Selling Land to Tenants at $5 a Square Foot, Planning a $10 Million Development: Inside the Anglican Church’s Property Plan in Barbados

• A $10 million mixed-use project is planned on 2.8 acres at Collymore Rock
• Glebe land in St George has been sold to tenants at subsidised prices
• Some lots went for as little as $5 per square foot
• The church is also investing in solar power in St Andrew and St Philip

The Anglican Church in Barbados is no longer content to let its land sit idle. Nation News reported in November 2025 that Adrian Elcock, chairman of the Barbados Diocesan Trustees, had set out a plan to develop the church’s property portfolio more fully and defended how it has used its land so far.

The largest project is a $10 million mixed-use development planned for early 2026 on a 2.8-acre site at Mandeville, Collymore Rock, St Michael, aimed at the housing, tourism and medical sectors together. “It will be a multi-story development that we’re looking at putting up,” Elcock said.

The trustees also pointed to what the church has already done for its tenants. Church land at Glebe, St George has been sold to the families living on it under a subsidised programme, with prices as low as $5 per square foot. Earlier, in March 2024, the Nation had reported that Anglican clergy in Toronto and New York praised the plan to sell more Glebe land to tenants, with one saying it would let people “own a piece of the rock.”

Elcock said each church typically sits on one to two acres of grounds, and the diocese has invested in solar projects in St Andrew and St Philip. There was also a separate dispute over land at Bath, St John. The Senate had passed a resolution selling that land to the Wesleyan Holiness Church for $28,000, but the Anglican Church says the land is vested in its trustees and has been negotiating with government.

Taken together, the plans show a mainline church doing two things at once: turning long-time tenants into owners at low prices, and developing other land commercially to fund its work.

For Jamaica, where the historic denominations own large amounts of land and many families live on church property without title, the Barbados approach is a model worth studying. Selling to sitting tenants at fair prices can settle old tenure problems and build household wealth, while carefully chosen developments on other sites can give churches steady income. It also shows why churches need clear title records, since disputes like the one at Bath can arise over who owns what.

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