KINGSTON, Jamaica. In five small islands to our east, a condominium can come with something far more valuable than a sea view: a passport.
Buy approved property worth as little as US$200,000 in Dominica, or US$325,000 in St Kitts and Nevis, hold it for six or seven years, pass the background checks, and you and your family can become citizens of a Caribbean nation you may barely have visited. Between 2014 and 2024, the five Eastern Caribbean states that run these schemes issued more than 100,000 passports, according to data shared with the European Commission. Their combined population is little more than half a million.
The trade has paid for roads, hospitals and hurricane recovery. It has also drawn the anger of Washington. So who is really buying paradise, and should Jamaica want a piece of it?
A Passport With Your Condo
St Kitts and Nevis invented the modern citizenship by investment industry in 1984. Dominica followed in 1993, and Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and St Lucia joined between 2013 and 2015.
Each offers two main routes. An applicant can make a straight donation to a national fund, or buy into government approved real estate, usually shares in a hotel or resort development. Prices have risen sharply as the islands try to stop undercutting one another.
| Country | Launched | Donation route | Property route | Must hold property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Kitts and Nevis | 1984 | 250,000 | 325,000 | 7 years |
| Dominica | 1993 | 200,000 | 200,000 | 6 years |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 2013 | 230,000 | 300,000 | 6 years |
| Grenada | 2013 | 235,000 | 270,000 to 350,000 | 6 years |
| St Lucia | 2015 | 240,000 | 300,000 | 6 years |
When the Money Stops
For the smallest states, passport money became a pillar of the national budget. In St Kitts and Nevis, citizenship revenue reached 25.8 per cent of GDP in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund. Then it collapsed: to 8.6 per cent in 2024 and 6.0 per cent in 2025.
The consequences were immediate. The federation moved from a small budget surplus in 2023 to a deficit of 11.7 per cent of GDP in 2025. Government deposits fell from 20.8 per cent of GDP to 7.2 per cent. The IMF now projects public debt rising from 58.4 per cent of GDP to 78.2 per cent by 2031, and has called for annual, externally audited reports on the programme.
Dominica tells a similar story. Passport money made up 34.8 per cent of its capital transfers in 2023 and 19.5 per cent in 2025, with the IMF projecting 15.7 per cent this year. Public debt there stands at about 100 per cent of GDP.
Washington Closes the Door
The schemes have always carried a risk. A passport bought in the Caribbean can open doors to visa free travel across Europe’s Schengen area and many other countries, which is precisely what makes it attractive to people trying to escape scrutiny at home. The European Commission has pressed the islands for years over weak checks.
In December 2025 the United States acted. A presidential proclamation suspended immigrant visas, tourist and business visas, and student visas for nationals of Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica from 1 January 2026, citing citizenship programmes that historically required no residence. St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and St Lucia were not included.
The islands have scrambled to respond. In September 2025 the five agreed to create a joint regulator, the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority, to supervise agents and enforce anti money laundering rules. They have also agreed a 30 day physical residence requirement, which Antigua and Barbuda has already written into law.
Jamaica Never Sold Passports
Jamaica has never offered citizenship for investment, and has no formal residency by investment scheme either. What it does offer is one of the most open property markets in the region.
There are no restrictions on foreigners owning land in Jamaica. A sale to a buyer from Toronto, London or Madrid attracts the same 2 per cent transfer tax as a sale to a buyer from Mandeville. In March 2026 the Government halved transfer tax for two years in Trelawny, Hanover, Westmoreland and St Elizabeth, the parishes worst hit by Hurricane Melissa.
Not every neighbour is so open. Trinidad and Tobago requires a licence for a foreign buyer of more than one acre of residential land, or any land at all in Tobago. The Bahamas requires a government permit for foreigners buying more than five acres or property for commercial use.
| Country | Foreign buyers | What money can buy |
|---|---|---|
| Jamaica | No restrictions on foreigners owning land | Property only; no citizenship or residency scheme for investors |
| Trinidad and Tobago | Licence needed above 1 acre for a home or 5 acres for business in Trinidad; any land in Tobago | Property within limits |
| The Bahamas | Permit needed for more than 5 acres or for commercial use | Property, with registration |
| Eastern Caribbean five | Open to foreign buyers | A passport, from US$200,000 |
Who Is Buying Jamaica?
Jamaica does not record how many properties are bought by foreigners or by Jamaicans living abroad, so the picture comes from lenders and agents. VM Group, one of the island’s largest mortgage lenders, says its mortgage loans to diaspora investors rose 25 per cent between 2024 and 2025. At the top of the market, a Jamaica Homes analysis of sales from 2022 to 2025 found Hanover, home to some of the island’s most exclusive coastal estates, had the highest median residential price of any parish, at about J$285 million.
Much of the foreign money arrives at a larger scale, through hotels. Spanish, Mexican and American resort chains have poured capital into the north coast, and the pipeline of new rooms runs to the tens of thousands.
Should Jamaica Want More?
The case for openness is strong. Foreign and diaspora buyers bring hard currency, finance construction jobs and fill the order books of local lawyers, surveyors and builders. A buyer from abroad who pays full price for a villa in Hanover is not, in most cases, competing with a first time buyer in Portmore.
The case for caution is also real. Where overseas demand concentrates, along the coast and in the best parts of Kingston, prices can drift beyond the reach of people who earn Jamaican salaries. The Eastern Caribbean shows the deeper risk: a country that comes to depend on selling something it cannot easily take back, whether coastline or citizenship, can find itself exposed when foreign governments change their minds.
Jamaica has so far chosen to sell property but not citizenship. That has spared it the scrutiny its neighbours now face, and the windfall they enjoyed while it lasted.
Paradise is for sale across the Caribbean. The question for each island is what else is being sold with it.
Method: Passport totals come from data exchanged between the European Commission and the five Eastern Caribbean states (2014 to 2024). Fiscal figures are from the International Monetary Fund. Programme prices are as published by citizenship advisers for 2026 and should be confirmed with each government. Jamaican buying costs reflect standard practice; buyers should confirm current rates with an attorney.
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