Kingston, Jamaica — 24 June 2025
Global political and economic uncertainty is driving a new wave of investment into the Cayman Islands real estate market, according to SandBank Capital, a rebranded property investment firm that is targeting 100 million US dollars in commercial, industrial, and hospitality assets under management within five years. The firm’s managing director predicted a flood of new residents from the United States and Europe, citing political instability, Brexit’s continuing effects, and tax changes in major Western economies as factors pushing high-net-worth individuals toward the Caribbean’s most established offshore jurisdiction.
The Cayman Value Proposition
Speaking at the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event in Kingstown, Shaun Myers, managing director of SandBank Capital, told the Cayman Compass that the territory’s finite land supply was a fundamental advantage. “Cayman has a finite amount of land and more people are coming to the island every single day. Demand is increasing so the price has increased. We are betting the uncertainty in the rest of the world will benefit us,” he said.
SandBank Capital, which rebranded from First Rock Capital earlier in 2025, uses artificial intelligence to analyse macro-economic, geopolitical, and climate data to guide its investment decisions. The firm described its methodology as looking at “the wider macro-economic environment, the geopolitical environment, climate — all these factors drive supply and demand for real estate.” This data-driven approach to Caribbean commercial property investment represents a maturing of the sector’s analytical infrastructure, moving beyond intuition-driven decisions toward quantitative frameworks that mirror institutional investment practices in more liquid markets.
Baby Boomer Divestment Creates Opportunity
Myers also identified a structural opportunity specific to the Cayman market: the baby boomer generation, which accumulated significant commercial and industrial real estate assets over decades of the island’s expansion, is now at the stage of divesting and retiring. This generational turnover is creating regular acquisition opportunities in the commercial property sector, particularly in industrial and mixed-use assets that have historically been held by long-standing local or regional owners.
SandBank is targeting commercial, industrial, and hospitality assets rather than the residential luxury sector that dominates headlines. At the time of the event, the firm was close to closing a deal on a boutique hotel for approximately 20 million US dollars, with a projected net operating income of 1.7 million dollars annually. The focus on income-producing commercial assets rather than residential speculation reflects a different investment thesis from the luxury condominium market that has dominated Cayman’s property headlines.
The 2025 Cayman Market Context
The SandBank comments came at a moment of significant activity in Cayman’s property market. The Grand Hyatt Grand Cayman opened on Seven Mile Beach in 2025, marking the first new five-star international hotel brand on the island in 20 years. Total residential property sales in 2025 reached 643 completed transactions with an average sale price of approximately 1.29 million US dollars. Residential inventory fell to its lowest level since 2021, with 1,403 average monthly listings, reflecting persistent demand pressure against constrained supply. These conditions favour both owners seeking appreciation and investors looking for rental income in a market where occupancy rates remain strong.
For the Caribbean region, the SandBank Capital story illustrates a broadening of the investor base in small island real estate markets. Alongside the individual high-net-worth buyers and luxury residential developers who have traditionally driven Caribbean investment, a new category of professionally managed, institutionally structured commercial property investment is beginning to take shape, particularly in the more mature markets like Cayman where commercial assets have sufficient scale and track record to underpin portfolio strategies.
Source: Cayman Compass, June 2025
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