VI's real estate market plummets! ‘Where have the buyers gone?’— Skelton-Cline
The statistics of the status quo were laid bare by outspoken social commentator and former government consultant Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline in a sobering analysis of the industry during his April 1, 2025, radio broadcast of Honesty Speaking on ZBVI 780 AM.
Oil Nut Bay Estate Transaction!
"Overall, real estate market activity in the BVI slowed in 2023 and 2024. The total volume of transactions, measured by dollar value, fell by more than half," Skelton-Cline cited data from a recent analysis.
"From $156 million in 2022 to $69 million in 2024; That is the dollar value of the total volume of real estate transactions. This is an indicator, a trend of what's happening in the Virgin Islands."
Compounding the situation, Skelton-Cline pointed out that even this alarming figure was distorted by a single high-value sale in 2022.
According to the man of the cloth, "...the record high figure in 2022 was skewed by one land sale of $45 million in Oil Nut Bay Estate”
Excluding this transaction, the market actually peaked in 2021, according to Skelton-Cline, as he provided analyses of the precariousness of the sector’s financial health.
Locals & Foreign Investors Pulling Back
Additionally, Skelton-Cline was adamant the situation also appears bleak for both belongers and non-belongers alike, reminding that the government’s 2020 Stamp Duty Waiver Programme initially bolstered local homeownership, driving sales to belongers to $83 million in 2021; however, by 2024, that figure had shrunk to a mere $38 million.
Adumbrating his point further, he noted that “In 2021, it was $83 million in value. In 2024, it was cut to $38 million."
The contraction among foreign investors was even more dramatic, as outlined by Skelton-Cline, who observed that sales to non-belongers—which peaked at $116 million in 2022—nosedived to just $30 million in 2024.
The number of transactions fell to 22—the lowest in over a decade, and as such, he posits,"...this is a major telltale sign; People with means and money aren’t purchasing at the rate they used to. What are they waiting for? Why are they holding back?"
Affordability for Locals?
Turning his attention to government-backed housing projects, he disclosed for the listening audience that homes built under the Social Security programme had also failed to generate the expected local interest.
Instead, these high-priced units are now being leased to medical school students, "...a project that was designed to increase the uptick of locals being able to purchase homes—half a million dollar homes—are not affordable by locals and so now, instead of locals gaining ownership and building wealth, these homes are being leased to students."
To this end, he openly questioned, "Why is there, at least to my knowledge, no meaningful push—no one advocating for the creditworthiness of individuals and affordability for locals to purchase these homes? Why is that not a top priority for us?"
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44 Responses to “VI's real estate market plummets! ‘Where have the buyers gone?’— Skelton-Cline”
It should be a national embarrassment that it takes so long - they process them in numerous other parts of the Caribbean in less than 3 months.
No wonder persons are buying there rather than here.
We do not hate outsiders; we dislike the mindset of outsiders who do not respect that the BVI belongs to the descendants of the Africans that were enslaved here. This is not a free for all. We are global citizens but there are legal boundaries concerning ownership. We know too much of our history and world history to sit back and be outran and overthrown by outsiders. The majority of the non-belongers that resides and will reside in the BVI are here as guests and should only reside here for a limited time. The BVI is too small to be giving it away freely and leaving nothing for the generations behind us.
Continually calling us xenophobic will not make it true. The talk about who born here will die down once the government create laws to protect the interests of BVIslanders. Until then we will continue to make our voices heard. Imagine we nearly sold Wickhams Cay!
No reason it should be so difficult and long.
Speeding these approvals up will have an immediate positive effect on the economy as the new owners will get contractors in to do their renovations.
Otherwise, I agree with everything else you said (well we cannot sue the government, but we can hold them accountable).
The requirements of letters attesting to a buyer's good character and financial wherewithall are absurd. As I told my lawyer while the process dragged on, "tell these idiots in the government that there's this new thing called "the internet," and I heaer that it's going to be really big; they could run me through Interpol and in 48 hours, learn all they could possibly need to know about me, and obviate this idiotic process." Then add to that the innumerable "ministers" and "junior ministers" and their "assistants" or "secretaries who are reviewing them couldn't even purchase a car on their own, never mind pass judgment on a real estate transaction, and it's just another example of "make work" that keeps a bloated and inefficient government rolling along, while providing no real value, given the resources it consumes for a transaction like a NBLHL.
There's a lot more that I could add, such as no form of deed, so each one has to be drafted "from scratch" and then the Attorney General has to review it and approve it, and if rejected, one has to start all over again with a new submission that can take weeks to review. When people wonder why this Territory's economy is not a vibrant one, this process is one of many examples that illustrate the reason(s) for that.