The Government Agreed a Price for Six Acres of Church Land. Then the Church Raised It

• The Catholic Church in St Vincent was selling six acres of land at Buccament
• The government accepted the church’s first asking price without haggling
• The church later raised its price after learning what farmers were being offered
• Farmers in the area were offered EC$523,000 an acre, said to be twice market value

A land deal between the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines and the Catholic Church drew attention in Parliament in August 2020, after the Finance Minister revealed that the church had raised its asking price midway through the negotiation. iWitness News reported on 20 August 2020 that Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves set out the details as the government explained how it was acquiring land in the Buccament Bay area, where work on a resort had begun about 15 years earlier.

The government had been trying to settle with four farmers on land in the area. Two of them were offered government-owned land instead, but rejected it as too rocky and suggested the state buy some of the land the Catholic Church was selling nearby, which they considered better for agriculture. The government offered the farmers EC$523,000 per acre, which Gonsalves said was twice the market value. One farmer, Shaka, was demanding no less than EC$1.5 million for his 1.45 acres.

The church, too, adjusted its position. “The church was selling the six acres of land. The government called the church. They asked a price, the government agreed, without any haggling. However, the church later upped their initial asking price, citing what they had learned about what the government was willing to pay to farmers,” Gonsalves told Parliament. He added: “The Honourable Prime Minister agreed, and we agreed to the revised offer by the church.”

Gonsalves also made a pointed remark about who was at the table. “Without casting any aspersions on the buyer or the seller, I will note that both the buyer and the seller in that negotiation were Catholics and that the Minister of Finance, who is an Anglican, was omitted from the negotiation between and among Catholics,” he said. The report did not disclose either the church’s original or its revised price.

The episode is a reminder that churches, when they sell land, behave like any other landowner in a market: they watch what comparable parcels fetch, and they adjust. That is not wrong in itself, but when the buyer is the state and the money is public, the terms of the deal become a matter of public interest.

In Jamaica, where churches hold considerable land and government regularly acquires property for roads, housing and relocation schemes, the Buccament case offers a useful lesson in transparency. Church trustees selling to the state should expect their prices to be compared with what neighbours receive, and should be ready to explain them. Taxpayers, and members of the congregation whose giving built up that land over generations, both have a stake in seeing that such sales are fair, documented and open to scrutiny.