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WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021
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Real estate chief’s rogue agent alert By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president yesterday urged law enforcement to act against rogue foreign realtors engaged in property transactions in the Family Islands. Christine WallaceWhitfield, pictured, told Tribune Business: “We’ve got foreigners trying to take advantage of the COVID-19 situation and come in to conduct real estate transactions. “I know that I had a very good discussion with the minister for immigration, Elsworth Johnson, and he had vowed that he will work along with BREA but we still have to meet again to follow up and see where we’re at. “Right now I’m in discussions with the National Association of Realtors in the US to keep them updated on people coming in to do appraisals on the Family Islands. It’s a big problem,” Mrs WallaceWhitfield added. “There are foreigners who have their properties, and then they seek out an appraiser from where they are from, but they have to realise that they have to get a Bahamian appraiser because of all of the intangibles that goes with appraising a piece of property in The Bahamas.” The established practice is for foreign realtor to cobroke, and work with, their Bahamian counterparts when it comes to selling or auctioning properties in this nation. However, there is little BREA can do about them or unlicensed local operators aside from forwarding the complaint to the police. Turning to rogue local real estate agents, Mrs WallaceWhitfield said: “There are people out there trying to mislead the public, and this is important for BREA and we will be beefing up our public relations campaign on this. “Sometimes people are intimidated by large real estate companies and I want to let the public know to don’t be. We adhere to a strict code of ethics, and we’re all licensed and mandated by the laws of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. We have a Real Estate Act.” Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said that to become a licensed real estate agent in The Bahamas requires multiple examinations and a “sponsorship” from one of the licensed firms for at least three months, so that newcomers become accustomed to how the real estate business actually works. “We have to make sure, though, that we’re not hamsters on a wheel just going around on both local and foreign rogue agents,” she added. “We have to follow up and follow through with making sure that certain policies and rules, regulations and laws, are put into place so that the public is protected, because buying real estate is the best one of the best investments somebody will ever make in their life.” Ms Wallace-Whitfield said that despite things being “a little quiet now” with rogue local real estate agents, “we’ve been getting some complaints that people are selling without a license. When we get complaints to BREA, if they’re not registered or licensed with us then we have to tell the person to file a formal complaint with the Royal Bahamas Police Force”.
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‘High-end real estate busiest I’ve seen it’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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BAHAMIAN developer yesterday said “the high end real estate market is the busiest I have ever seen it” as he prepares to break ground on a $40m project within the next two weeks. Jason Kinsale, Aristo Development’s principal, told Tribune Business more than 30 percent of the units in his 11-storey Aqualina development have already been pre-sold as market demand for Bahamian real estate valued between $1m-$10m continues to soar amid the post-COVID surge. Disclosing that there is “nothing left” in the $4m price bracket in high-end communities such as Lyford Cay and Old Fort Bay, he
voiced optimism that the recent hike in construction material prices - coupled with supply chain bottlenecks
- will not impede Aqualina’s progress as it has done other projects such as Sandals Royal Bahamian’s $37m upgrades. “Obviously it’s a concern
HOPES were rising in Freeport last night that Customs is close to resolving the near-two week system malfunction that has tripled the length of time required to clear goods imported to Grand Bahama. Glennett Fowler, president of the National Import Export Association of The Bahamas (NIEA), told Tribune Business that while Customs’ Electronic Customs Automated Services (eCAS) system was “still down” it was “coming up” in spurts while proving unstable. Other Grand Bahama businesses, though, said the system had come back online yesterday following two weeks where cross-border commerce in Freeport’s free trade zone area has been sent back to manual processes. Confirming that the
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• As hopes rise 14-day system woe near end • Time for Freeport goods clearance tripled • Attorney hopes no bonded goods litigation
CAREY LEONARD Association, together with the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and all their members, are due to meet Customs on Thursday to chart the way forward, Ms Fowler confirmed: “It’s been a slow process of getting goods. Everything is manual. It’s been taking three days to get everything cleared, whereas it was
about a day previously. “Right now I know some persons are not getting goods because they don’t want to go through the manual processes, while others are.” Ms Fowler, also president and chief executive of Fowlco, detailed these woes in a letter to the government last week: “eCAS has been down for nine days with no formal communication from the Bahamas Customs Department to the industry or the community of Grand Bahama. “This has left businesses and consumers at a standstill in many respects. In several cases entries are taking more than 72 hours to be processed manually. Some business owners had storage levied on them from
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
freight forwarders, adding further expense to their cost of goods sold. We have been advised the system will come up by tomorrow, which was stated the day prior as well.” Meanwhile, Carey Leonard, the former Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) in-house counsel, told Tribune Business that it “boggles the mind” how Customs had sought to introduce its new Click2Clear electronic single window (ESW) in Freeport without accounting for its bonded goods regime and the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. “As usual, everything is done in a Nassau-centric manner without any consideration for the major
