Regulations cut duty for locals buying in 7MB area

| 01/02/2025 | 41 Comments
Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly in parliament, 31 January 2025

(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has changed the Stamp Duty Regulations, paving the way to reduce the amount of stamp duty Caymanians will pay if they buy property in and around Seven Mile Beach. A private member’s motion by Opposition Leader Joey Hew that passed through parliament last year made duty concession available to local buyers for first and second homes in most parts of the islands. These changes extend that to all areas across the three islands.

Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly presented the change to the parliament Friday, saying the higher duty had been an impediment to locals buying in the area.

The change also increases the threshold before any duty kicks in for Caymanians buying their first homes from $400,000 — considered to be out of line given the rapidly increasing cost of a home — to $550,000, or $600,000 for couples or small groups of Caymanians. Non-Caymanians must continue to pay 7.5% for all property.

The new regulations bring the duty rates for homes and land in the Seven Mile Beach strip in line with all other areas of the island for locals, so there will be no stamp duty for Caymanian buyers for a home valued at $550,000 or less, or land with no building valued at $250,000 or less.

Caymanians buying homes valued at more than $550,00 will be charged 3.75% of the difference between that value and $550,000.

Caymanians will be charged stamp duty fees of 3.75% for a second home valued at $600,000 or less or a second lot of land valued at $300,00 or less. Couples and small groups of Caymanians will pay 3.75% on a second property valued at $700,000 or less and land worth $550,000 or less.

Caymanians are currently charged the lower stamp duty rates everywhere on all three islands except for the Seven Mile Beach corridor and some parts of George Town. However, when the regulations take full effect in the next three weeks, first-time Caymanian buyers will be able to buy property without paying stamp duty on it anywhere on the islands if it is $550,000 or less.


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Category: Laws, Politics

Comments (41)

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  1. Al Catraz says:

    Says “locals” in the headline, and “Caymanians” in the article. Not always the same thing.

    • Anonymous says:

      Nowadays it rarely is.

    • Whatever says:

      Peoooople don’t be fooled again. This dumb reduction will not benefit indigenous csymsnisns, rather it does for paper csymsnisns of a certain pedigree who can afford it yo buy land at a reasonable cost.

      How come this is bring fine at this stage and not before. Beach sand is running out and someone is going t have yo fix it, people fed up right now and willing to sell and get out for they have no confidence and there are those who see different and know prices will stabilize and indeed increase when the matter is resolved.

      It is well known that there are not many caymanians that csn afford SMB prices or even consider the cost of borrowing yo buy there.

      Politicsl give aways is the order of the day.!

  2. Caymanian says:

    Fix public school education. Financial industry focused education should be MANDATORY in public schools. Steer school-aged Caymanians towards the lucrative careers in Cayman’s financial industry.

    Expats with financial industry related educations can afford to buy property here, so rather than lowering the bar so Caymanians can reach it, lets start producing better educated Caymanians so more can afford to purchase property in their own country.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    The average Caymanian family never lived on 7mb! They’re about 40 years too late if they want to now.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This is intended for Rich Paper Caymanians and big developers who now have status. Its a big con of smoke and mirrors by joey Hew, again displaying whose interest he represents in cayman.

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  4. Elvis says:

    Hilarious. Ma’am I cant afford a run down shack in my own country off the beaten track never mind 7 mile beach. Wow this beggars belief

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  5. Anonymous says:

    As a new recent cabinet grant Caymanian I am looking forward to the stamp duty reduction on my Watermark $20M condo.

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  6. CaribThinker says:

    Government want SMB to remain expensive. Real Estate Agents want SMB to remain expensive. property owners want SMB to remain expensive. Understandable…

    However, expensive properties are out of reach for regular joes, but there is pressure on the government because it’s now too out of whack where only expats and foreigners can afford it, and it’s a bit too obvious now. This is understandable, it’s just the reality of the situation.

