Why invest in the Saint Lucia real estate market?

The Caribbean island of Saint Lucia is beautiful, unspoilt, and undeveloped. Encouraged by the government, tourism is steadily increasing year by year. This growing popularity has led to several new luxury vacation developments being started within strict environmental protection planning laws.

The island wants to encourage tourism and at the same time preserve its natural heritage from overdevelopment. To make this possible, the government has introduced almost 30 laws covering planning restrictions on new construction and development. At the same time, the budget allocation to tourism has been increasing by 4.7% year-on-year since 2003.

While many visitors arrive by sea on private yachts, most arrive from the US or UK by air. New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Charlotte and Miami provide easy access from the US, while three major airlines fly direct from the UK with a journey time of 8 hours. Many visitors are showing great interest in the local property market.

The government and economy are stable and the island is a safe haven for tourists, enjoying one of the lowest overall crime rates in the Caribbean. The World Bank recently ranked Saint Lucia as one of the top 30 countries in the world to invest in, ranking ahead of Barbados and Antigua.

In addition to the island’s stable government and economy, there are very favorable tax concessions for those interested in the real estate market. Foreign buyers enjoy benefits that do not include Rental Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax or Repatriation Tax. Property prices are currently 60% lower in St. Lucia than in neighboring Barbados, although it has many of the same advantages and has increased by around 40% per year in recent years. They are expected to continue increasing over the next 5 years.

This beautiful and peaceful island has seen an annual increase in the number of tourists. This growing popularity of this eco-friendly island as a holiday destination means there is excellent rental potential for properties where the average hotel occupancy rate is almost 70%. Everything indicates that the Saint Lucia real estate market is a good investment.