By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
The Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president yesterday forecast a 20 percent price cut across the real estate market as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Wallace-Whitfield, pictured, told Tribune Business: “I think prices will go down but it is tough one, because we really don’t know what’s going to happen. We are just going to see a slight lull in the market and, of course, worldwide everything has slowed down.
“Even though we have a local market, and we really rely a lot on our international market, I think you will definitely see people taking a break, slowing down and then maybe revisiting investing after this COVID-19 has passed. There is uncertainty and a lot of people want to see what will happen with the market.
Predicting that there will be a lot of “discounted prices”, Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said she foresees property prices across-the-board falling by 20 percent in The Bahamas. She added: “I hate to give a high percentage, because I don’t want to scare our real estate membership as we worked really hard at this, but I think people need to expect that people will be seeing a lot of discounted prices.
“You definitely will see a decline in the real estate market. Yes, that is a scary point, but it is also important that we as Bahamians, real estate agents and brokers make sure we do our due diligence and we continue to check up on our customers and clients. The important thing is to stay in touch.
“Stay in touch with the markets out there and keep a positive outlook on it, because The Bahamas definitely is a sought-after destination for second home ownership. Even though we are going through a slow period, we will definitely bounce back and, like the Prime Minister said, we will come back and we will come out of this shining,” the BREA chief added.
“I just heard this morning that we are one of the top destinations to go to after this COVID-19 has passed, so that is very, very encouraging and I am really excited about that. I think for the real estate agents and salesmen we need to just keep at it, watch the market and watch what’s going on.
“I think this is the best time for us to prepare, to start doing our homework, read up, take extra courses and there are a lot of briefings online that can help us with our social media skills. So I think in this time we need to prepare and do our homework so that when we are ready to come out of this thing we can come out of it running and ready to promote The Bahamas.”
Acknowledging that the COVID-19 pandemic will have cost The Bahamas some sales that were already in the transaction pipeline, Mrs Wallace-Whitfield added: “I know some people have lost some customers and lost some sales, which is very unfortunate, but people are scared because a lot of foreigners have their cash in stocks.
“They sometimes use that money for their cash purchases, so a lot of people have taken a stance to wait and see. So I would say within two months you would see a slow period. I think you will see people start thinking about putting their property on the market, so you may see an increase in people starting to list their properties.”
She added, though, that the ongoing COVID-19 uncertainty meant there was likely to be a reduced pool of real estate buyers. “I think it’s still early days, and people are still looking at what the government says and what the international market says because everything changes,” Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said. “It used to be daily, and now it is every other day, which is a good thing.
“But you are watching what America is doing, what the European market is doing and the UK, so we have to stay vigilant and watch the markets just to make sure. Watching what those countries are doing, once their cases start to decrease and their borders start opening up again, then our economic platform will start to rise because once we open our borders then we will start to get people in and then jobs will start to be created again. People will go back to work and salaries will come again and people will start to buy. It is all a trickle effect. It is a waiting game and we just have to wait and see.”
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