Kingston, Jamaica — 18 August 2025
The Bahamas is in the middle of one of its most ambitious hospitality development waves in years, with a pipeline of luxury resorts, branded residences, and cruise-line destinations transforming the tourism and property landscape across Nassau, Paradise Island, Exuma, Eleuthera, and the broader Family Island chain. The scale and diversity of the current development activity, reported by Caribbean Journal, signals sustained confidence from global hospitality brands and investors in the Bahamas as a premier Caribbean destination.
Baha Mar Continues to Expand
The Baha Mar resort complex on Cable Beach, Nassau, remains the centrepiece of the country’s luxury tourism infrastructure. The resort’s fourth expansion, already announced and under construction as of 2026, will add a new Foster and Partners-designed luxury property between the existing SLS and Rosewood brands at a cost of more than 700 million US dollars. The project is scheduled for completion in 2029. Meanwhile, Atlantis Paradise Island, the Bahamas’ other iconic resort anchor, has completed a 1.93-billion-dollar refinancing through Brookfield Corporation, designed to strengthen the property’s financial foundation and unlock approximately 475 million dollars in planned capital investments for the next phase of development.
Exuma, Eleuthera and the Out Islands
Beyond Nassau, billion-dollar development projects are reshaping the Out Islands. Exuma and Eleuthera have both attracted major resort investment, reflecting the growing demand for immersive, high-end travel experiences away from the mass tourism concentration of New Providence. The Bahamas government also signed a 10-million-dollar contract for a new international airport terminal on Long Island, advancing a key component of its Family Island Airport Renaissance Project as Out Island tourism continues to grow. Access infrastructure of this kind, airports, improved roads, and reliable utilities, is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of residential and hospitality real estate in areas that have historically been underserved by physical connectivity.
Branded Residences: The Defining Product
Across the Bahamas and the broader Caribbean, branded residences, developments that combine private ownership of a residence with access to hotel-grade amenities and services, have become the dominant product type in the luxury property market. In Nassau, the Ocean Club and Rosewood Residences at Baha Mar are among the projects catering to a new cohort of buyers who seek lower-maintenance, high-amenity living in a secure and serviced environment. These buyers are predominantly younger than the traditional cohort, more likely to be entrepreneurs than retirees, and increasingly treating the Bahamas as a primary rather than secondary residence.
The Bahamas’ appeal in this segment rests on several structural advantages: no income tax, no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, direct flights from major US cities, a stable democratic government, and an English common law legal system that provides secure property rights. As Western governments have moved to tax wealth more aggressively, the Bahamas has benefited from an inflow of high-net-worth individuals seeking both lifestyle and tax efficiency.
The Dual Challenge
The scale of the luxury development pipeline sits alongside the affordability crisis that the government’s own housing ministry has acknowledged. Property prices in New Providence rose 14 per cent between 2012 and 2022 while average wages grew only 2 per cent. Short-term rental platforms have reduced residential inventory, pushing rents higher for working Bahamians. The government’s ability to manage this duality, continuing to attract the international investment that luxury development generates while delivering the affordable homes that ordinary Bahamians need, will be one of the defining governance challenges of the current decade.
Source: Caribbean Journal, August 2025
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