Hundreds of St Lucians living overseas, most notably Canada, England and the United States have converged on St Lucia for the biggest gathering of St Lucians from overseas, called St Lucia Homecoming 2010. According to the organizers 1,200 St Lucians have been registered to arrive for the events with the theme “Tout Sent Lisyen Se’ Yonn!” The organizers have described it as a celebration of the contributions of St Lucians living overseas to their homeland and their adopted countries.
We are reminded that St Lucians living overseas have made substantial contributions to St Lucia by way of financial remittances to their families at home, approximating $3 million annually, according to official figures. We therefore must welcome them with open arms, because, as the St Lucian saying goes, their navel strings are buried in the St Lucian earth.
I feel a natural affinity to the St Lucian diaspora from overseas visiting their homeland, for I am too aware of the wistful yearning that one feels away from home, having lived a substantial part of my life living and working overseas: my first foray as a youngster working in Montserrat at Radio Antilles for four years; one year in Dominica; then five years studying in England and four years thereafter working in New York.
I therefore, found it necessary to issue a reality check to the many St Lucians who are expected to invest in their homeland.
Many of the returnees will find that the St Lucia they left is totally unrecognizable today. St Lucia has changed dramatically from the slow-moving island of sleepy villages and towns to a bustling and vibrant society, due to the economic and infra-structural development that have altered the physical landscape.
The Northern corridor of the island, featuring such areas as the picturesque Rodney Bay Marina with its cafes and restaurants, has spawned a number of high-end housing developments such as the central housing area of Rodney Bay, Rodney Heights and Bonne Terre with their spectacular views, and the many attractive homes in Cap Estate.
One of the striking features of these developments, particularly as it applies to Cap Estate, is that those areas were once the exclusive preserve of wealthy expatriates but are now largely occupied by indigenous St Lucians.
South of the northern corridor, the city of Castries has been transformed into a bustling commercial area with ultra modern buildings on par with those in the metropolitan countries, such as our national bank, and the Blue Coral Building. The Castries Waterfront with its glittering buildings creates a vista of one of the most picturesque and impressive harbours in the region.
But beneath the glitter lies the harsh reality that faces our compatriots from overseas as well as today’s generation of St Lucians, and those of the future. Those who did not take advantage of the opportunities to purchase land or a home at affordable prices a decade or so ago, will discover that a distorted market has emerged, putting the prices of property beyond the reach of the average St Lucian.
As an illustration: at the advent of St Lucia’s attainment of independence in 1979, the visionary Sir John obtained an agreement with the owners of Cap Estate to sell land to St Lucian nationals exclusively at 50¢ EC per sq ft. Very few St Lucians took up the option to purchase land in the most exclusive area in their country, under the outrageous advice given by our pseudo- intellectuals and revolutionaries of the time that St Lucians should not buy land at Cap because it was a manifestation of “bourgeois aspirations.” In retrospect such advice seems shocking, but they are true for those who recall our tumultuous period of the politics of the 1970s, dealt in-depth in Rick’s book Lapses & Infelicities, a period when much discord was sown in St Lucia. While in St Lucia our visitors should avail themselves of the opportunity of having this definitive history of St Lucia, indeed it should be in the library of every St Lucian.
As a practicing realtor with knowledge of the industry, I was concerned that persons with perfectly respectable jobs and earning decent salaries were unable to pay the astronomical prices people were asking for property in St Lucia.
I was so concerned about this development that as press secretary to Prime Minister Stephenson King I wrote a memo highlighting that particular issue, with the hope that the Prime Minister would consider it in trying to correct this situation in St Lucia. With respect to the relevant paragraph, I wrote as follows:
“Mr Prime Minister, nothing is so central to everyone’s dream as owning a home. The promise that must emanate from you is that you as Prime Minister, will work assiduously to make available to the working and middle-classes, the opportunity to own houses by the disbursement or release of the vast tracks of land that are under government control in the form of Crown Lands at affordable prices.
“You are aware that speculation in land has created a situation where St Lucians are being priced out of the housing market. The future of our children is put in jeopardy as it seems they will never be able to afford a home with the skyrocketing price of land and houses in St Lucia. “The social and economic consequences of this trend are frightening, for while we strive for a more equitable society, the divisions in society will widen between those who will be seen to be able to afford those high prices and those who cannot.