for all of us,” Mr Kinsale told this newspaper of the construction materials situation. “I was up in Toronto recently, and from what I was seeing up there, there was a lot of price gouging on concrete and steel. “I understand there was a cement shortage here as well but, as these things start to calm down in the US and Canada, hopefully over the next six months, then we will start to get back to some semblance of normalcy. My understanding is that it’s not a long-term problem.” Aqualina is presently mobilising its contractors and construction workforce
Customs GB approach branded ‘mind boggling’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Country needs plan to ‘salvage development’ THE Bahamas is facing “a salvage development plan” rather than a National Development Plan, a former Chamber executive said yesterday, as the nation seeks to “pick up the pieces” post-COVID-19. Roderick Simms, exhead of The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) Family Island unit, told Tribune Business that the pandemic had worsened the inequality between Nassau and sparsely-populated Family Islands, especially in the southern islands. Voicing fears that the rate of depopulation in these islands has only increased, as persons head for New Providence in search of employment and a better quality of life, Mr Simms said reversing this trend will be a critical task for future administrations as part of efforts to reduce overcrowding in Nassau. “Many Family Islands always struggle even when Nassau does well,” he told this newspaper. “With COVID-19 many of the islands have become increasingly depopulated. People want to provide and have jobs. Nassau has continued to attract them because people want to find jobs, provide and have a better quality of life and standard of living. “Anchor projects have not worked out, and the numbers houses have been taking money out that does not have an opportunity to circulate on the island. We have to find ways to see how we can best get people to return to their islands. “They want to return, but cannot find a job and stable employment to provide for their families and children. The southern islands, the struggle has been happening for a while.” Mr Simms said COVID-19 lockdowns and other health-related measures, while implemented to save lives and prevent the virus’ spread, also helped to widen the divide between New Providence and Family Islands. In particular, he pointed to the requirement to obtain
• $40m project’s construction to start in two weeks • Developer: No impact, but prices, supply ‘a concern’ • Reiterates call for faster permanent residency process
JASON Kinsale and a rendering of Aqualina.
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Union chief pledges ‘no public hardship’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net TRADE unions will “not create hardship for the Bahamian people” if they are “forced” to take industrial action over their multiple workplace grievances, a prominent leader pledged yesterday. Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business “the interests of the public” will be paramount in whatever the labour movement ultimately decides to do to “change the road map” on Bahamian industrial relations. Describing labour relations as “the worst I would have ever seen it”, with numerous unions unable to resolve outstanding matters with government and private sector employers, he said the TUC and its affiliates were determined not to lose the support they are currently receiving from “a substantial portion” of Bahamians. Warning that the Bahamian middle class is “evaporating” due to
• TUC boss promises people’s ‘interest’ paramount • But labour movement ‘under pressure to take action’ • Middle class ‘evaporates’; worker relations ‘worst ever’
OBIE FERGUSON ever-increasing economic and social pressures, Mr Ferguson said the trade union movement has a responsibility to counter this and what he branded as the growing gap between rich and poor, with “the difference between the ‘have’s’ and ‘have not’s’ becoming larger every year”. He also dismissed suggestions by John Pinder, director of labour, that the latest bout of union-related unrest was motivated by a desire to use the upcoming
general election and union votes as leverage in negotiations with the government in a bid to ensure their demands are met. Asserting that the union movement is “not trying to destabilise” the government, the TUC chief also rejected Mr Pinder’s argument that the state of workplace relations “isn’t as serious as it appears to be”. Asked what Bahamians can expect to see if outstanding industrial matters are not resolved to the unions’ satisfaction, Mr Ferguson told his newspaper that leaderships were coming under growing pressure from their memberships to act and said: “You saw what happened at Bahamas Power & Light (BPL). “I said before that there’s a possibility you will see them take a different approach. We have to do something. We can’t sit here
and twiddle our thumbs and do nothing. Our members are asking us to act and do something.” However, Mr Ferguson promised that any industrial action will be designed to avoid harming the Bahamian people in an environment where most businesses and workers are still trying to rebound from the economic devastation inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m having discussions with my union colleagues to determine what is the most appropriate thing to do without creating hardship on the Bahamian people,” he told Tribune Business. “That’s the discussion I’ve been having today and the last two weeks. “We are trying to find the most palatable way of doing something that changes the road map as opposed to doing something without having regard for the
interests of the Bahamian public, especially at this point in time. The conversation is that whatever we decide to do, we have to do it with the interests of the Bahamian people in mind. “We want the public to support what we’re doing, and right now a substantial portion of the workers and Bahamian people support the position we have embarked on. We don’t want to interfere with that position of empathy and trust. We have contemplated doing something, but have not finalised what it’s going to be.” Many observer will argue that union and workplacerelated unrest is the last thing The Bahamas needs, especially as its Dorian and COVID-19 battered economy is just starting to see the first glimpse of a tourism revival and the return of many furloughed staff to work. Acknowledging this, Mr Ferguson said: “We’re going to do the best we can to ensure the country comes out of the economic and
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