As we finally start to see a finish line for the pandemic, I think now is the perfect time to buy a Caribbean investment property. This might sound premature, however let’s take a look at my reasoning to see if you agree.
The vaccine is having the desired effect, cases are plummeting in most of the developed world. It is a slow process, and we are not out of the woods, but we are on the right track. It is only a matter of months before some semblance of normalcy is back. Once this starts to happen, planes are going to start flying south once again.
New guidelines on vaccinated travelers will have a significant effect on occupancy rates in Caribbean hotels and rental properties. While most of these countries hovered in the 10-20% occupancy range through most of the past year, things are about to change in a big way.
As mentioned above, occupancy rates (and thus income) for rental properties have taken a beating over the past year. For those who need this income to carry their properties, we could see a glut of properties hit the market once there is any sign of optimism in the market. Desperate sellers create golden opportunities.
Not all of our markets saw the real estate market take a hit, quite the contrary in Turks and Caicos and Cayman Islands. However, not all sellers are in the same situation, and pretty much across the board, short term rental properties have done poorly over the past year. Some of these investors are going to become sellers.
Once the flood gates open at the airports, the opportunity could be gone. Savvy investors look for windows where a buy low opportunity may exist. That time to buy window is right now, as we are potentially only months away from a spike in tourism.
If you are looking to finance your investment property in the Caribbean, reach out to us regarding the options. We generally deal with private financing however we do have a jumbo bank mortgage for properties valued at over 2M USD.