As we just wrapped up the 2nd quarter of the year, I thought I’d take this opportunity to provide a recap of the Cayman Islands real estate market for Q2 2025 with respect to volume, transactions, inventory, and overall pricing as well as provide some insight as to where I believe our market will be heading throughout the year.
Please note that all figures included in this article are taken from CIREBA and are quoted in US dollars.
A look at sold transactions and volume
In Q2 2025, the total number of sold transactions was 235, up from 208 in Q1 2025 (13% increase).
With respect to volume, Q2 2025 saw $288.6M in sales, up from $283.1M in Q1 2025 (2% increase).
In May 2025 alone, 95 listings went sold amounting to over $122.4M in sales volume, a figure which hasn’t been hit since December 2023.
New listings
When you look at new listings, we saw a total of 335 new listings in Q2 2025. This number decreased from 532 in Q1 2025 (37% decrease).
With respect to the value of these new listings, Q2 2025 saw $555.9M, which is down from $976.3M in Q1 2022 (43% decrease).
Average price per listing – solds and new listings
In Q2 2025, the average price per sold listing was $1.228M compared to $1.361M in Q1 2025 (9.7% decrease).
Having an additional 27 properties close this quarter versus last quarter has impacted the overall price per sold listing. This doesn’t mean prices are decreasing.
In Q4 2024 the average price per sold listing was $1.159M. This type of quarter-over-quarter fluctuation will be impacted even further when several developments at the higher end of the market will officially move to sold later in the year.
Inventory is down
Although inventory levels fluctuate monthly, inventory is down to 1,834 in June 2025. This is the lowest since August 2024. The average monthly number of active listings at the end of Q2 2025 was 1,876 compared to 1,905 in Q1 2025 (1.5% decrease).
As of writing this article, there are currently 1,815 active listings of which 346 are pending and 238 are pending/conditional which means only 1,231 are available for sale.
The value of existing inventory
Even with the 1.5% decrease in inventory from Q1 to Q2 2025 the value of the active inventory increased. For Q2 2025 the average value of active listings was $3.720B up from $3.698B (0.6% increase).
The future of real estate in the Cayman Islands
Since October 2020, real estate in the Cayman Islands has been on fire. That month we hit over $100 million in sales for the first time in our history. Although there have been some slower months since then we were not experiencing the traditional late summer/early fall slowdowns in the marketplace we saw before the pandemic. But, after 5 years, 2025 is seeing this traditional slowdown once again.
It’s important to keep in mind that our market is small and an influx of properties coming to the market such as the launch of Hyatt Centric can greatly impact our market. In June 2025, 10 Hyatt Centric listings hit the market totally over $16M.
External effects on real estate in the Cayman Islands
Several external international factors impact the Cayman Islands real estate market. The US is the Cayman Islands’ largest source of foreign investment and visitors. Like the rest of the global economy when the US shifts, we feel it.
Our interest rates are pegged to US interest rates. The Federal Reserve has held the federal funds rate steady at 4.25%–4.50% since December 2024, including at the most recent June and July meetings. Economists expect no rate cut before September 2025, with the likelihood of the first cut at the September or December policy meetings.
But this could all change. With political pressure on the Federal Reserve advocating for earlier cuts anything is possible.
The ongoing global tariff changes not only impact our daily lives when we head to the grocery store but have a tremendous impact on property developers planning to build much-needed housing for our market.
Almost every single component that goes into a new build is imported from cement to lumber to wiring to appliances and down to the light switches. Most of the components come from the US especially for smaller developments, which are most common versus megastructures like the Grand Hyatt as an example. But just because we import most products from the US doesn’t mean we won’t be impacted by tariffs applied by the US to other countries.
While a US-made appliance may primarily use domestically produced components and be assembled in the United States, it often incorporates foreign-sourced parts and materials, including compressors, circuit boards, and chips, primarily from countries like China, Mexico, and South Korea who could be subject to tariffs. So, a fridge that used to cost $500 could now face a price increase depending on the amount of the tariffs on those foreign-sourced parts and materials.
This is just one example. Lumber could come from Canada and already be taxed before it’s shipped from the US. Most concrete production, specifically its key ingredient cement, is dominated by China and this list goes on and on.
Developers are currently faced with the uncertainty of what many component prices will be but undoubtedly prices will go up which all trickle down to the ultimate consumer, the property buyer.
Of course, if interest rates come down this could offset the cost increase caused by tariffs.
Internal effects on real estate in the Cayman Islands
As I’ve stated over and over again, we need a comprehensive land-use plan. “It has been almost 30 years since the Cayman Islands last implemented a comprehensive land-use plan. At that time Bill Clinton was in the White House, Tony Blair was in 10 Downing Street and Truman Bodden was leader of government business of a three-island territory with a population of 35,543.”[i]
We are at an impasse. We need more housing for a growing population, but we need a roadmap so developers know what they can plan and build.
One thing that all sides of the recent election agreed on was immigration reform. The big question is how to make reforms without harming the economy and this includes the real estate market.
Changes to immigration laws with respect to real estate and residency could be on the table of possible changes. Those laws were drawn up in 2003 when real estate prices were much lower than they are now. They were amended in 2017.
As of today, the minimum required investment in the Cayman Islands through a Residential Certificate for Persons of Independent Means is CI$1 million.
For a Certificate of Permanent Residence for Persons of Independent Means, the required minimum investment in developed real estate is CI$2 million, but there is no requirement that the investment be in residential real estate.
It would not be surprising to see immigration changes soon which could impact foreign investment, people currently living in our islands, as well as those wishing to move here, but I plan to explore this issue further in a future article.
Predicting what’s next? You’d need more than a crystal ball.
There are a lot of moving parts on a global scale that impact real estate in the Cayman Islands. The US housing market is down. One third of the housing markets across the US are seeing prices fall. Of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets, 109 experienced home price declines between June 2024 and June 2025.[ii] Additionally, with 30-year mortgages, many of them locked at extremely low rates, there is no incentive to sell.
Cayman doesn’t offer 30-year mortgages, but Stamp Duty does slow down turnover creating a nice, stable market. Mortgage rates in Cayman have been fluctuating by less than a point and half and are set between 6% to 6.5%.
Keep an eye on the “snowbirds! Canadians who escape during the winter to popular US locations such as Florida and Arizona are called “snowbirds” and many of them own second homes in those areas. But due to what many Canadians feel is an uncomfortable political climate in the US; some Canadians are looking to sell their US properties and invest in other sunny destinations.
Canadians are also choosing not to travel to the US. Canadian air travel has declined throughout the first five months of 2025, falling by 14.0% year over year in April and by 24.2% in May. Canadian airlines are reducing flights to certain sunny US destinations and adding new international sunny destinations including the Cayman Islands.
Canadian airliner, Porter will operate three direct flights per week from Toronto to Grand Cayman starting December 16 and one flight per week from Ottawa starting December 19. This is in addition to the flights coming in from Toronto on Air Canada and WestJet. Last year, overnight visitors to the Cayman Islands from Canada totalled 30,077, making up nearly 7% of overall visitor numbers. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a jump in those numbers for 2025.
That said, there are a few fundamentals worth remembering—especially when it comes to real estate in the Cayman Islands. Property here has long been a solid investment. It’s a tangible asset you can live in, rent out, or hold for long-term value—unlike stocks or more volatile instruments.
One of the key advantages? Cayman has no annual property tax, which continues to attract both local buyers and international investors alike.
In a constantly shifting market, working with experienced and trusted professionals is more important than ever. If you have questions about buying, selling, or navigating the Cayman Islands real estate market, the Bovell Team is here to help. Contact us at +1 345 945 4000.