| One interesting
fact has emerged though recently, the hundreds of years of planting and
cane sugar root systems have created an aquefer underneath Basseterre,
the capital of St.Kitts. Estimations are currently very broad, but millions
and millions of gallons of water have formed a huge reserve under the town,
an important natural resource, and if planting is not continued a resource
that is now finite.
The Marriott
Hotel which uses 1.3 million gallons a day mainly on the golf course has
its own RO, or reverse osmosis plant. New developments of this size will
also have to provide their own resources both with power and water since
the national systems were not built to cope with this level of useage.
The arid area
from Frigate Bay all the way to Nags Head the most eastern point of St.
Kitts was never planted. A few years ago Frigate Bay was set aside
for special tourist development by the Government, and a few high profile
investors courted. Some of these came through, including the Marriott Hotel
which built 1000 rooms, and a five star hotel of 300 rooms is scheduled
for completion by 2007. Other smaller tourism projects have been completed,
and new ones started.
At present
there is only one very small ill-equipped marina in St. Kitts, but there
is a new development starting which will considerably increase the appeal
of stopping in St.Kitts for tourist charters out of St. Maarten/St.Martin,
Antigua or Guadelope. It will definitely put St. Kitts and Nevis on the
yachting map. About time too, this has been a long time coming, and there
is plenty of good sailing and anchoring in St. Kitts.
Cost Of
Land And Property
Land is not
cheap in St.Kitts, nor is property. We assessed a number of commercial
properties in Basseterre. For example, for a cool one million US dollars
you can purchase a detached building on the harbour front, opposite the
only marina in St. Kitts and the Nevis ferry dock, and only a short distance
from the huge cruiseship port, Port Zante built by Kuwaiti investors. Port
Zante is one of the only two ports in the whole of the Caribbean where
the Queen Mary 2 is able to dock, and she has visited eight proud times.
For one million
dollars you can buy an awful lot of potential and a great investment, but
not very much more. Upstairs there is a restaurant and 10 small hotel
bedrooms. The current Kittitian owners are more concerned with catching
up on their sleep during the hot, airless summer days in hurricane season.
Hotel guests, many of them from the Nevis ferry overnighting in St.Kitts
in order to catch an early morning international flight, are served breakfast,
but lunch and dinner are discouraged. There are other restaurants around
who can cater for those! Downstairs there is hardware shop, a tenant
with a renewable lease. “We’re tired”, says the owner, a beautiful tall
Monserratian of approximately 65 summers, married to a Kittitian who is
sleeping comfortably on the balcony overlooking the noisy, evening street
when we enter the room. “We have property in Nevis, we want to go live
there.”
In St. Kitts,
beaches below the high water line are owned by the government and are public
property. Above that, they can be private.
There is land
for sale on the slopes of the central mountain range, and beachfront away
from the madding crowd but it comes at a price. After all this country
is a tiny land resource, with a concomitant value which will only increase
with time.
The Financial
Investment
Finding property
or land is not that easy in St. Kitts, but you’ll be glad to know that
things do get easier once you have made your offer and the purchasing negotiations
with the seller are over.
Expatriates
buying real estate in St.Kitts can either go the Citizenship through Investment
route for investments over $250,000 (US) or apply for an Alien LandHolders
Licence. The Alien Landholders Licence is a negotiable thing and can be
as much as 10% of the property, and is best dealt with using local knowledge.
But best of
all…there is no personal income tax in St.Kitts.
In order to
encourage investment, especially with the closing of the sugar industry,
Corporate Tax Holidays are offered to potential investors and are often
negotiated most successfully through local partners. Under the Fiscal Incentives
Act, four types of enterprise qualify for a tax holiday, including no corporate
tax for fifteen years. The length of the tax holiday depends on the amount
of value added by the business to St. Kitts and Nevis.
Other incentives
include:
-
Relief from customs
duties and pier duties on items brought into the country for use in the
construction, extension and equipping of a hotel of not less than 10 bedrooms,
can be given.
-
Special tax relief
benefits for a hotel proprietor who has been granted a license under the
Hotel Aid Ordinance. This stipulates that the gains or profits of a hotel
of more than 30 bedrooms are exempt from income tax for 10 years. If the
hotel contains less than 30 bedrooms, gain or profits would be exempt from
income tax for 5 years.
-
Companies registered
with the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis can repatriate all profits,
dividends and imported capital.
-
The Government
of St. Kitts and Nevis and the United States has entered into an Investment
Guarantee Agreement.
Land tax is charged
at various rates depending on the size and nature of the land concerned,
and whether they are in a Special Development Area such as Frigate Bay.
A house tax is charged at the rate of 5% of the annual gross rental value
for residences in St. Kitts with a 25% rebate for properties that are occupied
by their owner solely as residence. St. Kitts real estate and Nevis real
estate stamp duty is 12% for freehold and 5% for condominiums. Stamp duty
is payable by the seller only.
Open To
Offers
With the closure
of the sugar industry this month, now, more than ever the government needs
to focus on new investment and long term jobs for the country. Certainly
one of these focus areas is massive expansion of tourism and developing
the infrastructure to cope with this. New hotels, inns, villas, marinas,
restaurants and all sorts of tourist based enterprises are being looked
upon with great favour at present, and there are some good possibilities
on the table. But introductions to local partners are the real guarantees
of success, and that’s true of many of the region’s small countries.
Sugar Factory
Cooling System
The airport
is relatively new, efficient and somewhat underused at the moment.
The runway of 8000 feet supports direct flights from Europe and North America,
and the landing path is mainly over the sea and does not effect residential
areas.
For around
$300,000 there are a number of 2-3 bedroomed homes with small gardens for
sale in the Special Development Frigate Bay area close to the major hotels
and golf courses. These are excellent investment for holiday rentals. There
are also a number of new estates and gated communities, and managed luxury
housing projects underway.
But if your
dream is verdant earth for tropical gardens and self sufficiency, look
towards the north west, under the cool, damp stewardship of the central
mountain ranges. Somewhere in amongst acres and acres of unhusbanded sugar
cane, is the Garden of Eden.
For more information
on land and property for sale in St.Kitts contact: deb@caribbeanlandandproperty.com.
The following
is the previous article Deb wrote for the magazine:
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