A beach-front secret: tax-free property on under-explored Caribbean paradise islands from £421,000
British holidaymakers have long favoured Barbados, Antigua and the Bahamas but with more than 7,000 islands, the Caribbean deserves wider exploration.
Step forward Turks and Caicos, an extraordinarily beautiful ribbon of coral islands in the Atlantic Ocean southwest of the Bahamas.
This British Overseas Territory follows the English legal system but property is sold in US dollars, there’s no capital gains or income tax, and no annual property tax. Of these 40 low-lying sandy islands, only eight are populated.
The beaches are fabulous, the turquoise seas are crystal clear and, with the world’s third-largest reef, this is paradise for divers, anglers and kite-surfers.
Almost 90 per cent of visitors here are American. Yet British Airways flies from London to the main tourist island of Providenciales twice a week and historic links to the UK are strong.
“The Turks and Caicos is a modern Caribbean destination,” says Mark Durliat, chief executive of Grace Bay Resorts. “Since 2000, infrastructure, property and hotels have developed, all to stringent building codes. It’s easy to get here, easy to live here and property title is guaranteed by the Crown.”
Hotel and residential operator Grace Bay Resorts has 10 finished projects and a portfolio of luxury hotels including beachfront Grace Bay Club.
Durliat’s latest residential project is Rock House, an off-plan waterfront scheme of 39 one- and two-bedroom cottages and four villas on 14 acres of Providenciales.
Ten minutes from the airport, this sloping, private site is exquisite with low-level limestone cliffs leading to a soft sand beach.
Homes built among the vegetation will all look out to sea. Rock House will be run as a hotel, with a gym, spa, reception, restaurant and tennis courts. The star attraction will be a 100ft clifftop swimming pool.
On completion, planned for 2020, homes will have 13ft vaulted ceilings and private pools. Prices start from £421,600 for 512sq ft and £840,000 for a two-bedroom home. Annual service charges start at £6,300.
Owners can visit as often as they like but otherwise must rent through the hotel. Durliat’s companies include The Private Villa Collection, with exclusive Providenciales rental homes. Owners typically receive rental yields of five to 10 per cent net including six weeks’ personal use.
In Leeward on the north-eastern Providenciales coast, Blue Cay is a gated community of 16 detached four- and five-bedroom contemporary homes, fronting the beach or canal.
Open-plan styling is matched with traditional Caribbean coral stone and shingle roof tiles. The final three for sale, with berths, start at £1.8 million for 3,500sq ft. Ingo Reckhorn of Blue Cay Estate says waterfront prices on Turks and Caicos are still 30 to 50 per cent below the Bahamas or Barbados.
Club Med brought the Turks and Caicos to the attention of more Europeans in 1984 when it agreed to open on beautiful Grace Bay, if the government in return would extend the airport and build a road to the resort.
Today there are more than 70 hotels spread among the islands, most of them on Grace Bay’s 12-mile beach. The most illustrious are Amanyara, Parrot Cay and Grace Bay Club. The largest of this trio, Grace Bay Club has 82 suites and apartments on 11 acres of prime beachfront.
Top service and extensive facilities covering watersports, tennis courts, kids clubs and five restaurants make it a sophisticated family favourite. Amanyara, from superbrand Aman, is in the north west of Providenciales, blissfully quiet with Balinese-inspired architecture and discreet service.
Rooms there start from £1,000-plus per night. Como Parrot Cay is known for the celebrities who own homes there — Bruce Willis, Donna Karan and Rolling Stone Keith Richards — or who holiday there, including the Kardashians last month.
Its collection of colonial-style whitewashed buildings is on a 1,000-acre private island that sits 50 minutes from the airport.
Rock House: rockhouseresort.com
Grace Bay Resorts (including The Private Villa Collection): gracebayresorts.com
Sotheby’s International Realty: turksandcaicossir.com
Blue Cay: bluecay.com