Practice areas · Property
Conveyancing for local and overseas buyers — from agreement to completion, with the costs and the timeline set out before you commit.
Barbados places no restriction on foreign ownership of property — but the mechanics catch people out. Most of the island still runs on an unregistered deeds system, transitioning parish by parish to registered Certificates of Title, so a proper title investigation is not a formality. And a non-resident buyer who does not register incoming funds with the Central Bank of Barbados at the time of purchase can find the proceeds difficult to take out again on a later sale.
We act for buyers and sellers, resident and overseas, from the offer through to completion and registration.
Tracing the chain of title, confirming boundaries, and identifying easements, covenants, or encumbrances before you are committed.
Drafting and negotiating terms, deposits, conditions, and completion dates.
Registering a non-resident purchaser's incoming funds so that sale proceeds can be repatriated later. We handle this as part of the purchase.
Preparing the conveyance, attending to transfer tax and stamp duty, and recording the transaction.
Acting on financing, discharges, and the security documents lenders require.
Commercial and residential leases, assignments, and possession matters.
In a standard Barbados transaction the seller bears property transfer tax at 2.5% and stamp duty at BDS $10 per BDS $1,000 of consideration. For land sold with a building, the first BDS $150,000 is exempt from transfer tax; land sold without a building has no such threshold.
The buyer bears legal fees, title registration costs, and annual land tax thereafter. Legal fees on a conveyance are conventionally a percentage of the purchase price plus VAT at 17.5%.
Annual land tax on improved residential property is charged in bands: nil on the first BDS $150,000 of improved value, 0.10% to BDS $450,000, 0.70% to BDS $850,000, and 1% above that, with the total capped at BDS $100,000.
The asking price is the smaller half of the story. Tax, duty, legal fees and currency registration decide your true outlay.
Barbados