Why Jamaica’s Coastline May Be the Caribbean’s Most Misunderstood Real Estate Opportunity

Every so often a city captures the world’s imagination and becomes shorthand for wealth, ambition and excess. In recent years, Miami has been that city.

Headlines have described a modern-day gold rush along the barrier islands of South Florida. Tech founders, hedge fund managers and billionaires are buying up trophy properties with ocean frontage, building sprawling compounds with private docks and helicopter access, and offering neighbours eye-watering sums simply to assemble more land.

Some of the world’s richest individuals — names like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page — have all turned their attention to Miami’s exclusive waterfront enclaves. Homes once considered extraordinary at $20 million are now being traded for $100 million or more. A property still under construction recently sold for around $170 million, setting a new record for Miami-Dade County.

To read these stories, one might think Miami is the epicentre of the global luxury property universe.

But for those of us…