How Long Owners Stay: Ownership Tenure in the Turks and Caicos Second (or more) Home Market
Between roughly 2005 and 2015, ownership in Turks and Caicos turned over fairly quickly. The condo-heavy years of 2005 to 2009 brought their share of flips and shorter holds, and with vertical development largely stalled from 2009 to 2015, many owners continued to buy and sell fluidly. Over the decade that followed, many of those same owners graduated from condos to villas as serviced and managed villa concepts came into their own.
Amanyara and Parrot Cay set the original standard more than twenty years ago. They were followed by the Residences by Grace Bay Resorts; Beach Enclave, first on the North Shore and later in Long Bay and Grace Bay across several phases; Shore Club on Long Bay; Wymara Villas, South Bank, and now Strand on the south shore; and Loren in Turtle Cove and Kempinski on Grace Bay under construction. Each brought a different setting and more personal space, without asking owners to give up the infrastructure and hospitality they had come to love in a resort condo.
Today, the tenure picture looks quite different, with some owners even moving back in the other direction. Where tenure once averaged five to seven years, villa owners now commonly hold for eight to ten years, often fifteen or more, sometimes altering or expanding to make a house truly their own. Condo owners typically stay well beyond five.
Individual properties tell only part of the story, however. Many sellers buy again here, and a good number hold several properties at once. Measured by an owner’s time in the islands rather than in a single property, average tenure is well over ten years and still going strong. Some of my clients have bought and sold five or more properties over ten to twenty years of working together, and it has been a privilege to see each move unfold as a new chapter rather than a departure.
There are exceptions such as some Covid-era purchases have not proven as lasting as expected, as buyers’ needs have shifted again. A select wave of resales also typically follows each new project’s completion, albeit offering less selection (and also typically higher pricing) than pre-construction offerings from the developer. It can look as though owners are selling within a year or two of moving in, but with roughly a year of pre-construction sales and two and a half years of building, they are realistically four or more years into ownership by then.
New development itself encourages longer, layered ownership. Multi-phase projects such as South Bank’s Arc and The Point, Rock House, and Beach Enclave draw existing owners and brand loyalists back with each new offering. Because many already own on island, they can wait patiently for completion while enjoying what they have, and some keep both for the long term. There is something special about turning the key on a brand-new home, and that excitement continues to bring people back.
What I find most rewarding is watching buyers’ visions come to life and evolve. A family may buy while the children are still bound to school calendars, dreaming of working less, visiting more, and gathering everyone for milestone celebrations in the years ahead. Because these properties rent when owners are away, offsetting expenses and generating income, owners can flex their use as life changes. Our broad range of offerings, in time extending further into the outer islands, means there is something for each stage, and new amenities and lifestyle enhancements continue to give owners good reason to stay.
The rental market has also proven a steadying force. In the hardest market periods, many owners reasoned that if it was not a good time to sell, they might as well enjoy the property more and let it earn in a proven rental market. The private villa rental business truly emerged coming out of the recession, when visitors were readier to spend on rentals than to commit to buying. It has since grown into a leading industry in TCI, supporting the luxury villa segment by justifying ownership beyond personal use.
In the end, how long someone owns a particular property has less to do with market forces than with personal and family circumstances, while their commitment to the islands tends to run far deeper. Ease of access remains a constant, and for many, Turks and Caicos is still close enough for a long weekend, which may be the simplest reason so many keep coming home to it. In part two, I’ll look at what these patterns mean for anyone deciding when to buy, hold, or sell.
