IT’S A BUYER’S market for property in Antigua. The largest of the Leeward Islands has a dry climate, an arid landscape and is scattered with historic forts and anchorages, including English Harbour, where Nelson’s fleet once took shelter.

The 108 square mile island, with its 365 coral pink beaches flanked by palm trees and turquoise seas, was at the hub of the Caribbean’s building boom in the 1980s. During the 1990s, foreigners working in the island’s offshore finance centre bought homes there. Antigua also attracted tax exiles from the US and the UK, pushing up property values.

Property sales on the island have fallen since the collapse of the US financial markets after the September 11 attacks. North American demand for property in Antigua has dried up, prices are low and the British are back in the driving seat. Other nationalities mopping up the best deals on the island include the Swiss, the Germans and the Italians, as well as Fifties émigrés to the UK returning to Antigua for retirement.

Prices have remained static in recent years and houses on the island are cheaper than in many European sun-spots. There is a wide range on offer, from typical West Indian chattel houses and contemporary beachfront condos to large Georgian mansions and plantation houses. You can pick up a studio flat from £37,000. One and two-bedroom apartments start from £50,000.

On the books of Re/Max Antigua is a three-bedroom detached house in a new development in the north of Antigua, close to the beach, with a beautiful view over the Caribbean Sea, for £94,569. Tradewind Realty Ltd is offering Angel House, a fully furnished five-bedroom, two-bathroom, detached house in Falmouth, in the south of the island, for £108,876.

Some of the best value property on the island is found at the Jolly Harbour marina, on the west coast, near the capital, St John’s. More than 500 waterfront homes have been built with prices ranging from £121,000 to £146,000 for an air conditioned two-storey, two-bedroom house with a private jetty and mooring. There are also a few prime quarter-acre beachfront plots with moorings — priced at about £155,000 through Re/Max Antigua — available for houses built to individual specification. The 500-acre Jolly Harbour development has a vast shopping centre and a sports complex with tennis, squash, two beaches and an 18-hole golf course.

Those in search of peaceful, unspoilt surroundings might like The Peninsula, a small, select community of waterfront homes in the northeast of the island. Georgian-style houses on one-acre plots that slope towards the ocean and offer mooring for boats or swimming off private docks are available from £218,250, including land, through Tradewind Realty. On the south coast, the St James’s Club, once owned by Peter de Savary, is more expensive. A palatial four-bedroom villa with panoramic sea views, close to two beaches, is available at £843,750, through Re/Max Antigua.

Elsewhere on the island, Tradewind Realty is offering opulence starting at about £373,000, which will buy a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house with a self-contained two-bedroom apartment on Spring Hill, overlooking Falmouth Harbour.

Or you could buy a plot and build your own house. A third of an acre hillside plot can be had for as little as £24,000. But you’ll need to spend at least £52,500 for a plot with public utilities and a view over the Caribbean. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a pool and landscaped garden can be built from £140,000. The best sites are on high ground, away from the sand flies, enjoying the prevailing breeze. Building must start within a year of buying the land.

More affordable, hurricane-proof, West Indian chattel-style houses, with a pitched hip roof and a verandah, can be bought and erected from £15,625 to £65,000, depending upon the location, size and materials, but excluding the cost of the plot.

PASSPORT TO ANTIGUA

Why Antigua?

Britons have been retiring to this former British colony in the Caribbean for generations. With direct flights to the UK, healthy climate and no taxes on income, capital or inheritance, the island remains a popular choice. The property market has fallen since September 2001 and there are bargains to be had.

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