Archive for February, 2009

Peak of Perfection

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

By Roman Heindorff

IF the sophisticated financial world had asked local St Lucians what they thought of high-risk investments and whimsical property purchases, they might have been privy to some sage advice.

St Lucia, which retains a Patois tongue from its colonial past that mixes native Carib with English and French, has preserved some wonderfully apt proverbs. As the locals would say: “What is done in the dark will always appear in the light.” The Eastern Caribbean lifestyle is an uncomplicated one. On an island with just 160,000 inhabitants, it doesn’t pay to develop a bad reputation.

Enviably healthy, mountainous, tropically lush and puckered with valleys of bananas, St Lucia is blessed with many natural assets. For centuries, locals and tourists alike have flocked to enjoy the regenerative waters surfacing from beneath the warm volcanic crust in Soufrière, while horse-trekking and hiking are always ample excuses to head off into the jungle. Then, of course, there is the beach, golf or the spa.

Harnessing such an exotic landscape without spoiling it or straining the hospitality and vibrancy of the local villages has been the task of Allen Chastanet, the Minister for Tourism. In 1991, St Lucia employed the slogan Simply Beautiful as a pithy, literal description of what visitors could expect from the island.

Almost 20 years later, the unpolished, natural appeal of St Lucia’s exquisite scenery and indigenous culture has steadily been modernised by a far-improved infrastructure, a throng of high-class property developments and turbo-charged Franco-Asian cuisine.

Today, the question on most investors’ lips remains the same as everywhere else – how sustainable is the local property market?

Mr Chastanet maintains that St Lucia’s mid-to-high-end market has retained its value well. “We are not suffering from oversupply and for those projects that have begun more recently, we are comfortable to take our time,” he said.

Whether it’s the desirability of the region or simply the Eastern Caribbean temperament, people here are reassuringly relaxed about St Lucia’s short-term prospects.

“You can’t take an island like this and make it all happen overnight,” said Mr Chastanet. “If you look at the past 20 years, you’ll see how far we have come. Now we’re thinking about the next two decades.”

Although most of St Lucia is beautiful, the two jewels in its crown are the Gros and Petit Pitons, the twin volcanic peaks towering 3,000ft above sea level in the northwest corner of the island.

Nestled beneath the sheer face of the Petit Piton in 190 acres of Unesco-recognised rainforest, is one of the island’s most famous resorts. More than $100m has recently gone into preserving, improving and marketing the site of this old colonial sugar mill, known as the Jalousie Plantation, or Sugar Beach.

Here a 5,500sq ft one-bed villa with spectacular views comes fully decorated from $610,000, with two-bed villas up to twice the size costing up to $2million.

Rental pool yields over recent years have remained consistent and with prices rising from $250 to $1,000 a night (including a private butler), the high year-round occupancy makes Sugar Beach well placed to resist the global slow-down and sticky foreign exchange markets.

Although the pound may be struggling, the dollar currency in St Lucia has ensured many US and Canadian nationals still find it an economical destination.

St Lucia’s natural attributes, married with a patient approach to the development of tourism, seems set to protect one of the Caribbean’s gems. You might call it the combination of high quality and common sense, or simply that, as the locals would put it, “old pots make good soup”.

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Westjet In-flight Magazine

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Westjet in-flight magazine

The Tides Sugar Beach – Piton National Park
sugarbeachvillas.com

Although many St Lucian spas boast outdoor massage cabanas, none compare to those at the recently renamed The Tides Sugar Beach.

Concealed in the lush rainforest of Piton National Park – named a UNESCO World Heritage Site and declared by Oprah Winfrey as “one of the five things to see before you die” – the two-person outdoor massage cabanas boast unforgettable views competing for your attention.

Do you stare straight ahead out to the jungle-covered Gros Piton peak, below to the white sand and turquoise waters of the bay, or beyond to the vastness of the Caribbean Ocean?

The view is so striking; the spa has placed angled mirrors at the base of each treatment table, ensuring the usual spa routine of dozing off during your massage doesn’t even enter your mind.

