Report blames opposition public statements for St. Lucia’s “most uncertain” CBI programme

After two consecutive years of being ranked the worst Citizenship by Investment (CBI) option in the Caribbean, Saint Lucia has climbed one spot in the Financial Times’ Professional Wealth Management (PWM) CBI Index. First introduced in 2017, the Index ranks the various CBI programmes across the world. For their ranking, the PWM uses seven pillars, or categories, each worth a maximum of ten points: freedom of movement, standard of living, minimum investment outlay, mandatory travel or residence, citizenship timeline, ease of processing and due diligence. 

In the PWM’s inaugural Index, Dominica tallied 63 points and placed first out of 12 countries. St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Lucia followed with 61, 60, 55 and 53 points, respectively. Saint Lucia scored 6, 6, 10, 10, 9, 7 and 5 in the pillars. In 2018, the order in the Caribbean remained the same. Saint Lucia received a total score of 55, scoring 7, 6, 10, 10, 8, 9, and 5 in the pillars. The report described Saint Lucia’s programme as the Caribbean’s “most politically divisive”, referencing the opposition SLP’s promise to review all successful applications for citizenship if and when they return to office. 

In the recently released 2019 Index, Saint Lucia moved up in the rankings, placing fourth ahead of Antigua and Barbuda. Dominica retained the number one spot, followed by St. Kitts & Nevis and Grenada. 

In the pillars Saint Lucia recorded 8, 6, 10, 10, 9, 9 and 7.  Much like the 2018 Index, concerns were again raised by the PWM team. This time around, Saint Lucia’s programme was described as the Caribbean’s “most uncertain”.

The report reads in part: “There are concerns with respect to the real estate arm of the program, which has seen project cancellations and suspensions, and which currently only features one approved development. There are also continued claims by the Saint Lucia opposition party that legislative changes to the program ‘will be repealed upon a return to governance.’ ”  

The real estate option has been a sore point for authorities at the CBI programme. In February, Nestor Alfred, the Chief Executive Officer of the Citizenship by Investment Unit, addressed the option in an interview with the STAR. “It has not been a route that the CIP board has been overly excited about,” he said. “However, we have had a number of CIP approved projects but we have not gone the route of offering them to investors, simply because we took the position that everything must be in order before such a product is made available to investors.” 

Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, who has responsibility for the CBI programme, told the STAR in May: “I’m not a big fan of the real estate component . . . With the $100,000 donation, that $100,000 belongs to the state. In the case of real estate, the funds actually go to the developer; they don’t belong to the government. My bigger issue is why should the state be leveraging its sovereignty in order to give free capital to a developer. . .There are a couple of companies and projects that already had the CIP investment in it from a real estate perspective, so we’re going to continue the real estate but in a very limited way.”

According to the 2016-17 and 2017-18 CBI programme’s annual reports, 205 applications for citizenship have been granted. This translates to 337 persons from across the world being granted Saint Lucian citizenship. (One application does not mean one person.) The investment option for 200 of the applications was the donation mode. The remainder was done through the purchase of government bonds. 

At press time, the only approved real estate development listed on Saint Lucia’s CBI programme website is the planned Canelles Resort by the Galaxy Group. It states that applicants who choose to invest in this project in applying for Saint Lucian citizenship are required to make a minimum investment of US $300,000. Nestor Alfred has expressed confidence that the project will generate a significant number of applications.