Paul Altman, of Altman Real Estate, recently commented: ‘less than 2% of land in foreign hands.’ He made this comment on the popular Barbadian radio programme Brasstacks. What he was referring to was the foreign ownership of land in Barbados. I for one didn’t hear the actual radio programme on Sunday, but I read about his comments in the March 19th edition of the Daily Nation newspaper (that particular article hasn’t appeared on their web edition.)
After reading this, I couldn’t help but think that his comments were inaccurate and maybe even a little dangerous as well. Dangerous because I don’t think anyone challenged him on his figures, nor the methods he employed in producing those figures. Furthermore, upon reading the print article, I see no mention of anyone challenging or questioning the ’statistics’ that he cited, the ones in which he claimed that ‘we are not running out of land’ and ‘less than two percent of the land mass is what is being used for foreign investement-type benefit.’
I don’t know folks. I mean, whenever I take a drive up the west coast of the island, I see major construction going on. Heck, I don’t even see much of the coastline or the beach, just big blocks of concrete painted in pastel-ish looking colours. Similar construction and development is taking part on the south coast of the island as well. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but something tells me that these developments are not for your average Barbadian. Instead, these are geared towards European and North American buyers. But I’m no realtor, so what do I know?
4 Comments
March 20, 2007 at 11:39 pm
[...] The Bystander Finds A Speelling Chequer – And Takes Issue With Paul Altman’s Real Estate Assessment Jump to Comments We had a little fun the other day with The Bystander Blog – but it looks like not only has he found his spelling checker, he has something worthwhile to say. Head over and read Foreign Ownership Of Land In Barbados. [...]
March 20, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Well, remember that 70% of the total land is arable, so that leaves 30% for everything else.
However, if 15% is developed, and the foreigners own 2% total, then they really own 13% of developed Barbados. But, how are we to truly check his figures…
March 21, 2007 at 3:33 am
I think Paul Altman’s stats are pretty accurate.
If you take all of the condo and real estate developments on the west and south coast, even big ones such as Royal Westmoreland, Sugar Hill, Apes Hill, Port St Charles and all the other small ones, it is probably less than 3000 acreas, or about 3% of the land in Barbados. Royal Westmoreland is about 500 acres, Sandy Lane about 700 acreas (an estimate). Many of the condo developments near the coast are less than two acres.
Do we count returning nations as Bajans or foreigners? They probably account for a 1500 acres of land in house spots.
March 22, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Then too, besides, when foreigners invest here they are likely to form a local company which is the nominal “owner” of the land. Their lands would not show as being foreign owned.
As Thompy pointed out in the House, there are no proper records of foreign land ownership. We can only guess at it.
But the emotional perception is that a decreasing proportion of residential land is moving into the hands of Barbadians who feel deprived of their right to own their piece of The Rock.