“This will manifest itself in social conflict and the commitment of crimes targeted at those who can afford, creating a siege mentality and the creation of gated communities which could destroy the country’s reputation as a friendly and safe environment, with private security, creating enclaves not accessible to St Lucians. In the situation that currently exists, it is nigh impossible for the average working family to purchase a small piece of land for even $40,000 to $50,000. The prices being quoted for small house-lots of 5,000 to 6,000 sq ft are $100,000 and upwards, and some persons are cleverly quoting house prices in US and pounds sterling currency to give the impression that the property is not overpriced. Houses which would formerly have fetched about $350,000 EC are quoted at $350,000 US and beyond which when converted into EC go beyond the million dollar mark.
“By breaking the back of this madness the antagonisms of social conflict can be avoided. Government can institute a ‘means test’ which could guard against rapacious speculators from taking advantage of such government initiatives. The political and social rewards for such a course of action would be far greater than the extraordinary amounts that have been committed for the purchase of the Daher building which could be reversed. For home ownership imbues in one personal responsibility, inculcates family values and instills in one the value of hard-work which is required to secure and protect one’s own home, and contributes to overall social stability.”
That is how I put it to the Prime Minister. I have seen enough of the difficulties faced by St Lucians trying to acquire a small house lot. In the most remote areas sellers are demanding $15 and $18 per sq ft for land with the average size of around 8,000 to 10,000 sq ft, therefore the average house lot costs between $150,000 to $180,000. When will this madness end?
I can relate the story of an individual approaching me to sell land in a rural area, with no water, no electricity and no road. He calmly asked if I could sell 14 acres of land at $10 per sq ft. You do the math. Dear reader an acre of land is 43,560 sq ft. At $10 per sq ft this is calculated at $435,600 per acre, making a grand total of $6.1 million for 14 acres. I am convinced that St Lucians do not understand the meaning or the worth and value of one million dollars. I simply dismiss those persons by advising them that if they believe that the buyer can purchase their land at such a ridiculous price because it is agricultural land that should fetch no more than $50,000 to $60,000 an acre, why don’t they simply develop it and sell it themselves. Those wishing to invest in a start-up business will find that rentals are prohibitive. To rent a space in the city ranges from $10 to $12 per sq ft with a small space of 250 sq ft costing $3,000. The same rates now apply to the north of the country. Unless one has vast financial
reserves unrelated to returns from the business how can one afford a small space of300 sq ft?
In order to correct this outrageous situation in the real estate market, government must as an imperative seek to create the environment for St Lucians, both home and abroad to share in the ultimate dream and aspiration of owning a home or piece of land in their country. The patriotic fervor that you should have for your country cannot be nurtured if you are excluded from owning a
piece of land in your country. The government must seek to burst the bubble that exists in the market by utilizing the vast lands under its control to low and middle-income earners.
A parting word to our visitors is that St Lucia Homecoming 2010 should not just be an opportunity for empty rhetoric and bachannal, to just return home after having a good time. Some realistic and concrete proposals should emerge. Think what 100 people combining their financial resources can realize in terms of joint ventures in their homeland. Show the world that blacks are not only mindless consumers but can be successful entrepreneurs too.
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46 Responses for “Home sweet home? Reality check!”
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Yes, a few were fooled into coming home but the vast majority of St Lucians in the Diaspora knew that it was just a show . There was never any substance to this thing in the first place but a chance to hear King and government ministers pay lip service to the Diaspora and to drink rum and fete.
Nothing of tangible importance will come out of this. It’s only a ploy and a lot of people saw through this. What a waste of government time resource in promoting and facilitating this.
My advise drink your rum, play big shot in St Lucia for a few days, and come back to your misery and illusive dreams in the Diaspora. Where St Lucia is concerned nothing has changed everything will remain the same upon your return.
When are we going to stop listerning to the words of fools in government? St Lucians must learn to plot their own future.
Canada is an over priced, over valued, over rated and over controlled country, complete opposite to St. Lucia which is under rated, low priced and free. Give me St. Lucia any day over that Great White prison in the north with it’s false posture of a great fun place to live if you like paying too much for everything including high taxes with police all over the place makoing you like are a criminal.
Dear Jeff and the Star- excellent article.
A review of land and house prices is long over due. Jeff presented a great over view as to how we got here, how ever in my humble opinion there are some other issues which have contributed to this price bubble.
