue uncontested in the name of “progress”. Do your job. Pretty please with sugar on top.
Say what you want to about President Trump, but his tax and economic policies have resulted in more expatriates, like me, investing here in the Cayman Islands. A lot more things are happening now – coincidence . . . maybe, but always seems like a Republican President is good for the Cayman Islands – hopefully DJT will get reelected in 2020 and our economy down here will continue to grow.
As Mr. Watson rightfully pointed out, we basically go with how the US economy goes.
MAGA – Trump Supporter on Little Cayman
Yea, really good for foreign investors and foreign developers and foreign real estate agents, but Caymanians are now priced out of the market. Young Caymanians can no longer afford land or a first home and the beautiful Cayman Islands are turning into Miami. You and Trump and the idiots in the LA can all go to hell.
That’s strange. I know plenty of average Caymanians building/buying homes, making money, prospering in general. You won’t find them here though. Guess they’re busy.
Like you, right?
Not just young Caymanians priced out.
and not good for the poor of America who do not have the money to invest
And exactly how do you force prices down without hurting every single Caymanian land owner?
5:37 pm, have you checked or understand who are the gold diggers in the Real Estate sales? They are 99.9999o/o expats. Who should be selling real estate here?? Why are they allowed to recruit from overseas? If the locals don’t know about where they were born and raised, how is it possible for the new comer to sell snow to the eskimos? They are all taking the heavy cream off of the milk and what is left for us? Who should be selling land in the Cayman Islands?
You think we need local agents to drive the prices down…ok.
This is happening world wide and not just in Cayman…it is about interest rates and easy money! Nothing else and ranting emotionally and screaming Life’s not Fair! is not going to help. This board is filled with people with lots of romantic notions about life and wishful belief systems and nothing else!
7:34, Perhaps you did not notice but things were going good economically in the 5 years before Trump came to power. That was during the Obama administration.
Poster is using his hero’s #1 tactic: just saying shit.
What, like wages barely moving for eight years?
10:30, While the gap between the top 2% in America and everybody else is growing exponentially. Great if you are a billionaire.
That would be the exponentially increasing gap Obama that presided over?
No 7:30 as a number of studies have shown that Trump’s tax cuts benefitted the Trump family and his billionaire real estate and hedge fund friends more than anyone else. Trump exponentially increased the gap between the top 2% and everyone else in America.
You’re joking right? Please! This is the Trump Boom!
Why do people (like you) assume that a property boom is good for a place, or people? What’s your metric? I just don’t see it. Also, your maga guy is a sick person. He’s okay for the private sector where lying, cheating and racism are a personal choice, but for setting public policy, it’s what used to be called a sin.
If you don’t understand how foreign money flowing into and being spent in Cayman is good for everyone living in Cayman then it’s hard to find a starting point to convince you.
And if you keep using money, money from any freeking source, as a measure of success I doubt you will ever crawl out of the festering pot of Trump like “success”. The man and his way of thinking is just wrong. Unsustainable, ignorant, destructive, and wrong. Just like using money to mark a ‘good’ thing is wrong.
I guess when money is no longer need to purchase food clothing and shelter then you’ll have a point. I’m sure you don’t use money…do you.
I don’t use it to measure a person’s success.
I’d call being able to sleep under a roof, clothe yourself and eat a success. All require money. Try doing any of them without it. Do you get your money from the money rainbow.
All or nothing thinking right there buddy.
And there you go with the racism crap. It’s gotten old. Try arguing a point with numbers. The Trump boom is about numbers. And they are good.
Dude. That’s just weird. Why you talk like that?
Amen to that! Trump Trump Trump!
Casually leave out the last Republican President started multiple illegal wars that blew up the US debt and deficit and then put these same economic policies into place that crashed the US economy ( you know the ones that Trump is now mirroring in his administration)
Garbage Island.
Cesspit. Cesspool.
Bio waste piling up on the curbs.
WBR smells like a dirty toilet.
Cancer is rampant.
Cayman Sucks.
Go away. Leave. If that is your view, you don’t belong here.
Go to where?
This is the only home I have and I cannot afford to buy a house to start a family.
$6.00 PER HOUR IS SLAVE LABOUR RATES.
SHAMEFULLY NOT ONE MLA IS FIGHTING TO INCREASE IN MINIMUM WAGE.
$6 per hour X 45 Hrs X 4 Weeks = $1080 Per Month
Pension $54 + Health Insurance $95 + Rent eith utilities $700 = $849 Per month.
Remaining for living expenses $231.
Who can exist on $231 per month to buy food, clothing, transportation, etc., etc.?
$6.00 PER HOUR IS SLAVE LABOUR RATES.
8.00am Shame you have no connections in the Civil Service, become a civil servant and all your problems woild ve solved.
