BAHAMAS Law and Practice Contributed by: Alistair Chisnall and Erica Paine, Graham Thompson
Graham Thompson Sassoon House Shirley Street & Victoria Avenue PO Box N 272 Nassau The Bahamas Tel: +1 242 322 4130 Fax: +1 242 328 1069 Email: info@gtclaw.com Web: www.grahamthompson.com
1. General 1.1 Main Sources of Law
In contrast to the slowing pace of residential community development and shortage of new housing, The Bahamas has seen record-break - ing visitor arrivals (albeit short-term, stop-over cruise visitors in the majority). To accommodate such booming tourism, the new cruise port (able to berth the new Icon-class cruise fleet) in down - town Nassau has become fully operational, and a flourish of announcements have been made of proposed boutique to mid-size resort and hotel developments. Significantly, many such projects have been proposed in the smaller and less developed “Out Islands” and private cays, and they aim to cater to affluent buyers or trav - ellers that are seeking upscale amenities, and unique or personalised travel experiences, and are undeterred by the higher costs. Alongside such smaller projects, 2025 also wit - nessed the commencement of major develop - ments or projects, including a BSD1.5 billion financing of one of the country’s mega-resorts, commencement of new private cruise ports by Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Cruises, the proposed development of a new major flag - ship hotel project at the Baha Mar Resort, open - ing or commencement of sales for many of the mid-size projects coming to fruition (such as Jack’s Bay Club (Eleuthera), Montage Cay (Aba -
The Bahamian legal system is based on the Eng - lish common law system. The main sources of real estate law are local legislation, local case law and case law from Commonwealth jurisdic - tions. 1.2 Main Market Trends and Deals The frenetic activity and soaring prices expe - rienced in The Bahamas during the real estate boom of 2020 to 2023 clearly slowed over 2024 and gave way to a notably calmer market, com - parable to the positive and steadier periods experienced prior to Hurricane Dorian (2019) and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Whilst private client interest in high-end luxury resort/residential communities has remained strong, the perceptible lack of new residential construction and available inventory in luxury communities has had a telling impact on the actual pace of sales activity. Whilst by no means an outright “seller’s market” , sellers of available properties tend to be successful even when retaining high list prices and, when reasonably marketing their property, can expect to court considerable interest.
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