Bonmec

Unfortunately the credit crunch is the prime talking topic in the UK with a rather super negative impact on the housing market and cost of goods and food.

I would like to ask what is the current situation in St Lucia. How's the global economic situation impacting the housing market.

We plan to buy a land and build in the island. What would a realistic budget be to aquire a 1/4 acre land and build a modest house in an average area?

Many thanks

LucyLock

Hi

I have sent you a personal message which hopefully goes some way to answering your questions.

Best regards
LucyLock

(SNIP)

Mitzyboy

Surely the best way to approach it would be to post it up on the forum so everyone can see ... thats the idea of a forum
The OP wont be able to receive your pm anyway as is a newbie

3aces

Interesting enough I was about to post a similar question - would be interesting to know how the impending recession in the UK and beyond is impacting the St Lucia property market

LucyLock

We are not seeing any real signs of the credit crunch here, well not so far. In fact we have several clients that are cashing in their property portfolio in the US and the UK, taking a hit ( approx. 10%) then reinvesting in St Lucia where prices are still climbing.

3aces

That makes a lot of sense :-)

3aces

Yikes the pound has plummeted!!

Wish I had stockpiled some US dollars

This will hurt.

3aces

Looks like the pound is in free fall. Down to $1.61 yesterday. Starting to wonder how far it will go before stabilising?

pgtips

Wow, this ain't no joke !!!! From a high of $2.12 just a couple of months ago.

With the Caribbean currencies generally pegged to the US, this is bound to have an impact in the Caribbean especially as those British pounds dont buy so much now.

Example a $1,000,000 EC property would have cost approx 200,000 UK a few months ago, that same property would now cost approx 240,000 UK now, all the while prices are dropping in the UK so not much equity to spare anyway !!!! Unless the pound makes a miraculous recovery and the UK property market recovers, I can only see prices having to come down in the Caribbean as less people will have the means to buy there now.

Bonmec

There is no doubt that the situation is rather bad. The Pound keeps going lower and lower and the budget we had a few months ago is worth substantialy less today.
If the property price ranges in St Lucia remain static, it will make the Island not a viable option (for ourselves anyway). All of a sudden, South East Asia seem an attractive proposition. still we will make our way to the Island as planned and give it a chance

3aces

Personally I believe the drop in the pound will sooner or later have an adverse effect on property prices in SLU. I for one have changed my investment plans based on the current crisis and I expect many others may have done the same.

pgtips

Prices have already come down a bit from my observations of the various property websites. Those which are not reducing their prices will sit on unsold properties for a very long time. This was always going to be the case seeing as a lot of the potential buyers are from ther UK and Eire.