Business reporter
Scroll through homes for sale in Eastern Caribbean and it is now being postponed just beaches and a laid-back-back lifestyle to woo buyers.
More and more asset listing is also offering a passport – and political and social instability in the US is asked to promote interest in interest.
Five of the island nations of the region offer such citizenship by Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Granada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia – Investment (CBI) such citizenship offers at least $ 200,000 (£ 145,000).
Buy a house, and you also get a passport that provides a visa-free access to the holder to 150 countries including the UK and the Schengen region of Europe.
For rich people, the absence of taxes of the islands such as capital gains and inheritance, and in some cases, is another major draw, even on income. And all five schemes in the region allow buyers to maintain their current citizenship.
In Antigua, estate agents are struggling to live with demand, the owner of luxury places says Nadia Dyson. “70% of all buyers now want citizenship, and the vast majority are from America,” she tells the BBC.
“We do not talk about politics with him, but unstable political scenario [in the US] There is definitely a factor.
“This time last year, all these lifestyle were buyers and some CBI. Now they are all saying ‘I want a house with citizenship’. We have never sold so many before.”
Despite no residence in Antigua schedule, some buyers are looking to move full -time, “Ms. Dyson says,” Some have already moved. “
According to investment migration experts Henley & Partners, American citizens are responsible for the wholesale of CBI applications in Caribbean in the last one year.
Ukraine, Türkiye, Nigeria and China are among the other frequent countries in the origin of applicants, the UK firm says that there are offices worldwide.
It adds that overall applications for Caribbean CBI programs have increased by 12% since the fourth quarter of 2024.
According to Consultancy’s Dominic Volk, guns are putting Americans on tentarhuk from violence to anti-Jewishism.
“About 10–15% actually moves. For most it is an insurance policy that they are concerned. The second citizenship is a good back-up plan,” they explain.
Mr. Volk says that Caribbean provides an appeal to businessmen for passports easily traveling, and can also offer a safety benefits. “Some American customers prefer to travel on a more politically-binging passport.”
Before the Kovid epidemic, the US was not even on Henley’s “radar”, Mr. Volk continues.
Movement sanctions proved “quite a setback” for rich people, who traveled independently on private jets, inspiring the first increase in statuside CBI applications. Interest again increased after 2020 and 2024 US elections.
“There are Democrats who do not like Trump, but are also Republicans who do not like Democrats,” Sri Volk says.
“In the last two years we have gone up to eight to eight from being zero offices in the US in all major cities, with one and two to three opening in the coming months.”
Robert Taylor of Halifax in Canada bought a property in Antigua, where he planned to retire later this year.
He had invested $ 200,000 just before the real estate limit increased to $ 300,000 in the last summer.
Not only as a citizen avoids restrictions on the length of living, it also gives him freedom to take advantage of business opportunities, he tells him. “I chose Antigua because it has beautiful water, I find people very, very friendly and this means that also the great season for the post -part of my life.”
Nevertheless, such programs are not without controversy. When passport sales were first looted by the then Antiguan government in 2012 as a way to pursue the sick economy, some considered morality to be a bit Iffy.
The protesters took to the streets in condemnation, the former speaker of the House, Giselle, recalls Isaac. “There was a feeling of nationalism; people felt that we were selling our identity, so to speak, people who did not know anything about us,” she says.
Leaders of some other Caribbean countries who do not offer CBI are also in a hurry to criticize, including St. Vincent and Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. He earlier said that citizenship should not be “an object for sale”.
Among the international community, there is a possibility that lax oversight may help obtain criminals through their limits.
The European Union has threatened to withdraw its prestigious visa-free access to the Caribbean CBI countries, while the US has expressed concern over the capacity of schemes used as a vehicle for tax evasion and vehicle for financial offenses.
A European Commission spokesman told the BBC that it has been “monitoring” the five Caribbean schemes, and has been interacting with its concerned officials since 2022.
She says that there is a demand to certify an ongoing evaluation if citizenship by investment “forms the abuse of visa-free governance, then those countries enjoy the European Union and whether it is likely to lead security risks for the European Union”.
The Commission has accepted the reforms made by the islands, which states that its evaluation will be affected.
For its share, five Caribbean countries have angrily reacted to claim that they are not enough to investigate the applicants.
Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skurit described the CBI program of his country as a “sound and transparent”, the authorities worked hard to ensure their integrity.
The government says that passport sales have increased more than $ 1bn since the establishment of the initiative in 1993, which pays for important infrastructure including a state -of -the -art hospital.
In St. Lucia, Prime Minister Philip Ji Pierre says the island follows the highest standards of security to ensure that its CBI does not inadvertently assist illegal activities.
There is a need to please the world’s superpowers, which is a delicate balance act for small Caribbean countries, depending on the craze of tourism.
The CBI programs were declared a lifeline at a regional industry summit in April, in which after natural disasters, it was used for everything from cleaning to national pension schemes. Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Brown said that the money raised had brought his country back to the verge of bankruptcy in the last decade.
In addition to purchasing property, other routes for Caribbean citizenship through investment usually include a National Development Fund or a similar donation. They range from $ 200,000 in Dominica for a single applicant to $ 250,000 for chief applicant and three qualifying dependents in Dominica and St. Kitts. In Antigua, investors also have the option to donate $ 260,000 to the University of West Indies.
In front of international pressure, the islands have committed the oversight to new measures, including setting up the standards, monitoring operations, and setting up a regional regulator to ensure compliance.
Additionally, six principles agreed with the US were included in proper hard work, regular audit, compulsory interview with all applicants, and removal of one flaws, which rejected an applicant to first apply in another by one country.
These days, passport sales account for 10–30% of the GDP of islands.
Andre Hui, a journalist at St. Kitts, says his country’s CBI plan is “generally well supported”. “The public understands its value for the economy, and appreciates what the government is capable of doing with money.”