A private member’s motion “to Protect and Prioritise Caymanian Participation in the Real Estate Sector” passed with cross-party support in an early-morning session of Parliament on 25 June.
It proposes restricting the granting of new real estate agent licences to “Caymanians; Persons holding Caymanian status with full and unrestricted rights to work in the Cayman Islands; or Persons who are holders of a valid Residency and Employment Rights Certificate (RERC), granted on the basis of marriage to a Caymanian, and who possess full legal rights to work in the Cayman Islands.”
The private member’s motion, which was brought by the opposition MP for George Town West Pearlina McGaw-Lumsden, includes “grandfathering provisions” to protect non-Caymanians who already hold a real estate agent licence.
In his speech supporting the motion, Premier André Ebanks said the motion could be included in upcoming changes to Local Companies (Control) Licences scheduled for September.
The move to bar most non-Caymanian from being local real estate agents, which is supported by both the government and opposition, is unlikely to face any political opposition in Cayman. “I don’t think a work permit holder would ever dare put their head up and say ‘no, you can’t protect your own people’”, said Deputy Leader of the Opposition Kenneth Bryan, speaking on Radio Cayman on 25 June.
The Compass contacted the Cayman Islands Real Estate Brokers Association for comment on the motion but received no response at the time of publishing this article.
Politicians confident real estate won’t suffer
Cayman’s politicians seem confident that Cayman’s real estate no longer needs international agents to thrive. “Let’s face it. Look at our pristine environment – this is not selling real estate in some murky jurisdiction where it’s hard,” said Ebanks. “The real estate almost sells itself, so how complicated is it?”
While paying respect to the frameworks that helped build Cayman, Ebanks noted that times have changed. “Our sophistication, our qualification, our financial wherewithal has changed,” said Ebanks. “So we now have to adjust the frameworks to the existing reality that Caymanians can handle and do more in their own country.”
“The issue of Caymanians in real estate has definitely been overlooked for too long,” said Athena Nicole, the Caymanian founder of MOD Realty. “There are many skilled Caymanian real estate agents who have been outnumbered and overlooked by foreign and work permit holders in the real estate industry for quite some time.”
Nicole noted that Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Panama and the Bahamas have already passed similar legislation.
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