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Over the next five to ten years, the Cayman Islands will change a great deal, due to development of major infrastructure and the arrival of new residents. While 2013 may not be a stellar year, it will most likely be the starting year of several years of improvement. All the optimism in the world cannot change reality. And the reality is that the real estate market has been bad, is still bad, and currently not improving. The statistics tell the story. Period. The WaterColours residences, on Seven Mile Beach, is now officially the tallest building in the Cayman Islands, as the eighth floor slab has just been poured. Recent news about activity in our real estate industry is not the most encouraging. While the new supply of properties coming onto the market seems to have levelled off, demand still remains weak and continues to influence the market dynamics. Based on past experience, when the Cayman Islands have had stay-over tourism that is continuing to pick up and major projects starting, our real estate market has improved and eventually prospered. We seem to be entering that upward trend of our real estate market cycle currently. As we head into the fourth year of a lingering recession, it is apparent that this downturn has certainly taken its toll on the real estate market and the economy, not to mention the investment attitudes of our customers. Prices and activity have been driven down to a low that is uncharacteristic for the Cayman real estate market. The Cayman Islands real estate market has bottomed out in 2011, after falling off in activity, every year since 2007, which was our peak year in the last decade. For the first three quarters of 2011, the consolidation and stabilisation within the real estate market has continued and we now seem to be in a bottoming trend. As we end possibly the most dismal year ever for real estate sales in
the Cayman Islands, it is tough to even see much improvement ahead for
at least the first half of 2011, without some form of stimulus that
would give purchasers a credible reason to invest in this down market. WaterColours is the only new Seven Mile
Beach development under construction and is bucking the current trend in the
real estate industry – it is selling.
However, it has a couple unique advantages over other developments. Cayman is in a major recession! Our residential and resort real estate
markets are languishing – and it is extreme. Just take a look at these
statistics to get a blunt, clear picture of how our current 2010 sales compare to previous years: 2010 has been a year where several new Seven Mile Beach developments
have completed construction. New condominium complexes like Beachcomber,
Renaissance... The last 18 months of this decade will go into the record books as one
of the most tumultuous times, ever – not only for real estate sales,
but financial markets and business overall. It is a fitting end to a
difficult decade, which has challenged most of us in the Cayman
Islands, starting from the year 2000. Despite the economy in the last few years, some of the new Multiple Listing Service listings for homes and condominiums have been coming onto the market at progressively higher prices.
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