Allowing unlicensed realtors and often time visiting tourist tuned land experts to enter the local market and placing high values on land in remote areas has influence prices. I insist that realtors MUST be licensed by the government and this should be only reserved for nationals. Exparts should not be allowed to come here on a vacation and within two weeks turn into land experts.
The government MUST have a national housing policy and zone lands for middle and low income housing. This must be a well thought out and modern assessment. The expertise are here, the last government ran a very success project called Proud, we must continue to implement the lessons learnt form that project.
Part of the land price issue is the cluster in the north of the island, creating scarcity, thus forcing process up.
The government MUST increase the limit of tax exempt from mortgages. Presently this is at 15k ec dollars; this should be double in my opinion. This will make it a priority for St.Lucians to take the risk of home ownership, and be rewarded for it.
While I am total against government dictating the price persons should sell their homes/land, may be it is time to look at a capital gains tax of at least 1%, on any gains over 600% from original purchase price.
Last we must encourage an entreprenuers revolution in St.Lucia. The government must create that enabling environment so we can:
* Create our own version of Silicon Valley with various manufacturing industries.
* Financial houses respect the local environments and ideas fostered from our local culture
* Create more incentives for the marketing and agriculture sectors, and explore linkages with tourism.
* Bring the st.lucian entrepreneur back home my creating…
Lawyer fees have to be reduced, they are getting paid all that money for doing what? Also look what has happened now that the Government has created a price schedule for land surveyors , it’s become almost impossible to surveyor you land because of high cost and and the unavailability of surveyors.
Maybe the Government can zone the land near Fedee’s home. I am reading a slight hint of socialism in this whole topic as well as xenophobia.
Guthbert. I fully agree with you. Most foreign realtors are amateurs.
A realtor must be licensed. Anyway due to the present world crisis, sales are very low. Most of them will disappear. Also the standard of local building contractors is very poor. We need good technical schooling for carpenters, electricians, masons and finishing crews.
Good contractors in St. Lucia are charging prices that exceed 40-50%of the cost in the USA per square feet. As many small contractors did not survive the crisis, the few larger ones have “joined” to increase prices enormously.
First of all St Lucia needs to do a far better job at “policing” the illegal work being done here my foreigners WITHOUT work permits. It is quite clear that foreigners - particularly those working here in real estate - have some sort of arbitrary arrangement when it comes to getting a work permit. Though I’m reluctant to encourage a tip-off type deal in St Lucia, particularly when certain locals don’t pay their taxes or routinely break the laws, but Immigration needs to know when locals see or think they see Immigration abuses. Of course those going through the correct channels can expect to wait up to a year for a work permit which makes the whole system ludicrous and liable to be rife with corruption.
The only way St Lucia can develop the skill base to accomplish goals in Silicon Valley-type projects is to
1. Offer St Lucians AND THEIR SPOUSES priority upon their return in the workplace here
2. Team up with other islands in the Dwight Venner type arrangement for extra clout.
3. Actively develop OFFSHORE business to attract skilled locals/returners and grant EASILY OBTAINED work permits for foreigners* who can develop tech and financial service businesses that can participate in the global economy but which ARE NOT allowed to do business in St Lucia. This positions the island to compete alongside Bermuda, BVI and Cayman and also as a back-office to these islands since the costs are generally far lower here and communication technology is in place to assist this.
*These foreigners are on time restricted work permits (say five years) and these in turn are mostly conditional on the development of skilled locals to replace them
You hit the nail on the head, this is exactly what should happen.
Once there is proper oversight and regulations, things will not spin out of control.
* Bring the st.lucian entrepreneur back home by creating very attractive concessions and incentives.
I think this is a great topic, one which should engage all of us!
Bring them back to do what? I am against the concept of concessions and incentives because they make you a beggar. why not just have a fair and realistic tax system? It’s always about Government power or should I say control and that is what discourages and destroys small business.
Botox you are in really good form today, or should I say yesterday. I like just about everything you are saying here.
BUT
In the four years I have lived in St Lucia, with my St Lucian spouse, there are TWO things that really get my goat:
1. The complete lack of planning of any sort for the future of St Lucians, who it is assumed I guess will leave if they have any talent whatsoever
and
2. The amount of neglect in the areas to the south and southwest of Castries to Canaries where NOTHING in spite of illusions to the contrary in Anse La Raye has been done to develop the constituency. On the contrary, these areas are getting worse and worse while the north becomes saturated.
