The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Realty’s chief executive yesterday expressed hope the imminent general election will not stall the 10-15 per cent year-to-date growth in business, which comes on top of 2016’s 60 per cent gross sales rise.

Larry Roberts told Tribune Business that the real estate market was in “wait and see mode”, with high-end Bahamian buyers watching for the election’s outcome and to gain a sense of policy direction from the new administration.

Speaking after Bahamas Realty unveiled an 80 per cent year-over-year increase in gross commissions for 2016, Mr Roberts said: “What we’re finding right now with the current market is that everyone’s wait and see.

“We’re seeing that the wealthy Bahamian has his money put aside and not doing anything with it at the moment. Hopefully, in another month or two, there’ll be a change and we can all look forward to increased business.”

A temporary decline in business and investment activity is fairly typical just prior to general elections, as companies and investors opt for caution and wait to see the outcome before embarking on capital projects.

With Bahamas Realty also enjoying a 60 per cent year-over-year increase in gross real estate sales for 2016, Mr Roberts said the firm was on track to match or exceed this performance in 2017, “unless the bottom drops out” or momentum stalls due to the election.

“We’re ahead of last year. I would say I’m up 10-15 per cent over last year,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business.

He attributed “hard, hard work” by the entire Bahamas Realty team for the “significant” increase in sales, revealing that he could not recall a transaction that had closed within the period stipulated by the sales contract.

Pointing out most deals allowed for a 60-day closing window, Mr Roberts told Tribune Business: “With many of these sales, if you sign a contract today, you’d be lucky if it closed in three months.

“It’s a combination of co-ordination between the various attorneys working on the deal, and if there’s bank financing involved there’s often a delay with that.

“I cannot tell you the last time I had a sale close within the stipulated period. There’s always an excuse,” Mr Roberts added.

“I remember my father saying to me: ‘You’ll work harder to close a sale than make a sale, and the reason will be the lawyers. You’ll have to stay on top of them right the way through the process’. That’s a general statement, but it’s so true.”

Identifying teamwork as a key factor behind Bahamas Realty’s success, Mr Roberts said: “We’ve been putting a lot of work into training our agents and being a lot more proactive. That’s a great part of our success.

“There were also more significant transactions that we have been working on for some time, and which are not necessarily indicative of the market today.

“There were a lot of sales in the works, some of them for over a year, that finally came through [in 2016], especially the ones involving the Government.”

Mr Roberts described the last six months as “very active” for Bahamas Realty and its realtors, with sales closes in high-end communities such as Lyford Cay, Old Fort Bay and Ocean Club Estates, even though not all were major transactions.

“We’ve been very pleased and fortunate to have done as well as we have, but it’s a lot of hard work in this market,” he told Tribune Business. “You just have to work twice as hard.

“We have a really good group of agents that have been working as a team. That team spirit has really come through and brought us the results.”

Bahamas Realty has also invested in technology by offering 3D video tours that allow buyers to ‘walk’ through a property in virtual reality before they see it in person.

“This year has shown us that we are on the right path, and we are grateful to our whole team and to our valued clients,” Mr Roberts said in a statement.

“We are delighted to see that sales increased so significantly this past year. While the economy has been slow to improve, this tells us that there is still demand for housing and commercial property in the Bahamas.

“What we are seeing is that building a relationship of trust is key to consumer confidence.”