Barbados’ real estate market remains stable and President of the Barbados Estate Agents and Valuers Association (BEAVA) Arthur Ramsay says he is expecting this to continue into this year, despite talk of a looming global recession.
He said once mortgage rates continue to hold at current levels, there should be very little change in the real estate market which has witnessed an uptick in sales in recent times, emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I know a lot of people are speaking about the way things are going overseas and the opportunities for a recession situation globally but I believe that Babados still has a lot of goodwill and positives going for it,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“I think that based on where the mortgage rates are and the interest that is still in the market for persons to buy property, investment, if it continues at the rate it has been going, I believe it would augur well for us in terms of our overall way of sustaining and propping up even in the hardest of times.”
Ramsay said demand continued to outstrip supply, with many people interested in living in certain parishes such as St George, St Thomas, St James, Christ Church and St Michael.
This, he explained, made it a little more difficult to meet demand, given that there was only so much property available in those prime real estate locations.
“That drives the cost or the interest and, ultimately, the demand outstrips the supply,” the BEAVA president explained.
He said people seeking to purchase property ranged in age from 25 years to in their 60s. However, he said, the majority of buyers were in the 25-45 age range.
Ramsay explained that the majority of those 50 years and older were looking for a second property, seeking to downsize, or buying property with family members.
With the absence of any alien landholding restrictions, people from around the world are able to purchase property in Barbados once that property is placed on the open market.
Ramsay explained that the demand for land and housing among people from overseas has also remained high.
“For you or I that may say a house is overpriced at BDS$500 000 or BDS$600 000, for the gentleman coming from the US that is US$250 000 and for the person coming from the UK or Canada it is the equivalent of their currency, so where we may say ‘no’, someone else may say ‘yes’ because their market may be more inflated than ours in terms of the bang you get for the buck,” he said.
The sweet spot for most property buyers here is between $250 000 and $450 000, he explained, though properties ranging from $500 000 to $600 000 were also desirable.
Ramsay said immediately following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, a lot of people started investing in property.
“In 2022, we had a lot less activity than 2021, but it was still a relatively buoyant year for most markets – you had new sales in the upper end of the market with persons investing in Barbados, you had in the middle end of the market persons looking to buy property, and they found that there was not a lot of stock left after we came out in 2020 into 2021.
“While things opened up a little bit and persons moved around and started to look at properties physically again, they then started buying so we found that a lot of the stock that was available, let’s say, 2018 into 2019 and then into 2020 when we were actually locked down, a lot of that initial stock went,” he said.
Ramsay told Barbados TODAY the rental market was experiencing a similar situation to the buyers’ market, with people gravitating towards properties in certain areas.
He lauded the Government for the Welcome Stamp initiative, noting that it provided an avenue for tenants for many rental properties that were idle during the height of the pandemic due to there being no visitors.
“So, a lot of persons who had properties sitting from the Airbnb scenario were able to come into the Welcome Stamp scenario and it gave them an injection of capital into their properties,” said Ramsay, who noted that several of those on the Welcome Stamp initiative also extended their time renting while others went from renting to purchasing properties. (MM)
