by Marlon Madden
The local real estate market has remained largely buoyant over the past two years and is on an upward trend as industry operators are forced to adapt in order to keep business going during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Upbeat about the resilience of the real estate market and its future prospects, President of the Barbados Estate Agents and Valuers Association (BEAVA) Arthur Ramsay said over the past two years residential property sales have kept apace while there have been some fluctuations in the rental market.
He also reported that the Barbados Welcome Stamp initiative and the fact that real estate agents were able to offer virtual tours of properties, were instrumental in helping to keep the industry afloat.
“The market is relatively buoyant. The good thing about it is that we have had the shutdowns and it had given people the opportunity to think about what they really want to do with their lives and how they want to live.
“So a lot of persons coming out of the pandemic and shutdowns we had in 2020, we found there was an upsurge in property buying and persons looking to invest in Barbados,” he said.
“Most of our members have found that a lot of the stock that they had has gone and they are actually looking for new stock which is a positive for the real estate market,” he reported.
Ramsay said the purchases were being made by both locals and overseas investors, adding that most of BEAVA’s agents were “seeing the uptick in all sectors” – from the luxury market to the lower income category.
Ramsay said the outlook was for continued improvements in the market, adding that things could pick back up even more once the economy is fully reopened and there were no major external shocks.
“Right now the country and the real estate market are stable and improving, and foregoing anything major happenings across the world, we should be on a positive trend,” he said.
Ramsay was speaking with journalists recently as he introduced a new-look BEAVA with an upgraded website and new logo, now offering its over 135 BEAVA members’ listings in a one-stop-shop location along with anything real estate in Barbados.
Giving a review of the rental segment of the real estate market, Ramsay said that took a major hit during the height of the pandemic as a result of job losses.
However, Ramsay explained that this was cushioned by the Barbados Welcome Stamp initiative, which resulted in a lot of those properties being rented to individuals and families who came from overseas to work remotely from Bridgetown.
“The market overall with the rentals, always has up and down, kind of topsy-turvy life, it depends on how the economy is [performing].
“If the economy is doing well persons will rent but if things are tight in the economy then people make adjustments – they go back home, they sell their properties or rent them out at a lower rate,” said Ramsay.
“So the Welcome Stamp was actually a good idea because it kind of regenerated the market and allowed it to be energised to go in a different direction. It allowed those persons that had properties in Airbnb to be able to put them back out.
“There were also persons who were able to put their properties that they would have had, maybe a small apartment, into that type of sphere because persons who came on the Welcome Stamp were not just high-end, there were average persons who wanted the opportunity to live in Barbados and work and that has been something that helped,” he explained.
Ramsay said one of the main challenges for real estate agents over the past two years were the lockdowns that prevented them from doing physical tours of properties.
However, Ramsay quickly pointed out that some members were able to quickly offer virtual tours of properties in order to get them sold.
Stating that BEAVA was keeping a close eye on market developments to ensure that a real estate bubble was not created, he pointed out that the association was concerned that despite the growing demand for real estate there was still a high number of foreclosures on properties as a result of individuals being unable to meet their monthly mortgage payments.
marlonmadden[email protected]
Read our ePaper. Fast. Factual. Free.
Sign up and stay up to date with Barbados’ FREE latest news.
Source link
