Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa Real Estate Investor Magazine - August 2017 | Page 62

CARIBBEAN
Riding the Offshore Wave
BY NIGEL BARNES
P
owdery white beaches, warm blue waters and
Monet-worthy sunsets… the similarities between
Southeast Asia and the Caribbean don’t end here.
Both regions have also introduced foreign-investment
programmes as a means of driving economic growth
and attracting wealthy and talented individuals to their
crystalline shores. And investors are diving in.
St Lucia
Arguably the most beautiful of the Windward Islands,
St  Lucia offers the region’s newest citizenship-by-
investment (CBI) programme – one of the most
competitive in the world. Amongst the investment routes
to gaining St Lucian citizenship is a property purchase of
USD 300,000, which must be held for five years.
Benefits of citizenship:
• Unrestricted access to 127 countries (including the
EU’s Schengen area, UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong
• No residence requirements
• Citizenship can be passed to future generations
Unsurprisingly, the CBI programme has significantly
boosted St  Lucia’s real estate market, with foreign
investors and developers all vying for the handsome
returns to be made on island property. The higher-end
residential market is the strongest and larger apartment
prices have risen from the USD 2 million maximum in
2011, to more than USD  3  million in recent months,
according to Global Property Guide.
Offering citizenship to foreign investors is clearly
working for the diminutive island made famous by
its dramatic scenery and lively culture. After years of
recession, St Lucia’s economy rose by 1.6% in 2016 and
the International Monetary Fund predicts it to grow by
1.9% this year.
Grenada
Last year, real estate transactions on the so-called “Spice
Isle” surpassed USD  50  million, and, at a growth of
23%, set a new high. Foreign buyers accounted for
20% of the total property sales, the average value of
their purchases amounting to just on USD  225,000,
nearly three times the overall market value. Sales of
development properties also saw strong growth ‒ thanks
to investment by developers seeking to exploit the
combination of potential attractions of the country’s
CBI programme and the generous tax concessions that
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AUGUST 2017 SA Real Estate Investor
these projects receive.
Benefits of citizenship:
• Visa‒free access to the largest consumer markets
(including the UK, Schengen area, and China)
• Granted in four months
• Transferrable by descent
• Holds an E‒2 Investor treaty with the US
• Acquired for a USD 350,000 property investment (to
be held for three years)
Thailand
Market interest shown by foreign groups in the Southeast
Asian country, combined with cautious domestic bank
lending, has created a favourable environment for
increased activity from overseas investors and a clear
catalyst for greater inbound investment in the Thai
property market – so much so that the Bank of Thailand
forecasts economic growth of 3.2% this year.
Besides its aesthetic beauty, affordable cost of living,
and recent sustained growth, Thailand offers some of the
most alluring tax benefits of any nation to its affluent
residents. Foreign-sourced income is tax free as long as it
is not remitted to Thailand in the same tax year in which
it is earned.
If substantial tax savings aren’t enticing enough, the
new Thailand Elite service will almost surely do the trick.
Specifically tailored to affluent people looking to take
up residency in the country, it’s the first programme of its
kind in the world, and offers unlimited access to the jewel
of Southeast Asia as well as a number of complimentary
conci