Second-home buyer interest growing

The Bahamas’ second home market is beginning to expand, Bahamas Real Estate Association President Christine Wallace-Whitfield said yesterday, explaining also that some of those second home owners are interested in using their properties for vacation rentals.

Wallace-Whitfield said many real estate companies saw the interest growing from second home buyers by the end of 2020.

 “We’re now starting to see a bit of an influx of people looking for second homes, which is great,” said Wallace-Whitfield. 

“I think before the end of the year, before the last quarter of 2020, we saw that a lot of companies saw that coming. So that’s been very interesting for the real estate market.”

She explained that some second-home buyers have expressed interest in converting those new properties into short-term rentals.

According to Wallace-Whitfield, vacation home rentals have taken off since the COVID-19 pandemic forced hotels to close. She said many people have put their properties on short-term rental websites like Airbnb and Vrbo.com. Those types of properties became popular when The Bahamas initially reopened its borders in July and then again in November.

“Airbnb, that’s been surprisingly popular. Foreign buyers are looking for properties where they can do short-term rentals,” she said. 

The government is trying to encourage Bahamians to also enter the vacation rental market as a means to increase Bahamian ownership in the tourism sector and increase their incomes.

The government is going even further by incentivizing Bahamians’ entry into the market through small business loans and certain concessions. 

Wallace-Whitfield said there continues to be many investment properties in the market, though there have not been many investment property purchases recently.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/second-home-buyer-interest-growing/