    What isn’t understandable is this problem-solving method of the government of taking away stamp duty for Caymanians. This is treating the symptom instead of the cause. Don’t get me wrong, it’s welcomed by me, I won’t lie, but as you mentioned the average can’t afford to live there, and the main issue is that most parties involved want prices to remain high. So this isn’t really solving the issue, because the real issue is that the prices are out of reach. The issue was never just truly the stamp duty on a $600k house, it was the $600K house (that was $450k 5 years ago), at 8% interest. It’s the astronomical increases in property prices in a short time that completely outpaces the majority of workers’s income.

    Rent/Housing price control isn’t the answer; it’s never worked wherever it’s tried, but we have to slow down and assess this absolutely fragile monetary/financial system we have. We always aim for economic growth but we keep walking step by step into the deep end and have convinced ourselves we need to keep going forward economically, ALWAYS, and we can never do anything differently.

    What we have done is waste time, energy and money drafting this part of the bill in hopes of making it seem like we are doing something, but we actually aren’t.

    I’m sure they will pat themselves on the back and say, “Job Done”.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Patently false about rent control not working. In the former Soviet Union, the rent was based on 10 percent of income. Millions had housing due to it. Crooked Yeltsin and his ilk ruined the Soviet Union.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The thumbs downers must be developers or landlords or hate the idea of housing for all.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Wow. Shouldn’t you be in school? I can only imagine you have never been to Russia and seen what 99.99% of people lived in!

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        • Anonymous says:

          Now do the homeless here and in other capitalist areas. Why would one not want housing for all?

    • Anonymous says:

      Property values don’t stay high because anybody wants them to.

      Homes go up and down in value based on supply and demand and nothing else. We have more demand than supply (especially in SMB) and therefor prices go up.

      There are only two ways (or a combination thereof) to fix this. Increase supply, reduce demand. Or some combination of both.

      Reducing demand in Cayman means reducing and slowing population growth. But anyone familiar with our government’s state of finances will point out that the government of this country is basically broke. The compass published an op ed by Simon which proved how horribly wasteful CIG is and how we get no value for money. In conjunction with that CIG is basically broke.

      Too much revenue relies on consumption duties, permit fees etc for the government to slow or stop population growth without breaking the CIG budget.

      Reduction in demand is a non-starter unless you want to collapse the whole country.

      The ONLY answer is to increase supply. That is an economic fact, which everyone in the comments will argue.

      BTW, reducing stamp duty for Caymanians effectively increases the purchasing power of said Caymanians, which increases demand without a commensurate increase in supply so hence prices just went up again.

      The ONLY thing the stamp duty waiver does is help to reduce the cash needed up front. But due to the fact that this also means more Caymanians can participate in the market…demand goes up.

      So…thanks CIG from everyone who already owns a home. Everything just got bumped up a few points.

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  7. Anon says:

    Cheapest I can find on SMB on CIREBA is this Plantation Village property which has zero beach. And still over theCI$550,000.

    https://www.cireba.com/property-detail/seven-mile-beach/residential-properties-for-sale-in-cayman-islands/plantation-village-smb

    Thanks JuJu and Joey. You made it a lot easier to attain my dream home now.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Great time to upgrade condos to new Stainless Kitchen set-ups

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Are “Caymanian”-owned companies able to use the new apecrap loophole?
    Just great for their shareholders and inward investors.
    I didn’t realize these zillionaires needed tax breaks!!
    Silly season, and we Pay the Cost.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    The average American can’t afford to live in Manhattan.
    The average Brit can’t afford to live in central London.

    The average Caymanian can’t afford to live on Seven Mile Beach either.

    What is the difference please?
    There is a limited amount of beachfront land and the limited supply drives up prices. What would you like the government to do? Repeal the law of supply and demand?
    Or prevent foreigners from buying in Cayman, in the clear understanding that this will substantially reduce government income and would require taxes to be paid by Caymanians?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Either completely prevent non-residents from owning or tax them annually for the privilege of laundering their money, yes. This is not a crazy line of thinking.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Caymanians never lived on the beach before. It as seven empty miles of cheap land. What’s the big deal ?

