Wealthy Americans are flocking to this Caribbean nation to buy luxury real estate

The coronavirus pandemic chilled real estate markets across the U.S., but it didn’t stop the surging demand for property in Turks and Caicos.

As real estate elsewhere has dropped, the Caribbean nation has seen records broken despite the global pandemic, according to Mauricio Umansky, founder and CEO of real estate firm The Agency.

“We have definitely seen some extraordinary prices,” he told FOX Business.

Sales volume of single-family homes in Turks and Caicos during the first quarter of 2020 outpaced the same period of 2019, and condo sales outpaced the two previous years to date, according to a Sotheby’s International Realty report.

Turks and Caicos is conveniently close to the U.S. and boasts some of the world’s best beaches, according to Umansky. The country also uses the U.S. dollar and has no property, income or capital gains taxes. The real estate market was already seeing big growth there last year, and it benefited from publicity around the sales of luxury homes that had belonged to Prince and Bruce Willis.

Wealthy Americans looking to vacation in Turks and Caicos were more likely to rent before the pandemic, so they could spend a summer there and then jet off to another luxury locale the next year, according to Umansky. But he said the pandemic has made the rich realize they want to own a second home outside crowded cities so they have someplace comfortable to stay in the event of a similar event.
Source: Fox Business