The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian realtors will "take" the increased expedited permanent residency threshold despite wanting it to remain at $500,000, their Association president says.

Christine Wallace-Whitfield said the Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) and its members wanted to keep the present benchmark, but would settle for the Minnis administration's planned increase to $750,000 as opposed to the $1 million proposed by its predecessor. "We had a meeting with the Minister [Brent Symonette] about that," Mrs Wallace-Whitfield told Tribune Business. "It was a very good meeting. He explained to us that even though persons may buy under the $750,000 mark, I doesn't mean that one cannot apply.

"I think a lot of people get confused with that. It just means that the $750,000 mark will ensure that it is expedited and dealt with in a faster timeframe. Anything underneath that is, of course, considered for approval but it will just take time. I think we were quite happy and content with what the Minister had said. We will be working along with his office moving forward.

Confusion has long surrounded the so-called permanent residency 'benchmark'. The last Ingraham administration increased the 'fast-track' consideration threshold to a real estate purchase of $1.5 million or above. Those worth $500,000 or more would be considered for such status, but not placed on the 'fast track'.

The former Christie administration had planned to raise the latter threshold to $1 million, which produced strong resistance from both realtors and developers.

"We went back to the members at that time, and got a questionnaire or a poll to get feedback on what they wanted," Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said. "Everyone wanted to keep it at the $500,000. When the new administration came in, I think they considered all of that and kind of came up with the $750,000 mark. At this point we will take that as opposed to $1 million.

Mr Symonette, minister of financial services, trade and industry and Immigration, previously confirmed to Tribune Business that the Minnis administration had already "agreed" to move away from the 'one-size fits all' approach to real estate-related permanent residency investments, and also planned to lower the permanent residency investment threshold for economically-depressed Bahamian islands.