I do believe there should be visible incentives and enabling legislation for ALL investors to create west coast employment and to stimulate the employment pool there.
Folks seem to forget that the chances are that the returning St Lucian has married a foreign spouse. Worse still they are returning with a common law spouse. Unless these spouses get citizenship there is nothing for them. I would think that if one has been married for ten years or more the chances are it is not a sham arrangement.
St. Lucia can some times almost drive me off the deep end, but it’s the raw nature of all things possible in this virgin land that has me so seduced.
I don’t usually agree with you botox but I do agree with you on this comment. well said
This is a problem in other Caribbean nations too. The obscene costs are out of control. Thanks for the article. More people need to think about the future over a quick dollar.In general, foreign wealth seems to drive the madness at a price that the next generations will bear. Foreign ownership should be capped so that one person, business, or entity cannot amass large quantities of land and push locals out of capacity to own a small piece their homeland.
Government officials in most countries do not really work for the best interest of the people but for the interest of re-election and retirement. Sad. The ones that do work for the people are either too few or misguided in thinking that short term plans without long term thinking are a good thing.
“The patriotic fervor that you should have for your country cannot be nurtured if you are excluded from owning a
piece of land in your country. The government must seek to burst the bubble that exists in the market by utilizing the vast lands under its control to low and middle-income earners.”
Hey, it’s called a free market, it’s funny how when you want to buy land in St. Lucia, you would like to reverse the values of real estate, yet places like Canada do all under the sky to force prices upwards. Here is the truth of it all, capitalism is a pyramid scheme, all those who bought early got rich, Those who buy now lose.
patriotism should not be your reasoning of life.
I’m glad you touched on this Botox. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Fedee keeps mentioning St Lucians this and St Lucians that yet THEY in many cases are the ones with the big BMWs
having liquidated some big land holdings in St Lucia. Local lawyers seem to only know LAND when they think of investing.
St Lucians exacerbated public housing problems (to a small extent admittedly) in cities like London and yet the St Lucia situation is OUTRAGEOUS!!!
It is these returning St Lucians who have cashed in their equity in their former council houses who are in many cases now buying into Rodney Heights etc.
Could somebody please explain to me exactly WHERE St Lucia would be if it hadn’t had an opportunity to liquidate some of its land and gain foreign exchange. Back twenty odd years ago one could find property here languishing in the FOR SALE section which had been there for YEARS and at the same price for YEARS. This OUTRAGEOUS? situation actually allowed some liquidity into the market and a price rise to boot.
This last week I had the misfortune to traverse the gap in Cul de Sac at the entrance to the Millenium Highway. For months there has been a need for some urgent patching there (about fifteen square yards). On Thursday at around 2:00 pm I would guess (go figure!) a large crew of what must have been twenty workers with spades and five or six supervisors set to work on this. As I passed at 3:00 pm they were cutting into the potholes with those spades to clear them. None were set aside to direct traffic, so it appeared. When I returned on Saturday this work alone had been cleared and the massive and very dangerous potholes on Millenium remained. Thursday Friday and Saturday weather in Cul de Sac was for the most part good and sunny.
Do we wonder why construction costs in St Lucia have risen now to $200 per square foot?
Jeff my friend
Brilliant writing as always you are a genius of a writer. In fact, you, Rick and Jason S. are a few of the best writers out there anywhere in the world. Send me an email at this email belonging to a friend, maurice1927@gmail.com I really need to talk to you about a few things. Don’t let the Dantes profile confuse you.
Dantes
50 cents per sq. ft. removes all doubt, St. Lucians are unfit to run an independent country. how else do you spell out stupidity?
Great article. There is practicality and foresight in its recommendation.
I agree with the writer that -” ….nothing is so central to everyone’s dream as owning a home.”, whether in Saint Lucia or elsewhere. As the Bajan man said - a man’s house is his castle, no matter how big or small it is, hence the need for the State to provide or facilitate affordable housing for the citizenry.
For the vast majority of followers/employees and unemployed, whether in London, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Castries or Vieux Fort, their biggest investments will be in purchasing or building a dream house. I have witnessed and/or know of many returnees who have worked all hours and jobs in London, Birmingham , Leeds [England], Canada and America to save enough money and/or get a pension to build a monstrous house in the homeland, only to die months within its completion. I even know of some who had to augment their gratuities with loans from unscrupulous financial institutions to build or purchase this dream house.
