Rightmove Search Data Shows Popularity of Caribbean Property

Rightmove data on overseas property search volumes shows unequivocally that overseas property buyers (well, potential buyers anyway), favoured Caribbean property over the traditional favourites in Western Europe throughout 2009.

This comes as no surprise to international property investment consultancy Property Frontiers, the firm has been quoted many times in the past year stating the exact same facts.

"The Rightmove data only puts hard figures onto a trend we have been commenting on for several months now; that overseas property buyers were favouring the Caribbean because it is more stable and predominantly insulated to the international financial crisis, that and the fact that buyers were predominantly wealthy lifestyle buyers, who wanted to treat themselves after the misery of the crunch," said David Cox, director of the firm.

The data in tabular form is below

	May	Jun	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan
Caribbean	100	89.6	105.5	133.3	161.6	163.9	173.5	171.1	268.9
Western Europe	100	93.3	110.5	147.7	123.3	111.1	110	105.4	163.6

	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Caribbean	256.8	231.3	183.7	177.2
Western Europe	159.4	160.3	164.8	155.5

We can clearly see demand for Caribbean property consistently outstripping that of Western Europe every month since September last year.

The Rightmove data also shows a jump in searches for Caribbean property this May compared to last, with a 177% increase shown on the table. The jump in May is only a continuation of the massive rise in demand since the start of the year.

Rob Wilson, Rightmove's head of overseas property said of the findings:

"The spike in interest in Q1 is down to a combination of post-Christmas blues and people’s new year resolutions to change their lives for the better. As we move into Q2, the less serious buyers tend to fall by the wayside however and the gap between the Caribbean and Western Europe closes as the, for some, more realistic destinations of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal gain better traction.”

He added that “The challenge for advertisers marketing property in the Caribbean (and indeed other exotic destinations) is to build into their proposition features and benefits that reassure prospective buyers that they can have the dream of paradise but with the security and convenience of an established destination in Western Europe.”

That statement is not echoed by those of Property Frontiers, because it seems to suggest that while searches for Caribbean property may be higher that the serious enquirers, those planning to and buying are favouring Western Europe. This is not true according to the statements of Property Frontiers this year, which have stated that sales of Caribbean property have been increasing at a steady rate since the start of the year.

Perhaps it is because the firm has met the challenge laid down by Wilson; reassured prospective buyers that they can have the dream of paradise but with the security and convenience of an established destination in Western Europe. If they have done this, it is because they have chosen to focus on the prime markets in the Caribbean, Grenada, St Kitts and Trinidad and Tobago, and prime properties within those markets, like the award winning Bacolet Bay Development, currently offering beach-front studio cottages from £333,333.