GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands — Buyers of high-value property in the Cayman Islands will pay 10 per cent stamp duty from 1…

Cayman’s Churches Incorporation (Amendment) Act 2025 is now in force, requiring boards of officers, ensuring church assets serve only church purposes and updating property provisions, as the territory prepares for a 2027 financial crimes evaluation.

The Cayman Islands is operating under a development plan last updated in the late 1990s, with density restrictions and zoning rules that are preventing affordable housing models, causing developer uncertainty, and failing to address infrastructure needs for a population that has grown beyond the plan’s original scope.

The Grand Hyatt Grand Cayman, the island’s first new five-star international hotel brand in 20 years, is opening on Seven Mile Beach with 354 units, while the Hyatt Centric Residences development on the adjacent former Margaritaville site adds 316 new branded residences to the pipeline.

SandBank Capital, a rebranded Cayman Islands property investment firm, is targeting 100 million dollars in commercial assets under management as global uncertainty drives wealth migration to the territory, while baby boomer divestment creates a regular pipeline of acquisition opportunities in the commercial and industrial sectors.

Cayman’s Cabinet gave CI$900,000, taken from West Bay High School’s 2025 allocation, to Chapel Church of God for a new church and hurricane shelter, days before the pre-election period of sensitivity began.

As Britain’s United Reformed Church apologised in Kingston for its role in slavery, The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands pledged to give vulnerable people land it had received from slavery’s profiteers, citing the damage done by landlessness.

A West Bay Seventh-day Adventist congregation lost its appeal to build a $2 million temple on a residential road in Cayman after planners ruled it had not shown community need, noting a nearby Adventist church was well under capacity.

Meadowrest Memorial Gardens, owned by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, won NEPA approval in 2018 to grow its St Catherine cemetery by 19 acres, citing a shortage of burial space and demand that includes overseas mourners.

Grand Cayman’s Gun Bay United Church, built in 1907 and overseen by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, has been closed as unsafe since 2015, and elders say scarce, costly land is stopping them from building again.