By Richard Holledge
Published in the Financial Times: May 31 2008 03:00 Last updated: May 31 2008 03:00
Published in the Financial Times: May 31 2008 03:00 Last updated: May 31 2008 03:00
Antigua is one of those places where you can take your time: watch an hour or two of cricket, sit on the beach, or try a bit of yachting. You might even exert yourself enough to summon the waiter for a bottle of Wadadli. Meaning "our own" in translation, the beer was named after the island - or the name it had before British invaders took it over in 1632. But whether the island will remain "our own" for much longer is a question the 80,000 inhabitants of this Caribbean island might well soon be asking.
The locals take the daily invasion of tourists as they are bused from cruise ships to the beaches or to ersatz steel band nights with a relaxed shrug. They barely notice the rich and famous who have homes there, such as designer Giorgio Armani and writer Ken Follett, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and rock musician Eric Clapton, who owns an alcohol drug rehabilitation centre there.
But now there is an invasion that cannot be shrugged off so lightly. Major international developers are seeking out prime seaside locations where they can build hotels, resorts, condominiums and timeshares.
Why now? From the time of independence from Britain in 1981 the country was ruled by one party and one family - first Vere Bird was prime minister and then power passed to his son, Lester - until it was defeated in 2004 by the United Progressive Party. With little in the national treasury and a sugar cane industry that had long disappeared, the new government decided to pin its hope for economic growth on tourism and property.
Government ministers have been talking to the chief executives of hotel chains and property developers, bankers and international lawyers. The targets are those who want second homes in beautifully maintained, gated communities, soaking up "international living".
Cricket legend Sir Vivian Richards has an enthusiastic welcome for the developers - and their clients. "I like people coming here and buying properties," he says, "because it means they are embedding themselves in the island and having a vested interest in our future." Richards is planning his own smart development but he is a minor player compared with organisations such as the Dubai Jumeirah group, which has been looking at Galley Bay, west of St John's, or developer Peter de Savary, who has been linked with the redevelopment of Half Moon Bay, a derelict hotel on the east coast. A British investor has bought 540 acres in the Seaforth area south west of St John's, planning to rename it Azure Bay and build a marina and a golf course.
Several hotel groups are interested in building not just hotels but a mix of private homes, condominiums and fractional ownership units. The Marriott Corporation and Urgo Hotels from the US, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts from Singapore and the Taj group from India are all in the frame. The Irish group Harte Holdings, which is developing 80 units in Hodges Bay, is also rumoured to be looking at a 130 acre site near Carlisle Bay, home of one of the island's most glamorous hotels.
Few have a bigger stake than the Dutch-owned La Perla, which has taken over the rather tired resort of Jolly Harbour. The company plans to build a new commercial centre, a hotel and to double the size of the golf course. When completed, Jolly Harbour will be tripled in size, making it the second biggest community after St John's. A rather dismal, empty man-made island in the middle of the resort will be the home for 132 plots selling for £250,000, while the first stage to be completed, the Marina Residence apartments overlooking the harbour, will offer a range of one- to three- bedroom apartments from £227,000.
These developments might seem another world, separate from the rest of Antigua - though this is far from a poverty-stricken island. The countryside is lush and hilly to the south, while in the north it is more scrubby, with cactus and acacias tempering its rocky hillsides. Everywhere there are houses on stilts, untidy villages with little shops and bars, and dogs and ducks wandering around the roadside stalls. There is invariably one rusty car in each front yard.
What a contrast between Freetown, a community built for emancipated slaves in the second half of the 18th century, and Nonsuch Bay, a development a few miles away. The Minister for Tourism, Harold Lovell, insists: "We don't want to reach the state where land is unaffordable for Antiguans but we must attract the upper end of the residential property market because it is important that people have homes here in the summer and during the hurricane season to bring in expenditure and revenue."
Antigua has a national tourism plan designed to guide all development for 10 to 15 years, demarcating the areas for tourism and keeping the balance between niche markets and major developments.
What about the infrastructure? How are the second-homers, weary from the nine-hour flight from the UK, expected to lurch along the dusty trail to Nonsuch Bay? "We struggle with that," says Lovell. "Taxes have gone up and value added tax has risen by 15 per cent and that has been dedicated to infrastructure and the marketing of tourism."
Ian Fraser, 42, who has lived on the island full time since 1992, first opening a restaurant before buying a hotel and diversifying into property, says: "Hopefully the developments will not change the character of the place and we won't end up with buildings cheek by jowl as they are in Barbados." The Nonsuch site, which is another La Perla development, covers almost 40 acres with a range of accommodation from private villas, which are on the market for £479,000, to waterfront townhouses and apartments. Sipke Feenstra of La Perla says: "We are aiming at early retirees, maybe even younger than 50, who will come here twice a year for two to three weeks or even three months."
As Bruce Baxter, a local property consultant, puts it: "Investors are beginning to make commitments that will usher in a boom which will improve the relatively high standard of living of the average Antiguan." He emphasises the advantage for UK buyers of the still-beneficial rate of exchange with the dollar, to which Antigua's currency is pegged, and reckons Europeans can buy for 25-35 per cent cheaper than Americans. "The political credibility will catapult the island to the international stage," he says.
Valerie Webb says: "I chose Antigua rather than St Thomas and St Lucia because it has not been taken over by tourism and still retains its identity". Will she be saying that in 10 years time?
