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This is a 3-part blog series on how we found a rental property in Barbados to buy sight unseen during a pandemic while being in Toronto, Canada. Make sure you read the first part: The Journey of Villa Mango, Barbados (Part 1): How We Got Started Next, we started to plan for our Oct. 18th arrival in Barbados with our closing date of Oct. 7th looming. Much to our shock, October 7th came and went without an email from our lawyers. When I contacted them on Oct 8th to ask what happened to our closing date and why had no one asked us to wire the funds to close, we were met with silence. Finally, they responded to let us know that the closing had been delayed. Until what date, no one could tell us. We let them know that we had plane tickets and 6 of us were scheduled to arrive on Oct. 18th so we definitely needed to close by that date so that we wouldn’t be homeless.

This is a 3-part blog series on how we found a rental property in Barbados to buy sight unseen during a pandemic while being in Toronto, Canada. In early 2020, a friend and I chatted about buying an investment property in Barbados. Both of us had been real estate investors for many years and were looking to branch out beyond the Canadian borders. I had been running a 6-suite guesthouse in Prince Edward County, 2 hours east of Toronto for the last 4 years successfully and started thinking that a rental in a hot, sunny climate was bound to also do well. So I booked a vacation in Barbados with a few girlfriends over New Year’s 2020 and started to become more acquainted with Barbados. I loved it. I loved the people, I loved the restaurants, I loved the weather, I loved the fact that I could walk everywhere, I loved how close we were to the beach. It somehow felt like home even though I was born in Guyana and had never set foot in Barbados.

Many of us have read the story about the Jane St condo building in such a state of disrepair they have given their owners 15 days notice to pay $30,000 to $42,500 in a special assessment. It was reported that they no longer have cleaners, security or a superintendent and that their reserve fund has $1.75 and their operating fund had $5000. This is shocking and a sad state of affairs. For owners to come up with such a large sum of money in such a short period of time is ridiculous. The building is now putting liens on the units that haven’t paid their special assessment yet.

Last week the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) decided that the stress test that had been proposed for June 1st, which was only to impact those with a down payment of 20% or greater, should be extended to all of those applying for mortgages. So now those who are putting less than 20% down payment will also be affected by the increase to the stress test.

Thinking of selling your house or condo? Would you like to learn how to get top dollar for your home?

What percentage of detached homes in Toronto are selling for more than $1.7 million? You’ve seen the headlines. Housing prices are on the rise. Buyers are getting frustrated with the high prices and the bidding wars. Given the low interest rates and the need for more space, we don’t see housing prices going down anytime soon. In fact, it seems as though the only way is up. As much as we might complain about the high prices of housing right now, in 5 years, we’ll be saying, “Do you remember when a detached house was only $1.7 million?” I know this sounds hard to believe.