The Tribune

The $75 million Caves Heights condominium development expects to be fully sold-out within two years, its sales and marketing executive said yesterday, adding that it has largely been unaffected by Baha Mar-related uncertainty.

Gustaf Hernqvist, Caves Heights’ vice-president of sales and marketing, said the project had generated roughly $8 million in sales over the past 12 months.

He added that the development, which consists  of  two, three and four-bedroom penthouse condos with an average price tag of $800,000-$900,000, has been able to maintain good momentum despite the slowdown in buyer traffic created by the stalled $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort.

“I do think that there are still some believers out there. I think that recently people have started to get more of a feeling that something actually will be happening,” said Mr Hernqvist .

“It’s hard to interpret everything that’s been going on, the back and forth, but we have still been successful with sales. We have still been able to produce 10 sales in the last 12 months, which I feel has been pretty good in this market. Definitely the whole Baha Mar situation has slowed the traffic down. It definitely has. We have still been able to maintain a good level of sales.”

    Mr Hernqvist added: “We have done a lot of work to the property over the last six months, repairing of buildings, new installment of landscaping and just really making the grounds look a lot better in the common areas.

“Only 20 of 84 condominiums remain. The way I look at it, if Baha Mar will open up within the next six to 12 months, then I have a feeling that our sell-out period would probably be 12-18 months from now.

“That’s dependent on Baha Mar opening, but just based on the pace of sales we have today I believe we have at the most a two year sell-out process for Caves Heights.”

Mr Hernqvist said many persons are starting to gravitate towards condo living. “We have a variety of buyers, a good number of Europeans purchasing, but we also have residents in the Bahamas, successful business people and other accomplished individuals, who are looking for a convenient lifestyle,” he added.

“There are a lot of people starting to appreciate the condo concept because it’s very easy going living, especially if you live on an island like Nassau or just the Bahamas in general.  A lot of people, not just foreigners but also locals, are starting to prefer this type of living.

“You have Caves Village next door, which continues to grow. There are some great additions over the past two years. I’m sure that there will be more to come as well. We are pretty much all rented out. We may have one or two spaces left,” Mr Hernqvist continued.

“I think that we are coming to a bit of a critical mass when it comes to residents to be able to entertain the type of retail shops and restaurants that are not going up in the western area of Nassau.

“Just getting a little bit closer into this Cable Beach area is attractive at the moment. I have had a number of residents that have sold their homes in Lyford Cay and Old Fort Bay that have been tired of maintaining a bigger home. I have definitely seen an increase of that type of resident purchasing here at Caves Heights.”