Many of The Tides’ high-end villas have private gardens with comparable vistas, so if the spa’s cabanas happen to be booked when you want them – or if you just can’t be bothered to leave your room – you can always have your outdoor massage come to you. And if things weren’t perfect enough, it is undergoing a $100million renovation starting this summer.

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A Place in the Sun

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

A Place in the Sun – Top 20

The UK’s favourite places to buy abroad – find where is best for YOU

ARE YOU MULLING OVER WHERE TO BUY A PLACE IN THE SUN? IF SO, OUR LIST OF THE UK’S 20 FAVOURITE DESTINATIONS WILL HELP YOU MAKE UP YOUR MIND

The choice of destinations available to someone looking abroad is simply mind-boggling. In this magazine and at our A Place in the Sun Live exhibitions, we see property on sale from all over the world – villas by the sea, homes on golf courses, chalets clinging to mountainsides and chic city flats. But where is it that most British people really want to own?

We wanted to find out – to help you decide where you might like to buy and to satisfy our own curiosity! So for the third year running we asked our readers, via an on-line survey and visitors to A Place in the Sun Live exhibition, where is it they are looking to buy an overseas property. From the results – of more than 1,000 responses – we’ve been able to rank your top 20 favourite destinations. It won’t come as a surprise that the top of the list is dominated by Mediterranean countries – those classic second-home and retirement destinations that are close to friends and family in the UK. But there may be some other surprises in the list. And you can compare each country’s 2008 ranking with where it came last year.

The following pages won’t only show you where the ‘in’ places to buy are, and offer advice on how and where to buy in each, but they should open your eyes to destinations you might not have previously considered. So drum roll please….

1.Spain
2.France
3.Portugal
4.Cyprus
5.Turkey
6.Greece
7.Italy
8.USA
9.Australia
10.Canada
11.Egypt
12.Bulgaria
13.Cape Verde
14.New Zealand
15.Caribbean
16.UAE
17.Morocco
18.Malta
19.Croatia
20.Thailand

Caribbean – So perfect, it’s where the rich and famous have second homes

It’s the one destination that others around the world try to mimic and where most of us – if we’re honest – would give our right arm to own a second home.

The idyllic beaches, glorious climate and tropical lifestyle on offer in the Caribbean have made it an extremely desirable second-home destination. It’s where celebrities hang out – many of them, not content with just a property, snap up entire islands.

Granted, prices are eye-wateringly high in some parts of the Caribbean, especially when you’re talking about large plantation-style villas in exclusive gated communities.

But the growth in fractional ownership properties and the explosion in large condo resorts, allowing you to buy into an apart-hotel with guaranteed rental income, have made the Caribbean more affordable to many of us. For instance, Undiscovered Properties is promoting the Royal Reef Resort in Turks and Caicos with hotel suites from just $110k (£73k).

Property values, just like the scenery and heritage, vary tremendously betweens islands so don’t approach the Caribbean as a single market but as a set of micro markets.

Unsurprisingly, the most popular and expensive islands are those with direct flights from the UK. And there is one that stands out, as Nigel Bennett of the Barbados-based legal firm the Court Caribbean Law Practice, points out: “Barbados is number one without a doubt, due to its historical relationship with the UK, strong investment credentials and well developed infrastructure.

“Well-heeled Brits buy on the west coast in Mullins and its immediate environs, but there are a number of locations on the south coast that are much more ‘affordable’, less cramped and better value for money from an investment point of view.”

An example of what’s available on the west coast is the 500-acre Royal Westmoreland estate in St James. Facilities include a championship golf course, spa and private beach. Cluttons Resorts is selling one-bed apartments from $515k (£348k) and villa plots from $995k (£672k).

Two cheaper investment options in the south of Barbados are the Crane Resorts and Residences with apartments from £280k for a one-bed, and Brownes Barbados, with apartments from £175k for a one-bed.

After Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia are next in terms of popularity. In the former, the Rodney Bay area and Cap Estate are the main hubs of tourist development. A recent investment opportunity in St Lucia is the upmarket Sugar Beach resort, a former 192-acre plantation within the stunning World Heritage Site of the Val des Pitons. On offer at Sugar Beach, which will be run as a five-star hotel by The Tides brand and opens in 2010, are 85 luxury villas. Prices start at $700k (£466k) through Prestigious Properties and owners get four weeks use a year and a rental return.

In Antigua, NonSuch Bay is a 16-acre resort being developed by La Perla Living International. On offer there through Robson Barnes are townhouses with moorings, two-bed villas and apartments that start at $475k (316k). Another option aimed at holiday-home and investment buyers is South Point, a condo-hotel next to the Antigua and Barbuda Yacht Club in Falmouth Harbour. South Point’s 23 rooms will run as a boutique hotel to provide rental income and property management services for owners. One-bed apartments start at $655k (£435k).

If you’re happy buying somewhere a bit off the beaten track and where travelling from the UK involves more than a flight, then Bequia is worth a look. English-speaking, it’s the largest of the Grenadines and a 25-minute flight from Barbados or ten-minute ferry ride from St Vincent, where an international airport is due to open in 2011.

Bequia’s relative anonymity and limited access have helped keep its prices more affordable than other islands. At the top end, Adams Bay is the island’s flagship resort. Prices for one of the 69 luxury villas there start at $950k (635k), available through Prestigious Properties. Cheaper resale villas, starting at around $250k (168k) are available through www.bequialandandhome.net.

Carrying on south of the Grenadines is Grenada, tipped by Bennett as one to watch. “Grand Anse is the prime location where the emerging developments will be centred,” says Bennett, “the island is slowly recreating its infrastructure after the devastating Hurricane Hugo and therefore interest has been fuelled by developers looking for an alternative to Barbados, at a fraction of Barbados prices.”

Fast Facts

In Brief: About the most des res destination there is. The Caribbean, divided in archipelagos, attracts US and European holidaymakers looking for glorious beaches, world-class golf, year-round sun and a genuine tropical feel. Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia are favourites but other, less expensive, places are gaining popularity.
Flight Time from the UK: 8 hours
Direct airports from UK: Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia, Grenada, St Barts, Jamaica, Bahamas.
Price Guides: Varies hugely between islands around £200k+ for a condo apartment in Antigua or £100k in the Dominican Rep.
Tuck into: Lots of fresh fish, fresh fruit, yams and breadfruits, Jerk chicken, spicy sauces, West Indian curry and any rum based cocktail!
Did you know? The 7,000 islands, islets, cays and reefs that make up the Caribbean are also known as the West Indies because when Christopher Columbus landed there in 1492, he believed that he’d reached the Indies in Asia.

Essentials – know before you buy

For conveyancing, most Caribbean islands model themselves on the laws introduced by the parent or current colonial ruler. The main countries to have held sway in the Caribbean include the UK, France, the USA and Holland, all of which have introduced different property buying and land registry systems. By this token, Barbados, Antigua, the Turks and Caicos, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and all enable property purchases based on the English common law system whereas, for example, the French-owned islands such as Saint Barthelemy (or St Barts) and Guadeloupe hold to a Napeloenic-based system.

It’s important to think about currency. Most Caribbean islands deal in dollars or quote property prices in them, as the vast majority of tourists are from the US, and even when they have their own national versions of the dollar (such as the Bermudan, Bahamian and Jamaican), in reality they are pegged directly to the mighty ‘buck’. Bear in mind the French-owned Caribbean islands use the Euro as their main currency.

Most Caribbean islands offer tax breaks of some description to foreigners. For example, St Lucia, Antigua and Barbados are three of the islands where there is no such thing as Capital Gains or Inheritance Tax. If this is important to you, sit down with a tax and legal expert and find which islands could save you money before committing to anything.

A taste of what’s available

Where: Sugar Beach, St Lucia
Price: From $700k (£462k)
Set in the Val des Pitons and run by a world-renowned hotel brand, available here are one and two-bed villas with private infinity pools.
Contact: Prestigious Properties; 0208 812 4734; www.prestigious-properties.co.uk

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