Anguilla Real Estate...
Buying & Building
At the time of this writing (2005), Anguilla real estate is becoming extremely hard to find. It is a topic dear to this family's hearts. My parents ultimately want to settle here and both my sister and I could easily be very happy living in Anguilla (as long as we could visit New York every now and then!).
UPDATE 2010
This page was written some time ago. We did ultimately find land and build our home. Links to the home-building journal appear below. Post-recession (2010), Anguilla real estate prices have dropped. Excellent land is once again available at reasonable prices and building prices have decreased. It is a good time to be buying and building.
As a result of our passion for Anguilla, this site has covered a lot of ground (so to speak)...
- explained the general "realities of realty" in Anguilla
- more recently described how Anguilla's real estate market is getting hotter and hotter,
- our family has almost adopted Jackie Pascher, a hard-working Anguilla real estate agent, as a member of our family
- even taken a complete, round-the-island best Caribbean real estate tour.
Jackie has found land for my Dad a couple of times, some very nice oceanfront. Each time, my Dad has come close to buying. Each time, though, fate (i.e., "work") intervened. Meanwhile, land gets harder and harder to find, and more expensive.
It has reached a point where the local real estate agents don't even have any oceanfront land for sale!
So imagine our surprise when someone contacted Jackie Pascher, though the form on this site, to let her know that he had 14 acres of oceanfront land for sale!
People have always used that form to contact Jackie with a desire to buy land or to rent a villa.
But this time, someone wanted to sell.
And this time, my Dad was ready! Needless to say, he was excited.
I'll let him tell the story from here.
August 21, 2005 (Start of this journal)
Note from Ken, Nori's dadYes, imagine my delight when I found out that 14 acres of oceanfront Anguilla real estate were suddenly available.
And all thanks to Nori's site. I'm sure glad she started this site, "way back" when she was just 14 years old! And now, her younger sister Yuki is lending a hand.
Anguilla has become a real family affair!
Three-and-a-half years after that first, fateful trip to Anguilla, we have put down our deposit check and are proceeding with the first step, securing the Outline Planning Permission. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself...
Nori thought it would be a good idea to report, journal-style, our experiences in buying anguilla real estate and building our own home. I agreed. And that's what I'll be doing in this section of the site.
I hope you enjoy it. I especially hope you find it useful and one day we get to share a rum punch on this beautiful island.
All the best,
DadP.S. Nori provides a form below to reach Jackie. If you want to buy Anguilla real estate or rent a villa, I can't recommend here highly enough. And...
If you want to sell Anguilla real estate, it turns out that the form works both ways! The 14 acres sold out quite rapidly. But Jackie has the best turnover, so whether you are buying or selling Anguilla real estate, you will be delighted as we are with Jackie.
Building On Anguilla: The Journal
This section of Nori's Web site will grow until our Anguilla home is a reality. I hope you find it useful if you have decided to build on Anguilla. Here we go, step by step...
1) Anguilla real estate for sale!
2) We buy!
3) Outline Planning Permission, Caribbean Home-Building Books
4) Alien Land Holding Application and Anguilla Attorneys
5) Preparation: From Anguilla Lawyers to Caribbean Architects to A Great Team Of Builders
6) Tropical Building! We break ground.
7) Building In The Caribbean Really Starts: The Big Dig
8) Our First Attempt At Building In The Tropics: AKA "Mike's Home"
9) The real building in Anguilla starts: Batter boards, cistern and the first cement pour!
A Side Trip
Anguilla Native Stone: We've found some beatiful local stone for our patios and terraces... and an exciting, passionate story!
10) An Intoduction To The Anguilla Builders and We Pour The Footings: An introduction to this fine team of men who I am beginning to know. And the perimeter footings are poured. I can see the outline of our future home!
11) Caribbean Construction Makes Steady Progress: The team forms and pours the cistern walls and footings.
12) Building In The Caribbean Continues: We lay foundation block.
13) Our Anguilla Homes Foundation Is Finished and Backfilled.
15) Anguilla Exterminator Sprays For Prevention
16) First floor concrete slab reinforcement
A Side Project
Anguilla Septic System: We switch to a reusable septic system and the team starts building.
18) Anguilla Electrician Wires Us!
19) Pouring the first floor of our Anguilla home
20) West Indies Concrete and pouring the ICF walls
21) Our Anguilla home's second floor slab
22) ... And then the pouring of our home's second floor ICF walls
23) The last big step: Our Anguilla home's three peaked roofs
24) We seal up the rest of the house, adding the hurricane windows and doors
25) Moving outside to the Caribbean pool and pool deck
26) Finishing the exterior and interior walls of our Anguilla home with a special system
27) Now onto building a tropical building's quintessential feature... Pergolas!
28) Caribbean construction, time to tile!
29) We're here... The last step... Our Anguilla pool
31) Thoughts after living in our Anguilla home for a year
To reach Jackie, send her an e-mail...
