It’s 5pm and the sun is setting over a golden beach and opal-coloured sea. Fresh fish are on the grill, cocktails are being shaken and the calypso is getting louder.
On many of the Caribbean’s 21 clusters of islands, this is no caricature, but reality. New holiday-home resorts open almost every month as the sugar industry dies and islands rush to encourage more development. But choosing where to buy can be daunting.
Although the super-rich buy old plantation houses, most people buy in complexes built within the last 10 years, set in marinas or on hillsides with views. Most consist of flats and some villas, all built to US hurricane-proof standards. They look beautiful but almost identical.
To work out which island to buy on, buyers should look beyond the properties and assess three factors. Accessibility from the UK is vital. There are direct flights to only about half of the main Caribbean islands from London, with a few direct services from Manchester or Edinburgh, too. The quickest flights are to Antigua, but all direct services to the Caribbean are expensive: most scheduled return trips cost at least £500 a seat.
“Don’t underestimate the hassle of island-hopping,” says David Smith, a London energy consultant who has just bought a house at Nonsuch Bay in Antigua. “After 10 hours in the air from the UK, you don’t want to hang around for four or five hours to catch another plane.
“Barbados and Antigua are the best-served islands for direct flights. I visited both before buying, but to me Barbados was overdeveloped, too crowded and too dear. Antigua’s a bit of a backwater, but all the more charming for that.”
Consider infrastructure. Islands that have been second-home locations for longest, such as Bermuda and the Bahamas, have the best: they tend to be wealthier, use the US dollar as de facto currency and have the largest properties. Newer destinations, such as Grenada and St Lucia, have less sophisticated facilities.
One way of guaranteeing good-quality homes and service is to buy in a resort linked with a top hotel brand, such as Four Seasons, Raffles, Marriott, St Regis or Ritz-Carlton. Although such flats and houses usually sell at above-average prices, they are inevitably in prime locations, have well-tended grounds with extensive leisure facilities — sometimes even private beaches — plus restaurants, shops and transport.
Compare value for money. “Barbados is a mature market — it is intensely developed, and nobody can say there’s any undiscovered part remaining. Some consider it expensive, too, with a few developments costing $1,000 (£560) per square foot,” says Paddy Dring, of estate agency Knight Frank.
There is some sign of buyer fatigue there. A few prominent houses have been on the market for more than a year, and some buyers report that heavy bartering can knock 25% off the asking price. St Lucia and Grenada are the cheapest and least crowded islands, offering the best value for money for new homes until these locations, too, become lined with resorts and marinas.
If these become crowded, that will leave just one Caribbean backwater relatively undeveloped — but perhaps not for long. Optimistic estate agents predict a currently off-limits destination may soon embrace wealthy foreign buyers and American hotels. Yes, in the near future you may be able to buy in Cuba.
ANTIGUA
Properties start at £55,000, but hidden costs include a landholder’s licence, 2.5% purchase tax and 2% legal fees. The government is putting £15m into new roads.
Celebrity owners: Timothy Dalton, Eric Clapton and novelist Ken Follett.
Flight time from UK: under nine hours; more than 12 direct flights each week.
New to the market: Nonsuch Bay, with beach flats, waterfront townhouses and plots for self-build villas, from £182,000 through Newfound Property.
BAHAMAS
There are 700 islands, but only 15 have significant holiday-home investment, dominated by American buyers. The capital, New Providence, is easy to reach, but almost everywhere else involves island-hopping light aircraft.
Celebrity owners: Johnny Depp, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Elle Macpherson and Sean Connery.
Flight time from UK: 10 hours; some direct flights.
New to the market: Harbour Island, a gated community, has 46 one- to three-bed flats with a communal pool, from £245,000 (Damianos, 00 1 242 362 4211, www.damianos.com).
BARBADOS
Waterside developments vie for wealthy buyers with golf and polo resorts and a few renovated plantation houses. BBC newsreader Peter Sissons owns a one-bed flat on the northwest coast, which was “a virtual wasteland” a decade ago. The building hasn’t stopped since.
Celebrity owners: Cilla Black, Gary Lineker and Sir Cliff Richard.
Flight time from UK: nine hours; many direct flights.
New to the market: Sugar Hill is exclusive, gated, landscaped and celeb-strewn. Most villas have sea views, from £1.5m upwards (Aylesford, 020 7351 2383, www.aylesford.com).
CAYMAN ISLANDS
Banks and beaches dominate these three islands, which house 40,000 offshore companies and offer tax-free living. Prices, especially on Grand Cayman, are stratospheric, but privacy is limited because of booming tourism from the US and cruise-boat revellers.
Celebrity owners: Aussie golfing star Greg Norman, authors Dick Francis and John Grisham.
Flight time from UK: at least 12 hours; at least one stop.
New to the market: Britannia House is a typical waterside property — six en-suite bedrooms, a swimming pool and lake mooring for £1.6m (Knight Frank, 020 7861 1061, www.knightfrank.com).
GRENADA
One of the least developed islands, with lush green forests and few holiday homes — for now. Rustic villas with land and sea views are just £120,000, but things are changing. A marina with flats is nearly finished, with more to come.
Celebrity owners: Gary Rhodes has a restaurant here and visits frequently.
Flight time from UK: at least 12 hours; at least one stop.
New to the market: Prickly Bay marina has flats from £280,000 and villas up to £2m with Hamptons International.
JAMAICA
Crime is rife, and the capital Kingston is a no-go for buyers. In safer Montego Bay, flats start at £75,000 in crowded areas; houses in salubrious Cinnamon Hill hit £5m. Infrastructure is improving and developers are vying to start work along the northern coastline.
Celebrity owners: Naomi Campbell, Keith Richards, Jane Seymour and Ralph Lauren.
Flight time from UK: 10 hours; some direct flights.
New to the market: 60 villas and apartments in phase one of Palmyra Resort, Montego Bay, £230,000-£1.1m (0845 051 9190, www.thepalmyra.com).
MUSTIQUE
A strictly regulated enclave for the super-rich for 40 years, with 90 homes and 25 more to be built by 2015, but strikingly few shops, bars or restaurants. “The wealthy have staff who cook fresh food, so why do they need to go out?” says Brian Alexander, head of the Mustique Company, which vets buyers. Properties and prices are eye-watering.
Celebrity owners: Tommy Hilfiger and Mick Jagger.
Flight time from UK: at least 13 hours; at least one stop.
New to the market: Shogun, a nine-bed Japanese-style villa in five acres, 500ft above Britannia Bay, £5.7m (Knight Frank, 020 7861 1061, www.knightfrank.com).
ST LUCIA
Once routinely overlooked by buyers in favour of Barbados, St Lucia has given the green light to large-scale development. Five years ago, prices were half those on Barbados. Now they are 65% and closing.
Celebrity owners: Strictly undercover.
Flight time from UK: under nine hours; some non-stop flights.
New to the market: About 554 acres of rainforest and former banana plantation make up Le Paradis, a development of marinas, gated estates and hotels. Flats from £450,000 through Erna Low.
TURKS & CAICOS
The eight main islands are far-flung, just north of Haiti, but are relatively cheap and have only 21,000 residents between them, although each year 110,000 people visit. Many resorts specialise in diving, snorkelling and water sports.
Celebrity owners: Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Janet Jackson and Jerry Seinfeld.
Flight time from UK: 14-20 hours; at least one stop.
New to the market: All flats and villas at the 60-acre Sailview resort, Grand Turk, offer sea views, £190,000-£945,000 (Savills, 020 7016 3748, www.savills.co.uk).