Somebody needs to educate our literate and semi-literate returnees on the value of money and life expectancy. Why must a man or woman take his life earned savings and gratuity to build such humongous and most times atrocious buildings, for them and their spouses to live in only for a few months/ years, when they know that their English, Canadian or American off-springs will never dream of living in a Saint Lucia where friends, schoolmates, cousins and colleagues are foreign to them? Those of us who spent our early childhood on the rock, do have sweet-bitter memories of life on the rock, hence the nostalgia can be refreshing, but should we or can we impose those memories on our children and grand children?
Therefore my advice to those returnees is simply this, if you have no experience in investing in or managing a business, do not try it in your old age, as you are being enticed to do. Do what all pensioners in the metropolis do, enjoy your retirement and pension. At your age you ought to be relieving stress not testing it. You can…
i agree with you sir….plus too many lucians sold their land cheap to live in apartments in big cities …….some left good jobs here to go and live illegally in forieng lands drawn to the lights ect…….did you expect that life would stand still and wait for your return……..wake up and smell the bois den tea…….stlucia is a mostly resort community with only 238 sq miles and a population of 265,000…do the math…….most stlucians poor or well off have the latest cell phones…….the badest cars and dress with the latest best name brand……….those who do not have good well paying jobs find other means to subsidise their lifestyles includeing……the drug trade……..what they calling for is a form of socialism which is dangerous in our form of demorcratic capitalism………….take it or leave it …it is what it is………..so to the lucians who leave their homes and go to live like secound class citizens in forieng land hopeing to be legal some day and have enough money to come back and live nice….think twice…….stay home or if you go know that you may never be able to come back………
St Lucia has changed dramatically from the slow-moving island of sleepy villages and towns where the people were known to be very hospitable and lived in almost perfect harmony to a bustling and vibrant society riddled with crime, corruption, selfishness greed and many other unfavourable, harmful and hostile attitudes that come with social, economic and infra-structural development void of a rational futuristic plan and consequently have altered the physical landscape and inevitably have affected and is transforming behaviours and the nature of things social to the detriment of the people, which is currently quite evident in our youth’s culture.
Photos like the one above which is a symbol of change and development in St Lucia are quite colourful and impressive but is like an optical illusion. Zoom in by personally walking along the streets, roads and alleys of St Lucia and noticing the many flaws in infastructural develpment like well paved roads with no parking spaces or parking lots, absolutely no sidewalks and lighting for pedestrians and poor drainage to mention a few paints a totally different picture.
Homecoming is good for St Lucia. It is a heathy reunion for home based St Lucians and all those who come over to St Lucia to participate. I am hoping it is a great success. Because of the bad economic climate many foreign based St Lucians who would’ve liked to be home for this memorable event are unable to do so. I think the organizers should coincide this event with the Holiday Season in late December. Kudos to the organizers and the people who worked hard toward making this concept a reality.
leave it as it is….all we have to do is have a section 8 kind of department to sell land for the poor and those who make less than 20.ooo /year……..trying to bust the buble is a form of socialism which stlucia can not afford to do,,,,,,,,,,if we do this we will chase the investors that have stlucia floating all now so………be careful what you wish for stlucia……..make up your minds either we are capitalist or follow cuba…….those who left their homes years ago should of kept in touch so they would know they had to save alot more…….its a global economy….times have changed……wake up
Stlu tea party you are nothing but a farce…there needs to be some regulation as to how, who and where land is sold on the Island. At present some Islands have enact something to that effect I think St. Kitts is one . History has shown us that you have to accomadate the less fortunate in any society otherwise it will lead to violence. Locals must have the right to purchase. After all it is our Island too.
most poor people almost deserve to be poor…give them some money and they do worse than those with money now…….so according to you we should redistribute the wealth….nonesense…….i am not saying we should not help poor people however we can do so without so called regulation which will only cause our investors who employ those same people to go elsewhere………we have to decide …are we capitalist or communist………..those same poor people were the ones who sold their land cheap to follow city lights……………..st lucia good just how it is…all the government have to do is make land and houses available for people below a certain yearly income available at decent prices…..anything else we all suffer together………….emotions dosent run economies dollars do……….think
Ok tea party…no one chooses to be poor if there was a magic wand available to all ,no one would be in that predicament. I guess you have some how distinguished your self as one of the haves…well the have nots will some day rise up and claim theirs. Remember if there is no regulation of some sort it must lead chaos….ok well keep shutting them out…..raise the bar and they will come knocking at your door.
as a matter of fact ..i am a poor man living in conway…however i am no an idiot plus i leave my emotions aside when it comes to facts…..cheers
“the creation of gated communities which could destroy the country’s reputation as a FRIENDLY AND SAFE ENVIRONMENT, with private security, creating enclaves not accessible to St Lucians.”
