Regardless of where you are located, financing raw land is always a much bigger challenge than buying property with a home on it. The Caribbean is no different, and in many ways much more difficult. The marketability simply is not the same as that of a regular lot with a home. There are also no rents that can be assigned in case of payments falling behind. All in all, it is much more of a challenge.
Fully serviced lots will always be more appealing than bare land. If you plan to put a house on the lot right away, this can make it much easier as well. Usually when client buy a lot in a subdivision with all the services, this suggests to the lender that you plan to do something fairly soon, whereas bare land can be a place to sit on your investment.
Oceanfront property is also seen as much more marketable property, so regardless of services, this will be more appealing to a lender.
This can be a difficult question to answer, as it is very much on a case by basis. As mentioned above, location services, island etc, all play a large part on whether we have any luck. A purchase is always seen as more appealing than a refinance as well.
The best advice we can give you is to talk to us first. Based on the particulars of the deal, we can likely give you an idea of what options we will have, and what those options will cost.