One cost of buying a property in the Caribbean that you may or may not have where you currently reside is stamp duty. Stamp duty is a one time tax from the government on the purchase of your Caribbean property. These taxes vary by country and also vary depending on the amount of the purchase, so I will avoid getting into too many specifics. All you really need to know is this cost is fixed and is unavoidable.
Many countries in the Caribbean do not have personal or property taxes, this is the purpose of the stamp duty. These taxes can be quite difficult to collect and the infrastructure to put the systems in place can be onerous, so one time taxes are a far more appealing way of collecting revenue. These taxes are hopefully discussed up front on any real estate transaction as they can be a bit of a surprise if you don’t know its coming. Stamp duties are usually between 5-10%, which is significant enough that you have to be cognizant of them, but not so much they will likely be a deal breaker one way or the other. Talk to the local realtor you are dealing with in the country you are looking for details on how the stamp duty works, and what the different cut off levels are for each tier.
Depending on the lender we place you with, we are often able to finance the stamp duty as long as we don’t exceed the overall allowable loan to value for that lender.