In the last six weeks, The Landings, a luxury marina development in St Lucia has sold eight apartments totalling $8 million in sales revenue. Sales have been made to a mix of nationalities including British, North Americans and other Europeans. The sales may indicate that high end developments are being less affected by the credit crunch than budget overseas properties, where sales have been particularly hard hit.

The Landings recently hosted the English Cricket Team on their tour of the West Indies and previous high profile buyers include TV Presenter Carol Vorderman and Radio 1 DJ and presenter Trevor Nelson.

The development, which is based around a private yacht harbour near Rodney Bay, has appealed in particular to boating enthusiasts such as keen sailor Peter Norey (aged 65) and wife Pat (aged 62) from Guernsey. Peter’s first visit to St Lucia was in 2006, when he undertook the trans Atlantic sailing race, ARC, sailing from Gran Canaria to St Lucia, a 2,700-mile passage. He bought a three bedroom, ground floor apartment. Their two married daughters, Julie (aged 38) and Susan (aged 36), have also each bought a three bedroom apartment.

Peter and Pat wanted a place in warmer climes to spend their winters. Their property search started in the southern Caribbean, in Grenada, and they slowly worked their way north looking at property in St Kitts, Nevis, Barbados and BVI, before finally deciding on The Landings in St Lucia.

Peter said: “The Landings was head and shoulders above anything else we saw in terms of quality and value for money. We loved the elegant style of architecture and North American standards of building quality. The apartment we bought would have cost us three times that amount in Barbados, or even Grenada, for the equivalent floor space.”

When they told their daughters that they were buying an apartment at The Landings, they both decided to buy one each too. They bought overnight, site unseen, having the utmost confidence in their parent's proven ability to seek out great investment opportunities.

As Peter and Pat are now fully retired, they plan to spend most of their winters at The Landings. Julie has already moved her 52 ft yacht to Rodney Bay.

A contributing factor to the sales success has been the high levels of guest satisfaction from people staying at the resort on holiday who have been impressed with the service and facilities. In April 91% of guests surveyed reported being very satisfied with their holiday experience.

Sales Director at The Landings Oliver Gobat says: “Those buying have realised that property is as good a place as any to have their money and The Landings is a high quality and well located development which offers great potential for capital growth. Some were also encouraged by a guaranteed rental income scheme we have recently introduced that guarantees a rental return of 6% for two years.”

St Lucia has recently been placed in the top 30 countries to invest in by The World Bank, ahead of Barbados and Antigua. The rental market is year round and average capital appreciation is anywhere from 8 – 20%. The north of the island sees higher rental yield and growth, partly due to the beautiful beaches, leisure and nightlife amenities and planned developments such as the super yacht marina in Rodney Bay, which is already underway.

The Landings is situated on 800 feet of pristine sandy beach overlooking the calm waters of Rodney Bay with Pigeon Island, one of St Lucia’s famous land marks, completing the vista. Built in a traditional Caribbean architectural style, each residence has water views and there is a choice of one bedroom residences (1319 sq. ft), two bedroom (1850 sq. ft), three bedroom (2638 sq. ft), three bedroom grand residences (3390 sq. f), and four bedroom townhouse (3700 sq. ft). Apartment and balcony sizes are generous with many properties having balconies at the front and rear of the property for alfresco dining and enjoying sunset cocktails. All are finished in high quality materials such as stainless steel, exotic wood, imported tiles and stone.

As The Landings is being built on reclaimed land, it offers a rare opportunity to buy a freehold Caribbean beachfront property. This is because the Queens Chain regulation, that states all land within 20 metres from the shoreline is owned by the government and can only be leased, does not apply.

The Landings has been fully operational since its opening in December 2007 which was conducted by the Prime Minister of St Lucia, the Honourable Stephenson King who said the development set a new quality benchmark for St Lucia. The resort has already received accolades for ‘Best Marina Development Worldwide’ and ‘Best Caribbean Development’ at the Bentley International Property Awards.

Prices range from US$550, 000 (approx. £365,000) to US$2,400,000 (approx £1.59m).

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