Fresh Invest

Values in the Dominican Republic have risen recently but with demand for properties still very high, values remain steady.

The Country:

The Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean island after Cuba. The Island originally named Hispaniola in now divided into two parts; The Dominican Republic and Haiti.

DR is the most popular Caribbean Island for British tourism and is positively promoted as a Mecca for cruise liners and holiday makers. Its popularity and size means that there are many property investment opportunities.

The island is in the Hurricane belt but the mountain range in the middle of the island shields the north coast.

Property Values:

Values in the Dominican Republic have risen recently but with demand for properties still very high, values remain steady.

Property values from an investment viewpoint are affected by the demand for rentals. With the Dominican Republic being the most popular Caribbean island for holiday makers prices for rental property still command a good yield.

Some of our developers have come to agreements with the Government to allow savings on certain taxes. These include capital gains and inheritance taxes.

Where the Dominican Republic has always had its doubters, these people seem to have been largely swayed. The development of areas by people such as Donald Trump have seen some areas of the Dominican Republic talked about in the same breath as some of the more up market Caribbean locations.

Investment:

The Government is currently spending $20,000,000 on an international marketing campaign highlighting the north coast.

The tourist board are branding the north coast as the ‘golfing capital of the Caribbean’ There are excellent courses, some with ocean front fairways. Playa Grande is considered the best in the Caribbean. Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus are designing courses for the near future.

Purchase Procedure:

Generally an investment opportunity will come with some element of finance already contained within it. If this is not the case then mortgages are available at around 70% loan to value and at around 3%-5% above US base rate.If you are not a US national you will need to prove rental figures if you are letting the property.
You will also need reasonably good credit history.

Another option is to raise the finance in the UK by remortgaging your own property. If the rate is more favorable this is worthy of consideration.

Summary:

The Dominican Republic is a much larger island than others that we are marketing - this is not a bad thing as the island has very different sides.

The south coast has a lot of all 3-4 star all inclusive resorts.

The south and east coast are hit by hurricanes frequently so there is no point building the more expensive resorts here as they get damaged almost every year.

The north Coast has a lot of infrastructure going in to make it a more up-market destination.

More Brits go to the Dominican Republic than any other Caribbean Island. The Dominican Republic is now the most popular destination for Canadians and the 4th most popular destination for Americans. (Only 1.5 hour flight from Miami).

Tourism is gearing up for the amounts of US visitors and the changing requirements of travelers, moving from an all-inclusive type of visitor to a more up market visitor with higher demands. This is leading to rapid investment in the area as people see the potential in comparison to other more established Caribbean destinations.

For any investor, the knowledge that the market you are trying to rent to is very much there and increasing is important.

The fact that overseas visitors to the DR have grown over the last 15 years and show no sign of slowing down is an important factor in any purchase.