Royal Westmoreland Royal Westmoreland has long been known as one of the most sought after addresses for the affluent home buyer in Barbados. A vibrant resort community of over 200 homes with extensive membership activities it is easy to become part of the resort lifestyle and meet the residents. The resort is spread over 700 acres, surrounding the beautiful 7,045 yard long - 18 hole Robert Trent Jones Jr. golf course, with two flood lit tennis courts, multiple gyms and pools, a stunning Club House with locker rooms, with restaurant/bar and pro shop; the Mullins Beach Club offering shuttle service, private members only parking and dining as well as full bell captain service creates an unmatched experience in resort living. Royal Westmoreland clients have been able to choose from luxuriously appointed Royal Apartments (US$500-$1M); the Sugar Cane Ridge semi-detached homes (US$1.45M to US$1.55M); and our signature Bespoke Homes (US$1.9M to $6M+). With 20 years of success to build on, Royal Westmoreland is launching its newest product: villa shared ownership, as a move from strength to strength. The West coast of Barbados and our resort community have built a robust villa rental business with many renters reserving their villa rental year after year. The repeat villa rental client has historically struggled with justifying a Barbados home purchase when typically their time to enjoy the villa in the immediate future is limited. The Royal Westmoreland shared ownership program is the first deeded, stand-alone luxury villa shared ownership available in Barbados. These four bedroom, four and a half bath Royal Palm Villas are being sold as one month periods in peak season and two week periods in the shoulder season. Each 3,700
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sq ft home is on approximately 22,000 sq ft of land with a private 12’ x 41’ swimming pool, they are each fully furnished with daily housekeeping. The owners of the Royal Palm Villas will enjoy Club Membership and preferred access to golf, paying running costs proportionally for only the time they own. In the past year of test marketing villa shared ownership at Royal Westmoreland it has met with significant market demand. When asked, the two primary reasons for clients to purchase shared ownership during our prelaunch phase have been: 1) They wanted a larger, more luxurious home for only the time they need, they could afford an apartment or semi-detached home for the year, but found that sharing a detached home offered privacy, space and lower risk to meet their current lifestyle goals. 2) They wanted to have the capital spent currently in repeat villa rentals to be used toward growing into a full ownership residence as opposed to being disposed of by being spent on a rental. They wanted to ensure that when their lifestyle allowed for the investment into a full ownership home, they would make use of the Royal Westmoreland trade in programme of their shared ownership toward their full ownership. We also found interesting from our test marketing that control of quality and expectations was an important decision factor in buying shared ownership. Royal Westmoreland has enjoyed a rapid recovery from the recession, setting a record breaking pace for full ownership property sales in the last year. The expansion of the ownership offerings for Royal Westmoreland to include shared ownership for the luxury villa client seems to have hit the perfect balance between market prudence and the lifestyle goals of today’s buyers.