Browsing: Caribbean construction costs 2025

Post-hurricane recovery drives construction cost surges across the Eastern Caribbean as CDB emergency financing flows, insurance markets harden, and winter tourism bookings recover.

Caribbean housing affordability has deteriorated to crisis levels with construction costs 25-40 percent above pre-pandemic levels, Jamaica’s NHT facing a 50,000-application backlog, and the ECCB flagging housing costs as a systemic risk across OECS economies.

Hurricane Fiona devastates Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic’s southwest as Caribbean energy costs hit record highs driven by the Russia-Ukraine war, and construction costs reach 40% above 2020 baselines.

Caribbean construction costs hit a 40-year high at 30–50% above 2020 baselines while diaspora remittances reach record levels and Guyana’s real estate market surges 60% on oil sector demand.

Caribbean inflation hit multi-decade highs in May 2022, with Jamaica above 11% CPI and construction costs up 30-50% from 2019 levels. The Fed’s aggressive rate hikes compounded affordability pressure on first-time buyers.

Oil reached $130 per barrel one month into the Russia-Ukraine war, hitting Caribbean energy budgets hard. But summer 2022 tourism bookings hit record levels as the first truly post-COVID Caribbean summer came into view.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 sent oil prices above $105 per barrel, triggering an immediate energy and food price shock across the Caribbean’s import-dependent economies while tourism bookings held firm.