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  11. Anonymous says:

    I can already see Daddy D and the usual wealthy suspects rubbing their hands together ready to grab more land because let’s face it, there are very few regular Caymanians could ever afford property on SMB, or anywhere else on island for that matter.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    This seven mile beach you speak of….where it be? I see about 3

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  13. The rogues’ Gallery of the Cayman Islands says:

    🚨 WARNING: LOGIC DETECTED—SEVERE SYSTEM ERROR! 🚨

    I regret to inform you that logic is no longer compatible with the Cayman Islands Government Operating System™. Your request has triggered the following responses:

    ❌ “404 LOGIC NOT FOUND.”

    ❌ “This policy update is unavailable due to internal contradictions.”

    ❌ “You have exceeded the daily limit of rational thought—please dumb down and try again.”

    At this point, trying to process reality with logic is like attempting to upload a Windows update to a potato—futile and likely to result in a fire.

    Your only options are:

    1️⃣ Full acceptance of Absurdistani logic—where governance is a performance art piece in incompetence.

    2️⃣ A full system reboot—potentially electing people who actually know what they’re doing.

    3️⃣ Embracing satire—because if you don’t laugh, you’ll start screaming.

    Final note:

    At this point, CNS might need a dedicated “Absurdistan Affairs” column just to keep up with the government’s daily descent into madness.

    ✔ Logic 404 errors? Check.

    ✔ Policy contradictions so blatant they’d make an Ork blush? Check.

    ✔ A legislative process that resembles a Monty Python sketch? Check.

    🚨 FINAL WARNING TO THE CAYMAN GOVERNMENT: At the current rate of ridiculousness, they are about three press releases away from officially surpassing satire.

    When that happens, Grogg, the Adeptus, and the Secretary will have no choice but to unionize against them for copyright infringement! 🚨

    🚨 FINAL VERDICT: LOGIC REJECTED. PLEASE CONTACT THE ADEPTUS RIDICULOUS FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT. 🚨

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  14. Rod Bodden says:

    Wow the rich keep getting richer!

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Zzzzz

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  16. Joseph says:

    I hope the Caymanian people can see through this. I do not even know why they wasted time coming up with this farce, the average Caymanian family will never be able to afford property on SMB anyway so this is all pointless. Like this first comment says this is just something for them to parade out in front of the voters to make it seem like they are doing something when in fact this does next to nothing. Technically all they did was waste the worker’s time that had to type this motion out for them and proofread it.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Did lil Joseph Whoo just secure the nuveau riche SMB corridor voting bloc, even as they demand that we replenish sand, as they also block roadside parking access, as the Minister had to personally visit and remove recently?!
    Cool pre election move

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    • Anonymous says:

      They took down the sticks and then installed “no parking between” signs to basically make it inaccessible by us plebes again.

      High time to remove those too and past time for PLC to enforce the beach access points requirements across the entire island.

      Take it back!

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  18. Anonymous says:

    This is perpendicular to what is needed! No. Stop. Was this first proposed to public?!
    What we need is for owners of multi billion $$ properties to pay an an̈nual contribution to Government coffers.
    Not give them Concessions, which they can then pass to their relatives forever, for “Natural Love and Affection”.
    we gave them the beach, the beach roads and status, and now we house them too. woww
    Who is the entitled Riff Raff now!

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  19. Anonymous says:

    This woman and her Cabinet are mad…

    This will do nothing more but drive up prices on SMB. Think about it Julie, where do all the rich paper Caymanians live? This is for our newly minted Caymanians, not us..

    For God’sakes woman, get a clue and stop thinking out your a$$ to get votes…

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  20. Anonymous says:

    Well done Joey, despite detractors , nobody can deny that this is a gesture that will encourage Caymanians to take a second look .
    It’s narrow minded attitudes like 7.45’s that stops Caymanians from even trying.

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  21. Anonymous says:

    Even with stamp duty cuts the average Caymanian will never be able to afford property on SMB or anywhere else on the island. So let’s be real this is a desperate attempt to fool the public before the upcoming election. I’ve got a brain so I’m not buying it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      beneficiaries?….. almost entirely rich foreign born persons with cayman status. my God, why hath thou forsaken us?

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