Unique real estate market analyses

As the signature real estate brokerage of Dart Real Estate, Provenance Properties – the official Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate in the Cayman Islands – has access to proprietary market research tools to provide insightful analysis of market trends and pricing. Provenance Properties uses this data to assist clients in making informed decisions about buying and selling real estate.

A presentation by Lou Dimitrov and Matthew O’Keeffe of Dart at the 4th annual Cayman Islands Property & Construction Conference, held on 15 March 2019 at the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort, presented a dedicated mathematical and geographical information system approach to the Cayman Islands residential real estate market that the duo custom developed.

“Until now, knowing where the Cayman Islands real estate market was, is and is going has been an imprecise guess based on personal experience, intuition and a disparate set of statistics that never told the whole picture,” said Mr. Dimitrov.

A better understanding

Mr. O’Keeffe explained that in trying to get a better understanding of the local real estate market, he started looking specifically at the condominium products in the Seven Mile Beach corridor, along with some of the waterfront developments in George Town.

“We needed to understand historical prices in order to understand the direction the market was moving in,” Mr. O’Keeffe said. A new database was created by using a variety of sources, including the original strata plans, the Cayman Land Info site run by the Cayman Islands Government Lands & Survey Department and the Cayman Islands Real Estate Brokers Association website.

Increasing condominium prices

Using the combined data, Mr. Dimitrov and Mr. O’Keeffe developed the Dimitrov O’Keeffe Home Price Index based on a repeat-sales methodology. With the index, it is possible to calculate that the historical growth in the 78 condominium developments analysed has been 3.8 per cent per annum over the past two decades.

“An interesting observation is the huge increase in condo prices during the last two years — 23 per cent in 2017 and 10 per cent in 2018,” Mr. Dimitrov said. Looking specifically at condominiums on Seven Mile Beach instead of including the off-beach properties in the corridor shows that those properties still continue to see price increases faster than the Cayman Islands as a whole. Historically, the annual growth of Seven Mile Beach condominiums is 5.3 per cent, while it’s 3 per cent for the entire Cayman Islands.

“This data is useful to buyers when they are presenting an offer or determining at what price to list their property,” noted Jackie Doak, Broker at Provenance Properties. “Our team is able to produce custom reports for clients as part of our commitment to providing service excellence and in-depth market knowledge.”

To find out more about the state of the real estate market in Cayman, contact a Provenance Properties Sales Specialist today.

About the author

Jo Gammage is Senior Brand Manager on the real estate marketing team for Dart. Bringing a decade of experience in real estate to her role, Jo previously worked for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism. This combination of experience means she has witnessed the journey of a visitor planning their first trip to the Cayman Islands through to purchasing a home after relocating here. In fact, Jo is very familiar with how easy it is to fall in love with the Cayman Islands, having moved here 22 years ago after stints in England, Australia and Hong Kong and never left.