So what, that is ok pay to untrained people. We on the top of the food chain need more for ourselves, the partying and champagne are expensive.
You know whats even more shameful? The fact your government refuses to raise the standard of public education for Caymanians to be competitive when job hunting. Which in turn would translate to higher salaries and a higher standard of living where Most Caymanians need not to worry about the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage will only raise the cost of doing business, which will then be passed on to consumers, raising the cost of living.
1:47 pm, stop hiring West Indian teachers. Measure the results 50 years ago in comparison with those as of late. The teachers then were dedicated and interested in students, while the interest is on salary and after- school classes, to rake in the extra cash. If a teacher cannot do the job in the classroom, how can that same teacher tutor the same student for extra cash? It is only what goes into their pockets that matters. Get teachers from Norway, change the school system and eat h the progress.
You’ve figured out how to use a computer and join the grievance brigade. Now resolve to figure out how to make more than $6/hr. Just a thought.
I am the poster to which you were responding. I agree with you completely; I have been talking about a minimum wage of at least $10/hr for years. I think the minimum wage has to be a living wage.
I understand how completely frustrating it is to try to make your way for you and your family in these difficult times. Slaking on your country doesn’t help things a damn bit, though. You think the Cayman Islands suck? I wish I could magically whisk you away to some of the shitholes I’ve had to live and work in. As bad as things are, they are not nearly as bad as the majority of the world as far as a living standard and general safety.
Look, let us meet in the middle. You and your family stay, keep working, and we’ll hope for you to get better employment. You stop putting down your country and start seeking solutions. Deal?
Ever heard of getting an education and working hard. Typical handout mentality.
You don’t deserve to be here letting this island go to hell.
And Detroit rocks…
Wonder if it has anything to do with the invest 500k fast-track citizenship option, why real estate prices are rising so fast.
Huh?
No such thing.
Residency through investment. Buy your way into a job or business.
Holders of R2, and spouses, are not eligible for work permits (or shouldn’t be).
That would be bad. If it existed outside of your head.
They are certainly not rising fast because we have a wonderful economy. what we do have is a shortage of property for the tax dogers to come and live in.
“Wealthy” retirees (ie. those that don’t need to work, and aren’t qualified for work permits, or opt to follow other paths to citizenship), can apply for a 25 year renewable “Residency Certificate for Persons of Independent Means”, aka Form R2. Requires proof of annual income of USD$146,000, -OR- local investment of $500,000, at least $275,000 of that in real estate, -OR- USD$488,000 on deposit with a Cayman Islands bank, -OR- $1mln in total assets, at least $500,000 in local real estate. For the Brac or Little Cayman, the annual income bar is lowered to just $75,000.
http://www.immigration.gov.ky/portal/page/portal/immhome/livinghere/independentmeans/rcpim
But not citizenship
Is that the policy you just made up, or a genuine misunderstanding of the PR rules? On the off chance it’s the latter, investment is only one source of pints and not enough to get PR – and you couldn’t even apply before 9 years of residence. Plus it’s PR not citizenship – you would need 15 years of residence before you can apply for citizenship. If you want to get upset about get citizenship or PR quick schemes, then worry about sham marriages and cabinet status grants.
6:51pm. They need to stop the convenience marriages. Tired of seeing Manila envelopes cluttering up the infrastructure. Why import poor people and allow to them to become wards of the state years latter? Stop the madness, this is what has us in the mess we are in.
The only way is up, baby.
agreed, things are fundamentally changing. More and more people are now able to work from anywhere in the world. Hence, it not the old days where job creation is needed to fuel the market. People with jobs and businesses can just show up and set up shop. So, only a few things will become finite such as healthcare, schools and real estate.
Anything in the finite sector is going to soar and yes, government will need to do something to manage the traffic and the influx of people but I see no end in sight for Cayman and other countries with good internet connectivity, nice beaches and safe and stable social economic blah blah blah.
Need to wrap it up
Don’t get stuck bag holding…
Interest rates around the world are steadily on the uptick, with real countries real estate markets in a slump.
The banks can’t wait to foreclose on your properties.
SMB is being pumped because that is what DART is paying to happen. One good hurricane, or environmental assessment on the chess pit that is the dump and this boom is bust.
Buyer Beware. I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.
A cash position is still a position. Fast to move, even faster to fall.
And I agree that the realtors are more than incompetent and useless in Cayman. Watch your backs.
Prices went UP after Hurricane Ivan.
Yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah. A cash position is still a position…sthu. This sounds like someone who either A. inherited a pile of cash. B. Got lucky and tripped over a pile of cash but never really worked for it. Or C. Has no cash. I vote for C.
