The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Sandyport believes it has notched “a great achievement” through having its residential real estate portfolio 100 per cent leased, with tenants snapping units up before they are built.

Garth Buckner, Sandyport Development Company’s president, told Tribune Business that the Cable Beach-based project had been focusing on its residential portfolio for the past two years in the belief that this segment would recover from the recession faster than all others.

He explained that the move had also anticipated Baha Mar and other developments, plus the extensive airport and road infrastructure investments, all of which had made Cable Beach “the new centre” of New Providence.

Moving forward from Sandyport’s sold-out fifth phase, Mr Buckner told Tribune Business: “We held on to a few lots. We’re developing those lots to rent, and we’re building a portfolio of residential properties.

“Right now, we’re at 15 and have a further three under construction, with a few more on the drawing board. We are 100 per cent leased in residential, which is a great achievement.

“We’re looking forward to leasing the other residential units before we finish them. Right now, we’re leasing them before we finish them.”

Mr Buckner said Sandyport had been working hard with numerous Bahamian realtors, including Matt Sweeting of Bahama Islands Realty, Coldwell Banker’s Spencer White, Damianos Sotheby’s International Realty and others to market its residential focus.

“We are leasing every day and getting calls every day through the brokers,” he added. “We’re seeing a mix of bankers, investors and hotel executives, including people from Baha Mar. Plus construction executives on different projects going on.”

Mr Buckner attributed Sandyport’s rental success to hitting “a real sweet spot” in terms of pricing.

Targeted at upper middle class, professional buyers, Mr Buckner said purchase prices were affordable for Bahamians, while the $3,800-$8,000 monthly lease rates hit the same mark with expatriate renters.

“We’ve been focusing both on residential rentals and commercial rentals over the last two years,” he added. “We foresaw with Baha Mar, Albany, the new airport and new roads, first of all an upswing in demand for residential and commercial properties.

“We also saw a realignment of how people live and work on the island, with the Cable Beach area really becoming the new centre in New Providence for both Bahamians and expatriates.

“It’s [Cable Beach] really achieved the kind of critical mass, and the new roads have made it so accessible. It’s no longer out west; it’s a new centre of its own. A great many residents want to live, work and play out west.”

Mr Buckner added that Sandyport had also targeted the rental market because it was perceived as the segment first likely to feel any real estate rebound.

“What tends to happen in a market cycle is that when things get going again in real estate, it tends to be driven by rentals,” he explained.

“Equity investors and banks tend to hang back until they something in income there, so they follow the rentals market. Banks have the money to lend. It’s a matter of them seeing a couple of years of the properties people want to invest in, showing them there’s an income stream.”

Mr Buckner revealed that Sandyport had to adjust its original business model, having anticipated more foreign second home buyers in its residential ownership mix.

“The only difference is we thought we might have more family homes and less rental homes,” Mr Buckner said of then and now.

“We thought there’d be more people with second homes, and didn’t see the extent to which Bahamians would want to buy and rent out to expatriates here for a few years. That’s been a market that’s been more important than we realised.

We’ve got to think very carefully about our market, and what the market wants and try and meet that. We’re excited about Baha Mar and positive about that. We know the banks have a lot of money, and just wish they’d lend it.”