The St. Lucia Property Advice Centre officially opened its doors to welcome clients on January 2nd 2008, but in fact the proprietors had been promoting and selling Real Estate on the Island for some three years previously and indeed each of the three have been specializing in ‘Overseas Property’ selling for over twenty five years with the most senior partner celebrating 40 years in the industry, this year.

Experiences on the Island lead to the belief, which has since been well founded, that there was a need for a real estate office in a PRIME location which provides a highly visible location for overseas investors. An office which not only sells real estate but also offers all the ancillary services normally associated with property buying and selling, namely rentals, mortgages, insurance, legal services and property maintenance and management.

Whilst the local buyer will have a good background knowledge of where to find these services, the PAC buyer, being almost certainly resident abroad, would normally lack the time to research the available market and as, in almost 90% of all cases, the PAC buyer will choose to remain non-resident, considering their purchase to be a good investment, these services are paramount.

In August 2008, the office, realising that St. Lucia lagged behind many other property investment areas, launched the widely acclaimed and accepted St. Lucia Property Gazette and in so doing brought together buyers, sellers, and service suppliers in one medium. Initially planned as a quarterly production, it is now produced every six weeks and plans are afoot to publish monthly.

Since opening the operation has gone from strength to strength, although projected growth itself has not reached the level anticipated, due to the downturn in World demand and the so named “Credit Crunch”.

Interestingly enough, having opened with a mix of contract UK staff and St. Lucian nationals, such has been the willingness to learn, that the day to day operation of the office is now entirely in the hands of locals, whose inherent knowledge, supplemented by a spell of international type training, has produced a formidable team.

Despite these difficult times the office flourishes and overseas buyers are still being encouraged to visit St. Lucia and to learn of the benefits of investing in an area of undoubted beauty and future growth.