Hard working and still can’t afford your mortgage, groceries, car or clothing. That is reality for locals on Grand Cayman.
Cash is King in the Cayman Islands. Good luck.
BTW: D
Educated and knows a pump when I see one.
So it’s C then. Guess I’ll put my assets for sale tomorrow because the “educated” internet guy that can’t afford to buy clothes actually gives sound financial advice.
I’m originally from Vancouver and I used to be like you. I kept thinking the market will retract and I will get in…it never did. Then I got angry because it wouldn’t and started making comments like yours.
It isn’t too late, the world is just getting smaller. You will never time the market perfectly, but over time Cayman real estate is a good investment.
Get off your high horse and stop living with hindsight regret. Buy a place!
Thou should never ever assume, as it is thee who does in fact ride on his high horse…
Enjoy your purchase. You are an ignorant and pompous muppet.
Somebody touched a nerve…
No end in sight, huh? How about the next major hurricane and people living on a tiny island with no electric and potable water for months on end? The # of for sale signs after Ivan was astonishing ( for years ). Short memories, I guess. How about an over-spending government and bloated civil service looking to close budgets by taxing ONLY expats? That was proposed not very long ago. Another short memory situation. How about a US recession in the near future, like 2020 according to many financial experts? Or when international governments truly target offshore jurisdictions and the wealthy who utilize these islands to shelter income and buy properties in shell company names? Won’t last long!! Buy now ! – inevitable Bust – Repeat.
Those “for sale” signs were quite numerous before Ivan. Prices went UP afterwards. Most likely due to inventory disappearing.
I remember how many signs for sale were in 2008…….
1989
During budget debate on Nov. 29, 1989, then-Executive Council Member for Health Ezzard Miller had said….”…whether want to believe it or not, solid waste – garbage – is becoming a serious problem in this country..”
Mr. Miller spoke of “the threats of pollution from leach heads” and “the threat of a methane bomb going off on the outskirts of George Town at any time.
“If they think this is not a problem, go up to the dump and walk around,” he said. “Look at the leach head that is threatening the North Sound.”
Mr. Miller said the government had been consulting with representatives of the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization about the issue “on a regular basis for some time.”
1998
The problems of the George Town Landfill came up again in July 1998, when MLA Roy Bodden asked Executive Council member John McLean a question about “the seepage of pollutants and contaminants at the North Sound landfill site.”
MLA Kurt Tibbetts asked if there had been any tests done to “see if there has been any excess pollution into the North Sound,”
2019
..a significant jump in the sale price of Seven Mile Beach condos, which had a 35% increase over the average value of similar sales in 2017.
Who in their right mind would buy a property within less than 2 miles radius from the Dump? If Mr.Miller was worried about “methane bomb” in 1989, just imagine what kind of bomb in ticking today.
You realize that those that are purchasing in the area are non the wiser? I would have believed that CIREBA would be advising the potential risks to buyers and let them sign off a disclaimer? This is a time bomb ticking and when the buzzer goes off, all hell is going to break loose. The only person I’m sad for is those poor school children next to the dump.
I believe it should be mandatory, not advising, but a full disclosure. A seller’s failure to disclosure material environmental hazards should entitle a buyer to damages for fraud; rescission; cancellation.
I can’t wait for the first lawsuit. And it is coming.
When that happens watch all the CIREBA member run to their home countries.
Shhhhhh, or Dart will buy the reservation.
Only fools would buy a property within 1.5 miles from the Dump. Wait and see what is going to happen in the next few years.
you wait and see….
you’ll be left behind.
hmmm… same thing we said about buying beach land 50 years ago..
What is the main cause of death in Grand Cayman? Sun, sea, locally grown fruits…. people should be living to 100+ here and dying of old age in their sleep. Yet, 60s and younger all seem to get cancer.
Look at what you eat. I see a lot of terrible food choices that lead to cancers.
1:57, I am fed up with waiting as I have been waiting over a decade for something to happen with the Dump. All we get is talk, talk and more talk from Cayman politicians but none of them has the political will to do anything with the Dump as it is beyond their intellectual and political capabilities.
A very sad reflection on the quality of the people who get elected here. We really need to open the political process up to a larger pool of people living on these Islands.
To bad that the wages and rates for workers and the small contractors can’t go up. Guess only the developer is the one to benefit.
1:35, Developers rule on Grand Cayman.
The developers take all the chances and put up all the money so they should reap all the rewards. Who cares about all the workers as they are free not to take on the jobs at the fair rates set but the surveyors/developers.
Why can’t they go up?
Because the prices then will escalate even more. Once CHEC gets here then we will have a new low cost labor pool and cheaper materials directly from China.
They can’t go up because developers must continue to make windfall profits.
Developers and real estate developers rule in Cayman.
