First, the same tracts of land have been sale for years and years and years. They’re owned by family and there is no compelling need to sell: merely that they’re willing to let it go if someone comes along who is actually willling to pay their very high listing price.

Second, the prospects for making an actual profit on a rental tend to be overstated, unless your actual business plan is to have it as a monthly rental (versus weekly for tourists).

Third, consider factors #1 and #2 and the fact that when Cuba opens (it is inevitable), the amount of waterfront real estate available to Americans in the Caribbean will more than double. And because of Fidel, many reefs on the south side of Cuba are environmentally actually in better shape than Bloody Bay Marine Park on Little Cayman. I kid you not.

Fourth, the cost of upkeep of a property isn’t trivial. Even without considering risk of hurricanes. In addition to simply the salt air atmosphere and typically ‘dirty’ power supplies that make most electronics fail every ~2 years, there’s some gothca factors. For example, because of the corrosive salt air, metal isn’t used for water supplies: you use PVC. But then conducting vermin control through rat poison is a problem, because rodents have been known to gnaw their way through PVC pipe in order to slack their thirst (caused by the poison). Envision the expense of a water pipe failure when you’re back home … because the price of water isn’t cheap. Figure it to be 5-10 cents per gallon.

Fifth, do your reseach on total costs. For example, the Stamp Duty is merely at a discount from its pre-9/11 rate of 9%, and then there can also be an additional 1% duty on a property mortgage, etc, etc.

Sixth, better check into Caymanian Work Permits issues before even thinking about working on your own house. It is merely one of many laws that provide preferential treatment for Caymanians, which is the politically correct way of saying that non-Caymanians get descriminated against.

#7: Cayman is based on British Law, not USA Law. The differences in certain areas are … ahem! …. interesting. At the very least, any legal disputes will have to be resolved through the Caymanian legal system, where to get even the most minimal of legal actions initiated in a property dispute (a “Caution”) can easily run you $10K.

#8: Good old boy networks aboud. I’ve seen this impact everything from “massaged” property lines to work permits, to diverted construction materials, to utility company employees actually coming out on Sundays to shut off service of someone who has fallen out of political favor. I’ve also heard of electrical meters that were “accidentally” set to the wrong scale so as to inflate costs of businesses that refused to hire local Caymanians, etc, etc. This is classical small town “Big Boss” corruption, which is why I’ve stopped investing in Cayman property and would be happy to merely recoup what I’ve already put in.

-hh