At a Glance: Little Cayman is big property player
Little Cayman is the big property player for people investing in the Cayman Islands, according to TheMoveChannel.com’s latest At a Glance report. The infographic shows that when it comes to real estate in the Cayman Islands, Little Cayman attracts the largest attention, accounting for almost two-thirds of enquiries.
Little Cayman is the smallest of the three-island archipelago but it outshone its big sister Grand Cayman in the 12 months to October 2013, attracting 65.09 per cent of property enquiries. Cayman Brac received the second highest number of enquiries (33.36 per cent). On Grand Cayman, the only districts to receive enquiries were Bodden Town, George Town and West End, although neither accounted for more than 2 per cent of enquiries.
In terms of searches, though, Grand Cayman is still the most popular: the biggest of the islands accounted for almost half (43 per cent) of all searches for Cayman Islands property on TheMoveChannel.com. Cayman Brac was the second most sought-after, receiving just over one quarter (27.66%) of searches. Little Cayman was the target of just one in five (19.21%) searches.
Some house hunters were more specific, looking for real estate within certain areas of Grand Cayman: 4.32 per cent searched for property in George Town, while 2.94 per cent searched for property in West End and 1.56 per cent in Bodden Town. Almost 300 hundred buyers searched for property in the Cayman Islands in general, without naming a location.
The At a Glance infographic also charts the number of searches for real estate in the Cayman Islands on Google. In the year to October 2013, the majority of buyers tended to search generally for “Caymans Islands Property”. Over the 12 months, searches for “property for sale in Cayman Islands” and “Cayman islands property” have both declined slightly, while searches for “property in Cayman Islands” have increased 77 per cent in the three months to October 2013 compared to the three months to January 2013.
“Houses for sale” were the most popular property type, occurring in more searches than “land for sale”, despite the proliferation of land opportunities on TheMoveChannel.com. Indeed, land accounts for almost half (48 per cent) of Cayman Islands property listings currently on the site.
Editor Ivan Radford comments: “Demand for property in the Cayman Islands has grown significantly in the last year on TheMoveChannel.com, with the country appearing four times in the top 10 destinations on the site in 2013 so far. Land in the Cayman Islands is the investment of choice among buyers on the site, so it is surprising to see so few searches for it on Google. The Cayman Islands, though, seem to be full of small surprises – not least of all Little Cayman.“Little Cayman accounts for one quarter of TheMoveChannel.com’s Cayman Islands listings compared to Grand Cayman, which is home to 53 per cent. Despite that – and even with buyers actively searching for property on the largest island – the tinier of the two generated more enquiries in the past 12 months. Is that because there were better returns from Little Cayman for investors thanks to softer property prices, or a sign that even Grand Cayman’s traditional hotspot of the Seven-Mile Beach has a new rival for lifestyle appeal? Either way, as the cold nights set in and buyers dream of Caribbean sun, the rising popularity of the Cayman Islands could yet surprise us all.”
Click here for the full infographic.
Notes to Editors
Founded in 1999, TheMoveChannel.com is the leading independent website for international property, with than 400,000 listings in over 100 countries around the world, marketed on behalf of agents, developers and private owners.
The website address is http://www.themovechannel.com and the office address is 24 Jack’s Place, Corbet Place, Spitalfields, London, E1 6NN.
Map of the Cayman Islands courtesy of Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons licence.
Contact Dan Johnson on 0207 952 7650 for further information.