BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – REGIONALLY-renowned Nevisian real estate developer Deon Daniel has recently made headlines in the Property Section of a British newspaper, which many people believe would not only enhance his financial status but also boosts the island’s economy.
In an article published by The Mail on Sunday on July 19, 2009 and headlined “Ours for just £196,000: a Caribbean dream home complete with pool, furniture and landscaped gardens”, Daniel was described as “the island’s only home-grown developer and so respected that he has been elected Nevis Man Of The Year”.
The article was written by Graham Lord, a British national who has made Nevis his home and is the owner of a house called Serendipity on one of the island’s hillsides, Fern Hill, which is just a 10-minute drive from Charlestown.
Describing the house, which he declared was built by the 39-year-old Daniel, Lord said, “This must be one of the great bargains of the Caribbean: a house my wife Juliet and I designed and built, set on a beautiful hillside on Nevis, with three bedrooms, an acre of garden and a pool, all for £196,500.”
Lord explained that the price includes an open-plan living room, fitted kitchen, bathroom and shower-room, as well the legal fees, all the furniture and appliances. And best of all, is a lovely verandah with stunning view across the Caribbean towards the island of St Kitts, two miles away.
“Admittedly,” he added, “the house is built in a remote rural area – as far as that is possible on Nevis, which is only six miles long by six miles wide. But it has every modern amenity, including cable TV and fast broadband connection, as well as being only a five-minute drive from the best beach on the island (which is often completely deserted even in the high season, except for the pelicans). Charlestown, the charming little 18th Century capital, is ten minutes away, and the airport, 15 minutes.”
Lord said the house is called Serendipity because “we were amazingly lucky to find such a bargain on such a lovely island. We’ve now spent two years here and it’s paradise, though it’s so hot in the summer that we do return to a house we rent in France for several weeks”.
He said that in 1999 he and his wife were following their dream of living on a tropical island and a friend had suggested Nevis, where they lived in a rented house for one year and fell in love with the place.
Lord noted that in addition to building his dream house, Deon Daniel has built some 120 houses and apartments over the past 10 years. He also stated what it would cost an individual to own a home similar to his on Nevis.
“He [Daniel] will build you a two-bedroom house with pool for just £139,871, at Windward Gardens on the north of the island, overlooking the Atlantic, or a three-bedroom villa for £165,300. And these prices include the white goods. Our house took only six months to complete and it all went incredibly smoothly. A chartered surveyor friend who lives on the island checked on progress twice a week, and we returned to Nevis a couple of times to see how it was going.”
Lord claimed that some of the homes are only for the seriously rich: “Most expensive of all are the six luxurious three to five-bedroom houses with infinity pools that the Four Seasons Resort is building around its immaculate golf course and up in the hills, at prices ranging from £3 million to £6 million.”
He however pointed out that “Deon Daniel builds bigger houses in more expensive areas, too, and maisonettes right on the best beach at Nelson’s Spring. One of Daniel’s more exclusive developments is at Fern Hill, where we have our own house, a lush, tranquil, secluded mountain area of palms, mangoes and tamarind trees, where the gardens are splashed with the glorious bright colours of hibiscus and bougainvillea”.
“Here,” Lord continued, “his stylish villas range in price from £373,500 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house on a half acre plot, to £728,400 for a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house on an acre. All have swimming pools and have high, fantastic views across the sea and back towards the towering bulk of Mount Nevis.”
He stated that another up-market development is on the remote, breezy southern side of Nevis at Busch Hill Gardens, close to the famous Montpelier Plantation Inn where Princess Diana once stayed on holiday with her sons.
Quoting Suzanne Gordon, owner of the Sugar Mill Estates, Lord wrote, “Those who buy here tend to be looking towards retirement. Houses are good investments because Nevis prices generally don’t go down. Unlike other Caribbean islands, it is not over-built, so we don’t have hundreds of houses that aren’t sold.”
He said that since the global economic downturn, prices for property have fallen by at least 10 percent, and “any property that costs at least £216,000 gives the purchaser the right to buy economic citizenship of Nevis and a St Kitts-Nevis passport, for £27,350, – a valuable perk since Nevis has no income tax, capital gains tax, wealth tax or death duties”.
