Country Guides Country Guide: Turks And Caicos

Date Published:

03/08/2009

The Turks & Caicos islands, located one hour by plane from Miami, Florida, are a Caribbean idyll and more akin to their northerly island neighbours of Bermuda than the southerly Afro-Caribbean islands.

By Gordon Miller

All the classic ingredients can be found on its eight inhabited islands and cays (there are 40 in the archipelago): white sand beaches; emerald green sea; palm trees; a laid-back atmosphere; world-class diving; snorkeling and fishing amongst the planet’s third largest coral reef. Stunning would be most people’s chosen adjective. So, what’s not to like?

Not much would be the answer – except its pretty pricey even by upmarket Caribbean standards. Property prices have risen up to ten-fold in the last decade, and most significantly between 2001 and 2007, propelled by an enormous increase in visitors. A two-acre beachfront on Long Bay, which in 2001 would have sold for US$150,000, in 2007 sold for US$1.5 million, according to GlobalPropertyGuide.com. In the relatively uninhabited island of West Caicos, prices of privately owned villas and cottages range from US$2.2 million to US$6 million each.

Lately, there’s been a slow down in house price escalation post the credit crunch, but the Turks & Caicos is proving pretty resilient to the global property meltdown. Like many A-list celebrity destinations - residents include Keith Richards, Christie Brinkley, Donna Karen, Bruce Willis, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones – there’s little discernible sign of shrinking wealth. When you have many millions, as the aforementioned stellar names do, the odd couple of hundred thousand dollars is but a mere drop in the (crystal clear and very inviting) ocean.