Month: July 2020

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2020, covering the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s acute phase — a near-complete suspension of property transactions as curfews and movement restrictions froze economic activity, tourism shut down entirely, the BOJ cutting rates to a historic 0.50% floor, GDP falling sharply, and a market in suspension rather than collapse — with Jamaica reopening its borders on June 15 at the quarter’s close.

The second quarter of 2020 will enter Jamaica’s economic records as the quarter of the near-complete disappearance of tourism —…

The first six months of 2020 delivered the most severe shock the short-term rental industry has ever experienced. COVID-19 shut Jamaica’s borders in March, eliminated Caribbean tourism overnight, triggered the most controversial mass cancellation event in Airbnb’s history, and forced the platform to raise US$2 billion in emergency capital to survive — all while Jamaica’s unregulated STR sector received no dedicated government support whatsoever.

In the first six months of 2020, Jamaica’s economy has been turned upside down. Tourism has collapsed. Hotels are shuttered. And yet the property market is showing a stubbornness that defies the models. Here is what the data tells us — and what 2021 might actually look like.