The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A prominent Bahamian realtor yesterday predicted that total real estate market sales volumes will be "pulled down" by ten percent in 2020 due to Abaco being taken offline by Hurricane Dorian.

John Christie, HG Christie's president and managing broker, nevertheless said the industry was set for "a good solid year" with New Providence picking up some of the slack created by the devastation inflicted on Abaco's second home and vacation rental market by the category five storm.

With his firm "doing deals already", Mr Christie said the sector may not be "quite as hot" from a realtor perspective this year when compared to 2019 because there were fewer properties available to meet buyer demand.

He disclosed that HG Christie remains committed to rebuilding and re-opening its two Abaco offices, in Marsh Harbour and Hope Town, once insurance settlements and repairs are concluded as the island accounted for between 15-20 percent of the company's business by sales volume.

"Abaco was a very strong market, and because of the fact that was destroyed that is going to pull the whole real estate market down by 10 percent I would guess in terms of volume, not value," Mr Christie told Tribune Business.

"The upside of that is there will be less inventory so prices will pick up. That will be good for people trying to sell, not so good for people that buy. Prices in Nassau are slowly picking up. It's still a good time to buy if you have the money to do so."

Mr Christie said the real estate firm's Marsh Harbour office, which was rented, survived intact structurally but saw water intrusion reach almost to the ceiling. It is now awaiting the insurance settlement to start the necessary renovations.

He added that repairs to the roof, and re-wiring, had already begun at HG Christie's Hope Town office where water penetration had only reached as high as three feet.

"The bigger sales are in Nassau. Abaco was maybe 15-20 percent of our business," Mr Christie said, "but we still had a very strong year last year. And I think it will be a good solid year this year. We seem to have a fair bit of interest from people looking to buy and rent.

"For the realtors I don't think it will be quite as hot. The interest is there, but there are less properties available, so that might slow things down a bit. There is less hanging fruit, but generally we're feeling good about a pretty solid year. We're doing deals already this year, so things are moving."

Mr Christie added that a strong US stock market, solid consumer confidence and persons feeling more wealthy were all factors working in the Bahamian real estate market's favour. He added that decisions by Abaco property owners on whether to rebuild or not largely hinged on the receipt of insurance payouts, with the picture becoming much clearer within the next two months.

The HG Christie chief also lamented the obstacles placed in the way of foreign real estate investors by The Bahamas' ease of doing business woes and overbearing Know Your Customer (KYC) regime, which made tasks such as opening a bank account more time-consuming and bureaucratic than necessary.

"All of our regulations don't help," he said. "Hopefully it won't last for ever, but it is what it is. We're still doing fine. People want to be here and we're still close to the US. Our location is very good for us."