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Terra Caribbean Market Report: Sales YTD June 2023 - Barbados

Friday, September 01, 2023 | By Betty Cathrow & Emma Hutson, Real Estate Agent

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While there has been a 14% decline in the number of properties sold by Terra Caribbean for the first half of 2023 compared with 2022, the average sale price has increased overall by 3%, driven by performance in St. James and St. Peter. Standalone homes and land sales command the largest market share and Christ Church continues to be the most popular parish. Pending sales** recorded by Terra Caribbean has further increased over the impressive figure recorded at July 1st 2022 and discount levels have tightened which are positive lead indicators of the market, while the number of sales enquiries has declined which could signal slowing of demand.

OVERALL MARKET TRENDS:

While the overall number of properties sold by Terra Caribbean is down by 14% over the first 6 months of 2023, average sale prices continue to trend upwards increasing by 3%.

NOTE:

* The reported maximum and average sale prices for 2021, 2022, and 2023 do not include the sale of four flagship properties, each priced at over $70 million.
Interest from Ultra High Net Worth Individuals seeking to purchase property in Barbados has been at one of the highest levels in the firm's history over the last three years.
Numerous closings on properties set for May and June have been rescheduled because we are in a year of property reassessment. This has had a negative impact on the number of reported sales transactions and is probably a contributing cause to the decline recorded in the first half of this year.

PARISH ANALYSIS:

Christ Church

Christ Church remains the most popular parish, accounting for 48% of sales transactions in the first half of 2023.
Average sale prices declined by 26%. This decline was driven by fewer beachfront property sales, which likely resulted from a shortage of supply.

St. James

While St. James continues to be the second most popular parish commanding 19% of the market, the number of transactions were down 23%.
However, average sale prices in St. James more than doubled with 6 properties sold for over $5 million in 1st half of 2023 vs an absence of sales at this level in 2022.

St. Peter

St. Peter also recorded a 31% increase in average sale prices with 2 sales closing in excess of $5 million in 2023 vs 1 in 2022.

Other Parishes

Declines in the average prices achieved were recorded in all of the other parishes. Interest in the other parishes showed mixed trends with the more central parishes being the more popular.

While Terra Caribbean does not report on the exact number of total sales transactions, the chart above provides insight into demand by property type.

Demand for homes

Stand alone homes continue to command the highest market share at 37%, just 1% point down from 2022. The popularity of this segment remains robust post COVID.
Just less than half of the homes sold were priced between $500,000 and $1 million. One-third of the homes sold were priced above $1 million.

Demand for land

Land sales constitute the second largest percentage share increasing slightly to 34% of transactions for the period.
More than 60% of the land lots sold in both 2022 and 2023 were located in Christ Church within popular developments like South View and The Grove.
More than 60% of the land lots sold in both 2022 and 2023 were located in Christ Church within popular developments like South View and The Grove.

Demand for apartments

The market share of apartment sales transactions grew significantly from 15% to 23% which is the highest level in the last 5 years.
There were 26% more apartments sold in 2023.
The number of apartment buildings sold remained steady at just 1% in each year.

Demand for townhouses

The market share of townhouse sales declined considerably from 11% to 5%.

The number of new sale enquiries recorded by Terra Caribbean over the first 6 months of the year is down by 17% over the same period last year returning closer to performance in the first half of 2021.
It is noteworthy that Terra Caribbean experienced record sales levels in both 2021 and 2022, indicating that the number of enquiries recorded is still high despite this decrease.
Pending sales** has further increased by 4% over the impressive figure recorded by Terra Caribbean at July 1st 2022 which is a positive lead indicator for the next 6 months.
Numerous sales have been agreed at new developments like Allure in Brighton, Coral Beach in St. Peter, The Estates in St. George, Sugar Apple at The Villages at Coverly, and Atlantic Rising in Christ Church resulting from high demand.

Average discount levels between Listed Sale Prices and the Agreed Sale Price have reduced by almost a full percentage point to 5.7% and are within their lowest level for the last 5 years.
A number of properties received simultaneous offers in both years with these properties selling for between 3% and 7% above the asking price.
The significantly discounted sale prices agreed over the past 6 months were realised for a small selection of forced sale properties, or properties which were priced above market.
43% of properties were sold at a discount of between 1% and 10% from the Listed Sale Price. An impressive 33% of sales achieved over the period were agreed at the Listed Sale Price.