Amid comments by Prime Minister David Thompson stating that he will be meeting with investors in his upcoming oversesas country visits, one local real estate agent has highlighted to BIMre.com the state of play with selection of properties that are under development or about to start development on the exclusive west coast.
On looking at West Coast property development, one of the major properties that has been of focus in recent months is the Four Seasons Hotel and Condominum development which broke ground in 2007. According to Chris Parra, Managing Director of Caribbean World, although there is no other project to the scale, Four Seasons has been the only major development that has actually stopped altogether.
For the Regent and Chefette properties, which were purchased in 2007, Parra explained those projects never got off the ground, those property was simply bought. He said, “The developers there have bought the land; I understand that there were plans to do development consisting of 14 town houses which were going to be selling in the region of US 7.5 million to US $10 million each – which are really very big town houses but there’s been nothing more of that since last year, so my opinion on that is that they’re basically waiting until the market picks back up.”
Apart from these he highlighted Portico is 90 per cent finished. Additionally, one of the agents for that property has a listing US$4,950,000.00 to US$6,950,000.00. The property size for the units start at 3500 to 5000 sq ft.
The realtor explained that Summerland Villas is finished and established and is being sold at the moment. Prices for units there range from US $650,000.00 to US $1,350,000.00. It features The development two buildings each housing two bedroom apartments as well as three or four bedroom penthouse suites.
Sandy Cove was another property highlighted by the real estate agent which he explained is still reselling its existing units. This development consists of 12 spacious apartments, three sumptuous penthouses two private villas custom-designed for the ultimate in private beach front living. Parra noted that the status of that property is that the developers have stopped phase two of Sandy Cove for the time being. He said, “But that’s just on hold.’
Going further down the coastline, Parra also noted Beachview, and Mahogany Bay explaining that they both of which he noted are up for resales. He also commented on the Waterside Apartments which is still being finished. The agent with eight years experience on the Barbados market said, ”It’s very beautiful and that is actually very good value in my opinion. In my opinion it is probably the best value that you can find for a two-bedroom unit on the West Coast right now, at $1.25 million gets you a 1445 square foot unit on the fourth floor with an amazing view. It’s a very good value in my opinion.
Coral Cove comprises 12 exclusive luxury apartments and two stunning penthouses, is finished and is being sold. Beachlands which launched its onsite sales office in January 2009 continues with its basically opened sales office and they are ready to sell but they are selling from a plan. He noted that prices of those properties range from $2.9 and $12 million depending on the type of houses.
He hinted that Beachlands had reduced the number of units for the property and they were redesigned, but its more or less on the market as it is since they did the launch.
Beachlands is being offered with buy on plan. Parra believes that some people will be reluctant to buy on plan. “It’s not like before where people were comfortable putting down their deposit, I think those days of pre selling are pretty much finished for the time being until things really pick back up. People are concerned about the risks, they are concerned about things not being finished and losing their money. People are more conscious about spending their money and they are generally going for things that are finished or almost finished completely, which is why Portico may have decided to finish the whole thing then sell.” he stated.
The real estate executive explained that developers make more money when they sell as a completed project rather than partially, “the markup they lose on that is probably like 25 – 30 %,” he argued. It usually goes up 15% when they start and another 15% when they finish.
He also highlighted the property called Villas on the Beach which is also being resold along with there Heron Court.
The property which has now become one of the mainstay properties of the West Coast of Barbados Royal Westmoreland was also noted. He said that property continues to do well. But he pointed to an interesting point explaining that there may have been slowdown in their cheaper properties that start at $495,000 and go to $1.3 million. But he noted that their bigger houses, the estate homes have been still selling.
To explain that circumstance, Parra commented that can see why that would happen because people who would have spent $400,00 here as a second home are probably not in a position to do that anymore. He contended, “But the people who would have bought $3 milion house in Westmoreland were probably waiting for that price to drop, had the money in their pocket, so people with millions are still willing to buy depending on if its good deal or not. The flip side to that is that those who can buy like that do not really care if it’s a good deal or not they want their price and that’s that.
In relation to Port St. Charles the property with lone marina on the west coast there is a plan for further development as well.
