St Lucia
Truly Blessed
New flight routes combined with holiday homes in spectacularly scenic locations should be enough to put St Lucia on any property hunter’s radar. We take a closer look at this lush corner of the Caribbean.
By Richard Way
If you’ve always hankered after a home in the Caribbean but felt priced out of the market, it could be time to consider St Lucia.
Prices on this volcanic tropical island, recently in the spotlight after Amy Winehouse took a liking to it, are a reported 40 per cent cheaper than more established Barbados, and the number of flights to the island is on the up.
From the end of October British Airways has added two extra weekly flights to St Lucia, meaning its winter schedule there includes flights from Gatwick every day of the week, bar Monday and Saturday. Virgin Atlantic also flies there from Gatwick three times a week. Flights from the UK take approximately eight hours, putting travel time on a par with Florida.
And encouraging new for anyone looking to maximise rental return from foreign holidaymakers is the addition of two other new routes to the island – one from New York, operated by JetBlue, and another from Frankfurt, run by Condor.
In recent years, tourism has taken over (from bananas) as St Lucia’s main industry, and the island has carved itself a niche as an all inclusive holiday destination that’s more expensive but more exotic than Europe, while being cheaper than Caribbean hotspot, Barbados.
Thankfully, development has been kept in check, largely due to the island’s mountainous interior. “There is not a huge amount of inventory for sale,” says Ollie Gobat, who was brought up on the island and works there as director of sales at The Landings development in Rodney Bay (www.thelandingsstlucia.com). “It is an island whose topography will always prevent mass tourism and development and that is a good thing, without doubt. St Lucia will always retain its stunning beauty, which is what appeals to people about St Lucia in the first place.”
Recently the island’s tourist offering has shifted upmarket. Formerly deemed a three-star destination, its resorts are now attracting internationally branded hotels and boutique developments, such as The Landings, which is built around a marina and counts Carol Vorderman and DJ Trevor Nelson among its owners. Apartments start at $550k (£331K).
So does this make the island expensive? Not compared to Barbados. “In my opinion, St Lucia is rightly portrayed as a viable alternative to Barbados, offering lower prices on similar properties – there is a lower density over a larger area – which can meet all market demands,” says Marco Bonini, MD of Caribbean specialist Prestigious Properties (www.prestigious-properties.co.uk).
Bonini continues, “St Lucia has a wide range of properties available, starting as low as $200k (£120k) for condos or apartments inland, ranging to $12million (£7.2million) for premium developments.”
Most buyers start their search in the island’s tourism hub – the area between Rodney Bay and Cap Estate in the north-west of the island. Around 90 per cent of St Lucia’s second homes are in this area. Rodney Bay is a lively marina resort, where investment is ongoing – a new upmarket shopping mall is due to open in 2010 and the marina is having a £125m revamp that means it will be able to house superyachts – St Lucia is a world-renowned sailing paradise.
The south of St Lucia, home to the stunning forest-covered volcanic cones known as the Pitons, is no longer below the radar. “An exclusive hotspot at the moment is the protected UNESCO World Heritage area between the Pitons, which is undergoing controlled development,” says Bonini.
The “controlled development” Bonini refers to are the five-star Tides Sugar Beach resort, and Glenconner Beach and Ocean Residences, where villas start at $2.8million (£1.69million).
Tides Sugar Beach is due for completion in 2011. On offer there, on a freehold buy-to-let basis, are 85 luxury villas, set among 190 acres of mountainous landscape leading down to the beachfront. The resort will be managed by the Kor Hotel Group.
Elsewhere, according to Bonini, “Other developments are realising that savvy investors are looking to buy in the south, and plans are afoot for a few more developments along the coast, but not between the Pitons.”
St Lucia’s appeal goes deeper than its scenery and properties. It’s currently in the World Bank’s top 30 countries in the world to invest in, ahead of any Caribbean island.
On top of that, the tax system there is highly favourable to investors and residents. “Tax concessions include 10-15 years free of income tax, there’s no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, and one can have offshore tax status in St Lucia,” says Vivian Bridge of Admiral Estates. Income tax is waived on certain developments, while stamp duty (two per cent), is only payable on land if construction has not yet started on the buyer’s particular villa.
And if, like Amy Winehouse, you fall for St Lucia, you might spend more time there than you first imagined – there are government initiatives under way to allow automatic residency for all overseas property buyers. Tempted?
Tags: Pitons, St Lucia, Tides Sugar Beach, UNESCO