Sadly, we know that the above no longer applies and there is precious little chance of quietly enjoying the property in St Lucia that one has acquired unless one turns it into a fortress.
St Lucians are looking to create gated communities so that they can keep the trouble at a safe distance. After all, they know about the crime. I accept that this is NOT a big issue in Rodney Bay.
I believe that the current economic turmoil and local issues will have taken the heat out of the BUYING spree which was supposed to reach a peak at World Cup 2007 but which never materialised. This will give St Lucia an opportunity to create some proper national plans for development to cover affordable housing plus any residual* - and that’s all it should be now RESIDUAL as there is enough tourism-related property here apart from in Vieux Fort - tourism development.
* Scrub Marquis Estate plus anything else in Rodney Bay area.
I feel St Lucian investors who buy now on the island are going to be unhappy with their investment where there is indeed some sort of moratorium on future foreign investors some of whom are looking to SELL rather than buy.
I would guess that the typical interest charge on a property loan is 11% (say 8% net of tax). With the foreign investment moratorium and Caribbean stop-over tourism in a gradual decline (forget cruise ship passengers) and no other industry even considered, that investor as actually going backwards as there will be no likely appreciation to speak of. This lack of buying power will even hurt the investment prospects for cash buyers and definitely those who have a loan but no real income to take the interest against. I also don’t see that the long-term renting out alternative is anywhere near as attractive as it once was.
Jeff,
I applaud this this article and the contributions of the persons above. A lot of positives have been espressed in the write ups. Ths issue is not about the ownership of land,but also that of developing a sound policy for the longterm protection and preservation of the its physical condition. Far too often we have seen the development process compromising the productive capacity of our lands; in the process limiting our ability to maximize its use.
Future land ownership cannot be dealt with in isolation from the present reproductive rate of our nation. They are inter related and should be treated in this way.
You are right man, the issue is not about land but the writer put a whole lotta emphasis on the subject of land when this is all about the “St Lucian diaspora from overseas visiting their homeland,” I guess it is because he is a practicing realtor he took the opportunity to market what he does … He got carried away and the land issue and took along some of you with him.
I think my good friend is right, toot too is definitely booche’, you can’t even escape to the beach cuz someone will send you back.
I always try to find some good in any situation and the one good thing in all of this is that Fair Helen won’t be seeing any foreign ‘trailer trash’ for quite a while.
To the Diaspora, please find comfort in the fact that home is where you lay your head to sleep at nights. You are like Jews wandering the Earth and hoping to find your way back to the Promised Land. Paradise have changed my friends and it is not a birthright anymore, It is sold piece by piece to the highest bidder. So sorry.
what bubble? ask the banks about that…the market will fix it self ….please keep off…..
The real estate bubble is busting as we write. There are so many people who invested in properties for 2007 Cricket world cup, there are people who thought their houses were worth $500,000 after investing over $100,000 in a $140,000 property, now they can’t even get an offer of $200,000. What bubble? The first sign of a bubble is a decline in first time buyers, in our case the bubble is fueled by a lack of foreign buyers, they are the ones who offer a good deal for your property. When you sell to a local it’s like giving away what you own, their offers a just crappy, just think about it, where a foreign buyer would offer you $500,000 a local would only offer you $175,000. Our bubble is worse than any other because it’s kept quiet and a rosy picture is painted. Right now real estate investment in places like St. Lucia is a bad idea, even worse in Canada where interest rates are going up and first time buyers are falling and house prices are peaking. Sorry folks real estate is not what you thought it was, the pyramid scheme always needs new buyers, once the first time buyers dwindle the pyramid starts to collapse or bubble busting.
QED!
So what you’re saying Botox, and what I agree with, is that this entire article is just another piece of inflammatory garbage.
Isn’t that what the media do so well?
