Good News for the Cayman Real Estate Market

Online, January 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands- with an abundance of sun, sand and surf, the Cayman Islands has become one of the hottest tourist's locales in the world, and many people have fallen so in love with the paradise of the islands that they want to make it their home.

Grand Cayman and the nearby islands are a perfect retreat for families looking to buy a vacation home as well. Holidays turn into extended stays and buyers end up buying a property out of pure need to the striking scenery and peaceful atmosphere.

Benefits to Cayman over time will be important in terms of employment and less expensive quality health care, as well the turn off effects of the spending of thousands of patients and their families who will come and stay for long periods. Research shows spending by Medical Tourists dwarfs the per capita outlay of Vacation Tourists.

The figures on home sales are accurately where they were 6 months ago. Sales volume is the similar to that of last year at this time and prices are 27% lower than that they were a year ago. That is good news as that means the deepest discounting of prices happened 6 months ago and things appear to be leveling off a bit. The discounting may not be as deep going forward. But do not be fooled into thinking this is a healthy market. The demand side is still feeble and it will still be mainly the best deals which are purchased for the predictable future.

We have come across several financial service providers from other jurisdictions searching for space in Cayman. This is an end result of the new regulations which needs these types of companies to have a physical presence here. For once perhaps the international tax police are in fact doing us a favour.

The Private Sector has been very helpful of the development of Medical Tourism and is appreciative to see that the Government has been proactive in reaching an agreement with someone like Dr. Shetty who has a proven track record.

There are other probable positive developments like a perhaps need to extend the run way at the islands international airport to permit the bigger yet more economic and environmentally friendly aircraft to service our routes. More airlifts from more places can only be a good thing for Cayman.

Air arrivals are down 13.5% YTD from the USA and about 10% from Europe & Canada. Cruise Ship tourism is down 2%. Those figures are no surprise. In canvassing some of the Seven Mile Beach properties, we are hearing projections of anything from same as last year to down from 11-20%.

This should be seen as a really positive bonus for the Cayman Real Estate market and one that we are optimistic will offer the boost much needed in a soft market following the world's recession.

Yet with the lesser tourism reservations we are vigilantly hopeful, and a cold winter always helps increase our rental numbers. We are even having the good news about the upcoming capital works and the success of the bond issue. Countering that is the understanding that flexible income in the US is still limited to the wealthier individuals and will be the anticipated future. Taking into consideration all this, we forecast a good season with ongoing trading of the most competitively priced properties. Thus we see enduring partly cloudy skies with some sunny patches.