BuddyLove

Greetings to the Forum! I am new here, reading everyone's comments with great interest.

My husband and I would like to move to either St Lucia or Grenada at the end of the year. We are 60 now. We want to rent a place before buying to make sure we are in the right area. Of course, we are interested in what all people are interested in - safety, friendly locals, hopefully higher up for a breeze, garden area, etc.

Question1: What are the opinions about the pros and cons of each place?

Question 2: Would it be possible to get a residency permit if just renting? Or to extend a VISA for at least a year during the rental period?

Question3: Any good suggestions for lawyers to handle all the paper work?

Question 4: How has the recession affected local economies / real estate prices? I know it's tough out there.

Thank you in advance, we newbies really are positively impacted by all the help you give us.

Rachel

pgtips

The best advice I could give you is to visit both islands and see where you feel most comfortable. Both islands have a similar land scape, though St lucia is generally busier than Grenader. Why not go out for a month, and spend a couple of weeks on both islands, get to meet other expats and locals and see what their current situation is like, and then you will get more of a feel as to whether you can actually live in any of these places.
Make a list of what you like to do, and what kinds of level of healthcare you expect, and see if the islands can match what you require.
Also read through some of the old threads on this site relating to both islands.

samjones1999

Hi there, I personally would recommend Grenada. My mother has retired there from England and loves it. She has a lovely big house with nice pool, she rents out rooms to friends and family, if you PM me, I'll give you her details. She'd happily give you the inside info on Grenada, she has been there 5 years now. She is considering selling and moving with us to Australia, so who knows you could get lucky and get to live the dream.

BuddyLove

Sam - thank you so much for the information. We are tending toward Grenada because it is smaller and everyone has remarked how friendly the people are.

If your Mum decides to stay in Grenada we will definitely want to contact her.

Thanks - Rey