Bottom Line: Where Is Our Land

The history of land acquisition and development in the Bahamas is an interesting aspect of the Bahamas history that calls for research and documentation. In modern Bahamian life, where home ownership is the key to sustainable standard of living of an average citizen, couple with the increasing development of various hotels and business properties, it is certain that pressure on land acquisition and development will continues to be enormous and expected that demand will outstrip the supply. This imbalance is definitely going to dictate the future availability, prices and affordability of land in the country.

The question that must be asked is in respect of the sector in the Bahamas that is placing most demand on land in the country. Firstly, are these Bahamians who want to own their own homes, secondly, are these Bahamian business persons that want to build office structures. Thirdly, are these foreign investors and fourthly, are these second home owners from various countries particularly the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom.

The answer to any of these questions will help the government and Bahamians appreciate the concern about land in the country. If the answer to the first and second questions are in respect of Bahamians building their own homes and building business offices, the country should be comfortable to a certain degree so long as real estate person or organisation do not extort high prices just for profit hence creating artificial scarcity that then discriminate between the upper class and lower class strata.

On the contrary, if most of the pressure on land in the country is as a result of the need for foreign investor business development, it presents a different set of challenges to the country. In addition, if the pressure is also as a result of foreign person seeking second home in the Bahamas, that is even more challenging. The government department of land and survey must in dealing with the issue of land consider the future of Bahamian.

This is particularly important because presently, most prime land in Nassau as well as in the Family Islands is either bought by foreign investors or have been developed as resident by high income earners or earmarked as gated community if not already built as gated community.

Lands in Nassau are almost completely sold out with average Bahamian no rights or access to most beach fronts properties for recreation or any other purpose. This demonstrates the lack of foresight and planning by persons in authority regarding the distribution and ownership of land in the country.

More concern is in respect of the nature of development of land in the country. Given the size of the Bahamian population inclusive of residents, with the expectation of future population growth, it is unwise for the Town Planners to allow certain development in many sub-divisions that limits the maximization of the use of land by land developers. In most countries, certain sub-division is classified into strata hence dictating the quality and models of office and residential blocks that can be built on it. Depending on the zone, house structure could a single-unit of one bedroom or two or three. Again, depending on the location, the regulation could be three to ten storey building containing differentials in room numbers but with total of at least 50 to 100 apartments in one building. This pattern helps to create more residential houses and office within a given space of land. These are optimization in land usage, but the question remains – where is our land.