2020 was one of the best years for real estate says one leading business

One of Barbados’ leading real estate companies is reporting a better-than-expected performance from the sale and rental of properties during 2020, in spite of a turbulent economic climate brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rachel McCartney, Sales Manager and Lead of Brokerage at Terra Caribbean (Terra Luxury), gave this indication on Friday, as she reported that the United Kingdom, Canada and the US remained Barbados’ main foreign market for investment in real estate.

Giving an overview of the market performance, she said the Barbados real estate market had emerged from a sluggish performance over the past ten years.

“In January 2020, things started to look like they were trending for the better, where vendors were repricing their properties and properties were selling at a very fast rate. Then COVID hit everyone at the same time,” she recalled.

However, McCartney said, “If we look back at 2020, despite what was happening globally we had a very strong year for real estate. Overall, while our transaction numbers were down about 13 per cent, our revenue was up 14 per cent. And it looks like this may have been one of our best years to date, surprisingly.”

She said there was an increase in the average selling price of properties last year, contributing to the favourable performance.

In the case of rentals, she described the performance as “a very interesting” one. She noted, “We very quickly caught on to the fact that we needed to do something to stimulate our economy, and led by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, was the introduction of the Barbados Welcome Stamp.”

This initiative, which started at the end of July, allows eligible individuals and families to relocate to Barbados for up to a year to live and work. They have the option of renewing that visa.

“We had a substantial increase in rentals due to the Welcome Stamp. Coming out of that there were people who decided that they wanted to buy [properties] here after being here for a very short period,” said McCartney.

“Also, the spinoff from that was there was a very big increase in the mid-term rentals, because there were people who were trying to see if they wanted to take out the Welcome Stamp and would come here for a three-month period. So there was definitely an increase in demand there which helped our holiday rental market where we were missing our visitors,” she explained.

She said it was not surprising that St James, St Peter and Christ Church were the top three locations of choice, adding that “coming out of COVID, a lot of people chose houses instead of apartments and townhouses for a bit more space. Also when you look at what properties rent for, there is a lot more bang for your buck in Barbados.”

McCartney pointed to the trend on Friday, during one of Invest Barbados’ online seminars designed to woo potential investors to the island.

During the forum, officials zeroed in on the tax benefits to individuals and businesses, while highlighting the high standard of living, high quality internet and other infrastructure, the health and education systems, highly-qualified workforce, competitive labour costs and highly-skilled professional services sector, as crucial factors for anyone to invest in Barbados.

During her overview of the real estate sector for last year, McCartney pointed out that Terra Caribbean enjoyed several high-end, coastal property sales.

“We had a couple big sales on the beachfront at Port St Charles . . . also Mantaray Bay, which is one of five apartments . . . and also we had Bluff House, which was a trophy property in Sandy Lane. Sandy Lane, as most people would know, is one of the sought after addresses in Barbados. There are properties there starting from fixer-uppers from about US$1.3 million and going up [in] values north of US$20 million,” she said.

Pointing to the availability of some condominiums, properties in gated communities and beachfront apartments, McCartney also shared that there continued to be a “large collection of discrete listings” of real estate on the island.

“As Barbados is a very small island people are very private. There is a large collection of discrete listings and you are only able to find through a reputable and experienced realtor,” she said, as she gave a broad overview of the process involved in purchasing a property in Bridgetown as a foreigner.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)