According to the English glossary, the word EXPATRIATE is defined as “a person living outside his or her native country”…but what does this really mean to us here in Trinidad?

Here is what the professionals think:

There has been much said about the proposed property tax system since the presentation of the fiscal budget by the Minister of Finance, and frankly I feel we have been obfuscated with commentary on this matter. My purpose is not to add my voice to the plethora, but to attempt to direct some thought towards the potential efficacy of a new tax regimen and its impact on the real estate market.

Buying Real Estate is confusing to most of us. Here we take a look at some of the influences that affect our decisions to buy and try to put these in perspective from both the Home Ownership and Investment views. We suffer from an overload of information coming at us from all angles as everybody has an opinion in Real Estate. Not only are your banker and your lawyer experts who know all about the ups and downs of the market when prices will fall, when they will go up, when to buy and when not to buy as well as what price to pay!! This information of course is also fully available from your mother, mother-in-law, friend, office manager, gardener, plumber, electrician or in fact just about anybody you care to listen to; the more people you ask the more different opinions you will get! But who really knows when to buy, when to sell, or if and when the prices will go up or down?? The truth is that nobody does. It is really up to You to make that decision.

Exclusive listings are the primary listings that are used in North America and Europe, and this is fast becoming the norm here in Trinidad. Smart sellers know that if their property is to be sold in the shortest time possible, then they are looking for maximum exposure. An exclusive listing ensures that your property gets that exposure. Many people shy away from exclusive listings, believing that they are restrictive, when in fact the opposite is true.

Given the current volatility in the global financial markets, it behoves us to comment on its impact on the local real estate situation. By this stage most of the experts agree that our local economy will be affected in some way, in fact it is already being affected by what is happening globally.

Valuation can be considered to be more of an art than a science. As valuers we introduce science into the valuation process by documenting the history of similar transactions and adjusting those transactions to the attributes of the property being valued. If the attributes being adjusted were all specifically measurable and objective (like land area) then we might actually succeed in making valuation a science, but they are not. Location for example is not specifically measurable as a single component of value. Most valuers would agree when one location is better than another, but to quantify the component is a challenge, more so in the absence of reliable data.