Costs Involved in Buying a Property in Jamaica Stamp duty: is equally shared between the buyer and the seller. Currently, stamp duty is charged at 5.5% Registration fee: a fixed multiplier, shared by the seller and buyer, 0.05% to 0.0025% from the selling price Agreement for Sale: Total for the preparation of agreement for sale, tax registration form and other miscellaneous costs are typically split evenly between buyer and seller. These costs are around 0.4% of property value. Transfer tax: 7.5% of property price, which is paid by the seller2
Market Analysis Environment Scan Technological Environment In any business environment organizational competitiveness can be directly correlated with a countries technological environment and capacity to operate efficiently alongside modern technology. Such technologies within the global business world may include, “quality management (QM) programs, traditional information systems (TIS), as well as two newly-‐emerging types of information systems (IS), e-‐commerce (E-‐C) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, the organization's culture, and perceptions of organizational performance.”3 There have been studies performed specifically on Jamaica in these different areas of technology and the findings suggest that Jamaica has established “mature” relationships. This suggests that Jamaica adopts this new technology quicker than most of its competing Caribbean nations. There are several theories that have been tested and proven viable explanations as to why Jamaica can easily adopt new technologies and implement it into their business with little difficulty. One theory, “Hofstede's (1983) finding that Jamaica is notably low in uncertainty avoidance. Ronen (1986), compiling the results of several of Hofstede's studies, points out that Jamaica is the second lowest country [in the world] in uncertainty avoidance, with Singapore ranked in the lowest position.”4 This implies that many business owners and managers are not concerned with the level of risk associated with implementing new technologies; Jamaica is a risk-‐taking society. Another theory is that due to Jamaica’s culturally diverse population (more 2 Sharon (2010) -‐ Jamaica real estate and rentals 3 Hartman & Fok -‐ Exploring the use of various technologies 4 Hartman & Fok -‐ Exploring the use of various technologies
12