“Right now real estate investment in places like St. Lucia is a bad idea” because:
1. Lack of government leadership for St Lucia
2. Anti-foreigner groundswell building
3. Too many alternatives now that other islands look better value
4. Interest rates
5. Unregulated real estate business - some crooked agents and some crooked lawyers
6. The bubble was there and has burst
7. Rodney Bay saturation and traffic
8. WATER
9. Asking prices are always far too high
10. VAT is coming and could screw everything up because this is not a culture of law-abiding tax payers
That is right, the media plants their version of what they want you to perceive as truth and as a result control your choices and affect your daily life, so in a way it’s a type of politics. This is so all over the world in fact in larger countries the Government holds a lot of control and power over the media because it’s a very effective tool to control the population.
Truth has many faces.
ok so people who wanted to make more money lost then those who want to buy a home to live in for the next 10 years at least should be enjoying a buyers market according to what you are saying……so that should be a good thing for people who want to come back home to live….. i do not think stlucians are suffering because they would at least drop the prices……house rent is very expensive…….land is expensive……..there fore lucians can afford to wait for the highest bidder so if you call it a bubble its far from bust……..thats the way i see it……
One more thing, banks in St. lucia do not recognize asset vale loans, so that property you have been paying off for last 20 - 30 years is seen as worthless in the banks eyes, if you wanted to borrow against your property forget it, they only understand hard cash unlike places like Canada or the USA, you can borrow up to 90% of the value of your property no questions asked. So in a way the banks in St. Lucia never lose, but that might start to change as more people begin to default on mortgages and other loans, I can see more people walking away from over valued homes as they can’t afford them anymore.
botox the bank are overloaded with assets ….they need liquid cash because none of the overpriced assets can be sold at this time…….you should know better than compareing usa and canada with stlucia…….for example …i am in denver for a confrence and we just came from a pizza shop…pies made with weed…..brownies for sale ..all legal………in a few weeks usa helicopters will be in stvincent hills burning weed………..you figure it out………….
Well said STLU but if you are going that route then the mortgage deal has to be more affordable than their counter part in America. You can’t call it an asset if it cannot be liquified , the making of money in banks whether in St. Lucia or any other place is the same, the money is created from nothing, just a digital record at the bank.
What a great article Jeff. It was so refreshing seeing you recently after so many years. You were a great employer and I learned alot from you!
I have to say that so many writers have written so much nonsense, on the above. Mr.St.Hill for instance. The quote is An Englishman’s home is his castle. Its is not a Bajan phrase. He ignores the laws of supply and demand.
Some writers divide returnees and the host communities. We are all St. Lucians stupid.
Its a free country the last time I looked. So a person can build their house, when ever they want. So many green eye mosters.
Affordable housing??!!
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/property-26730892.html
What price a view of the Pitons? LOL!
Anon I love your sense of humor . Diamonds a simply carbon based stones with a wonderful glitter, worth no more and no less than any other rock, but you have been conditioned to associate this rock with a status of wealth. Real estate is no different, it’s all bs.
Our government needs to have some serious land ownership laws and enforce them. Higher taxes for immigrants! and price control for St lucians abroad wanting to purchase. You know I would love to retire home(St Lucia) but it is absurd what people are asking for a few sq feet of land! It is almost as if they’re not even wanting you to come back home!
“Price control for St. Lucian abroad”, Cheryl lets not go there. As if just because you were born in St. Lucia makes it that you have more rights than non St. Lucian. Land is and has always been for those who can afford it, People have suffered paying off mortgages and don’t need your little socialist intervention.
amen botox……….ask them why they left to begin with………did they expect every thing to stand still and wait for them ………its a global economy…..wake up…….
let this be a warning to stlucians who want to go live in the usa illegally,hopeing to get legal some day and come home rich……if you can not make it in stlucia …you will never make it in the usa illegally………with proper papers or going to school it may work…….thousands of lucians are stuck overseas too ashamed to return ,living in roach and rat infested run down apartments unable to live like proper citizens……..even those who have papers can hardly make ends meet……….they save and take loans to come an showoff on vacations they can hardly afford only to have to return to live as secound class citizens………if you not going to a job or school ….stay home ,use your head and make it home…….or you to will be begging for the gov of stlucia to bring down house and land prices so you can some day come back…..all that glitter is not gold……people from other countries are comeing to stlucia with a brief case full of things to sell and before you know it they have business,,,,,,why cant we…………stlucia helen of the west