Barbados Predicts Biggest Luxury Building Boom in Over a Decade, warns of Labour and Materials Shortages

By Emmanuel Joseph

Barbados is set to enjoy its biggest luxury building boom in some 14 years, top real estate executives declared as they predicted shortages of labour and materials this year.

A rise in construction costs is also in the forecast.

But while middle-income home-building is likely to put pressure on the construction of villas, the appetite for a piece of the Barbadian rock among the super-rich shows no signs of tapering off, with homes at the very top end of the market fetching record prices, said leading realtors in interviews with Barbados TODAY.

One luxury homes specialist has identified globe-trotting Prime Minister Mia Mottley as a key selling factor for would-be villa buyers.

Hayden Hutton, Chief Operating Officer of the Terra Group of Companies, said: “My sense is that [in 2024], the construction industry is going to be so busy that the demand for labour, supplies, materials, etcetera, is going to be exceedingly high. So, one needs to think about the cost.

“There are a lot of development projects going on in Barbados and new ones to start. I would give you the example of Alora on Brighton Beach, which is an off-plan project. I think we have 24 units there, and 75 per cent of those are all sold off-plan…not finished yet… We have not had off-plan sales with the general residential market going back to the 2007-2009 boom market. So, once you see that level returning, it says the market is definitely on a very, very strong trajectory.”

The luxury property market specialist suggested that a raft of middle-income developments is driving up competition for the resources to build high-end homes.

“For example, the supply of materials, competent contractors, tradesmen, electricians, joiners, carpenters, landscapers, you name it. I think [2024] is going to be increasingly difficult with all of that activity going on, to get access to those trades,” Hutton said.

The luxury property market here is in the middle of a boom time, according to the Terra boss who reported that villa sales are going through the roof.

“The market has been exceedingly strong,” he said. “The high-end of the market has been the strongest from over the period of COVID until now…. [It is] the strongest it has been in history, without any question and by any standard. There have been record-breaking sales.”

Hutton said almost all the residential markets globally coming out of COVID, had tremendous bumps.

“What most people were saying for the calendar year 2022 – best year on record,” he declared. “That was a very common sentiment for many markets globally – the region to the US market. The residential markets heated up and went bananas. Barbados was the same.”

He identified a notable stand-out in the “very” high-end of the market as the “trophy” sales for properties above US$25 million (BDS$50 million).

“We have had more sales in that segment of the market than we have had in the history of Barbados in the last couple years,” said Hutton. “And with all the development going on up at Apes Hill, there is a lot more supply to come on.”