The video summarizes a Wall Street Journal article which made the rounds this week – Caribbean Getaways Ensnare Buyers. It explains the current state of the villa market in the Caribbean which does not bode well for the Paradise Beach Development (Four Seasons Project). With many similar projects on the skids in the Caribbean this…
The video summarizes a Wall Street Journal article which made the rounds this week – Caribbean Getaways Ensnare Buyers. It explains the current state of the villa market in the Caribbean which does not bode well for the Paradise Beach Development (Four Seasons Project). With many similar projects on the skids in the Caribbean this translates to a reserve of villa stock in a bear market.
Let us wish the professor, NIS Board and Barbados good luck with the project at Paradise.
This kind of propaganda is why we are in the state we are in, we listen to these reporters talking foolishness and just swallow it, how many of these resorts all fall into this category how many of these projects are re-capitalise, we need to look and learn. Our developers have to depend on the deposits to get the projects going since unlike the U.S. we have extremely high loan rates so to avoid this the developers must use the deposits to finance the projects. Four Seasons is capitalized by the deposits of the mega-rich, the villa owners are not going back to the bank to get the balance cost of the villa and being turned down, what caused them to put a halt on their deposits was the fact that the previous developer literally squandered their money, refuse to meet with them when they wanted to discuss the progress of the development in short they lost faith in the developer and refused to inject more funds until the project got to the stage it was supposed to according to their agreements. This is where our Government stepped in with the loan form NIS hoping to bring the development to the stage where the villa owners would feel comfortable in releasing more funds towards the project. So do not put Four Seasons into this category yet give it time and it will start again
i agree and the other projects in the various islands could also fall into the same category as Four Seasons. along with that look what’s happening in Haiti, LaGonave. sickening to say the least. the caribbean yes is paradise to many but what kind of paradise? Haiti is now a gold mine but not even her Caribbean neighbours seem interested in what’s happening there.
We should stay on point and accept that the Paradise Development (Four Seasons) should not be seen as a slam dunk investment. Not only in the Caribbean but in Spain and other geographies the Villa Model is on the skids.
@ David
Perhaps this is why the change in business model to build the hotel independent of villa sales is a good idea. It should certainly bring back confidence in the project to existing and future villa owners and will be of greater immediate benefit to the economy than if the villas were built first.
There is an interesting point to this article that you seem to have missed David and it is that there is likely to be a shortage of these brand name developments in the Caribbean in the near term and we will be ahead of the competition of we are able to get the Four Seasons back on track now.
According to the IDB document I read on this blog there is a dire shortage of true luxury class accommodation in a plant that is tired and slowly becoming run down. We can see this with our own eyes.
I wish the current developers well as I believe this project has the potential to make a big difference to our tourism product in more ways than one.
A Nationalist wrote “Perhaps this is why the change in business model to build the hotel independent of villa sales is a good idea.”
Hotels should be built with private money. There must be enough Rich Investors willing to take on this project.
Cash strapped Government can’t afford this risk.
I find this Four Seasons paradise issue interesting.
Why is there this convoluted Business plan that makes the Villas only viable if there is a Hotel next door.
How about building villas in the conventional way. A lot of you have built or bought houses in Fort George Heights,Millenium heights, Sandy Lane and Wanstead.
@A Nationalist
Maybe you are correct, it is just that the management of the project seems to be very knee jerk which does not inspire confidence.
Hants
You like you missing the point. There are no rich investors willing to invest. This is at the heart of what has caused the collapse of so many of these projects not only in the Caribbean but around the world and more than likely the change in business model for the Four Seasons. C’mon man, if you were filthy rich would you invest in a villa in a stalled project so that some of your money could be used to build the hotel. We gotta get real.
And the Government is NOT investing in Four Seasons, the NIS and the IDB are.
What is important now is that we get this project back on track so that we are in a position to capitalize fully on the recovery when to comes. From what I read, recovery should coincide with the opening of the hotel.
I agree with A Nationalist. We will be ahead of our competitors if we can do this and do it now.
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