And here comes more uneducated, poverty mentality laborers to meet the demand of a growing construction industry.
Cayman will soo be segregated into two classes…. filthy rich and dirty poor.
This is the result of all the hard work of our great Unity Team government and the strong leadership of Premier Alden. Praise to you all and please be our Premier for the next 8 years so you can keep the wonderful work going!
Yes premier you are the best!
Did you fall and hit your head?
Never a better time to buy.
cayman is a land of opportunity and is booming in all sectors(many thanks to dart)…due to a huge shortage in mid range properties and enormous rent prices…there is nothing on the horizon to think prices will plateau or fall…
How much of the rise is due to “agents” charging ridiculous commissions of 5/6/7%? Exactly what services that they provide requires such extortion? No wonder there are so many of these slick talkers around. For what they provide a commission of 1 or 2% would be more realistic.
This morning one of the salespersons was on a local radio station promoting a new development where she stated that the 3/4 million US$ starting price tag was such that first time buyers could benefit. Really??????
don’t see the connection between commision rates and market forces….
in a boom the realtor makes a lot in a bust he makes little…
In a bust he makes a lot and in a boom even more.
Connection = prices are artificially inflated to cover silly commission rate.
Realtor bashing ain’t gonna reduce purchaser demands and vendors taking advantage of a sellers market.
Jealousy ‘cos your’re missing out is not a good reason to hate realtors .
What is the correlation?..you have lost me..Everybody should work hard for their living, no matter the profession.. If you don’t want to pay for an agent to market and sell your property then don’t ,simple as that…I have found it is worth every penny and I was one of those doubting people like you..If they are good agents they work to get you top dollar for your property. I don’t have to worry about advertising, showing my property or doing all the paperwork..I have better things to do with my time..
Agents outside US and Cayman manage to do all that for a small fraction these shysters manage to charge.
Agreed! The “agents” are poping up out the wood works to make quick easy money. I believe in equal opportunity but if you look at the who the “agents” are, they are not of a certain shade. Very few locals are benefiting from these massive commission payouts. If you do see a local realtor they are given the worst properties to sell. I am not sure how the Government is sitting by and letting these things happen. Extortion!
Dont forget to mention that the expat agents are reserving pre-construction sales that require 5% commitment fee for the expat investors to re-sell to other expats for 15%-20%. So by the time a locals find out about it they are all sold.
You don’t need an agent. Just do it yourself.
The licensing of real estate agents is a total joke. Basically anybody and their aunt can become an agent here. The standards are a disgrace.
CIREBA is a cartel. Some of them are amongst the most unethical professionals I have ever met.
Yes no where else in the caribbean. Only us fools selling out.
Don’t get confused. Plenty of sellers elsewhere just not as many buyers.
I sincerely hope that the government can do something to improve the traffic flow on the roads to benefit residents in the eastern districts to get in to town quicker. Then, ” Caymanians”,as the custom was, will be able to secure ” a little piece of paradise” for themselves. There are many acres of land in the interior of East End, and thankfully much of it is still owned by “Caymanian families” but unless there is better access to George Town, where most people work, or until more businesses move further East the reluctance for working class residents to move East will continue. This island desperately need a major development plan if we are going to comfortably survive going forward. I don’t have any expertise in how to fix this but I believe if everyone who wants to buy a car can just bring in one and if nothing changes in the traffic in another five years or so we are going to get in our cars in the mornings and only get as far as out of our driveways. It’s bumper to bumper now from Guard House Hill to George Town between 7-9 in the mornings. WE DEFINITELY NEED SOME RELIEF.
I think the government owns some land in the interior of EE also. I guess that is where the reservation will be. When will we stand up and say enough is enough.
You keep voting them in. Da wha ya get.
cig, in their infinite stupidity, missed that chance when they put goab in gt.
if they had of put that east, those districts would have boomed, workers would have short commutes and congestion would be eased in gt.
anyway, there is no fixing stupid.
By the time the 50 storey skyscraper is built we will have massive gridlock 5 days of the week during rush hours mornings and evenings. Not looking forward to when we have over 100,000 people living on Grand Cayman.
50 stories is not “iconic” . The Burj (which has been referenced) is iconic. 50 floors is not even the tallest in the region.
Don’t encourage them. The 50 stories suggestion is just to test the water.
*zips by at 22 mph on my trek bicycle while you sit at a stand still burning gas*
I keep wondering….what is the forever (over 15 years now) holdup with the widening of Bobby Thompson Way?
The landowner. Doesn’t want to sell and CIG doesn’t have the courage to compulsorily purchase because of who they are. Same reason there is an elbow shape to the road – typical government going around a problem rather than confronting it ( no watch sales to be made in improving a road).