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Friday, March 26, 2010

Bahamas Real Estate Assoc. bids Farewell to Wong

After a two year reign, William Wong will step down as the president of the Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) with the ending of his term.

"It's been a very busy, exciting two years for the [Bahamas] real estate industry," Wong informed the Guardian Business. "They have not been typical years for our economy [and] BREA has certainly had a high profile over the last year. I'm thankful to the membership for their support and kind words and the board of directors have been simply outstanding in their support.

"We hope the government in the future, before they decide to make major changes to the economy in regards to real estate, will call on us. Our advice is free [and] we have no agenda, only to help our country and agents and brokers to make a decent living.

"I want them to champion this Freeport issue, which has been a thorn in our side," he added. "Hopefully we will be able to get those people practicing real estate in Grand Bahama and particularly Freeport to be licensed, with the [Grand Bahama Port Authority] recognizing BREA as the licensing agent for Freeport."

The new acting President of BREA, Patty Birch, was elected at the associations Annual General Meeting on March 25th 2010. The Vise President, also elected into office, was Sara Callender.

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Friday, March 19, 2010

RE/MAX Paradise Realty Brokers & Agents Receive Awards

On March 1st, thousands of RE/MAX real estate agents from around the world descended upon Orlando, Florida to attend the annual RE/MAX International Convention to learn, network and enjoy the unique energy generated at the annual gatherings.

The Convention offered educational classes, seminars to help improve and promote business, a trade show, and most importantly great networking opportunities between RE/MAX agents. There was also the annual awards banquet honoring top producing agents and offices.

Principal Broker of RE/MAX Paradise Realty, Craig Pinder, who was awarded the 100% Club Award for sales performance in 2009, said he was “very pleased to receive the award” and he would continue to “take RE/MAX Paradise Realty to the next level of customer satisfaction.”

RE/MAX Paradise Realty’s Zack Bonczek, broker and sales manager, and Jennifer Higgs, broker, both received Executive Club awards for their sales performance and achievement in 2009.

“it is extremely important to attend these annual conferences so that brokers and agents can learn new skills and techniques that will ultimately better serve our clients” said Mr. Bonczek. “RE/MAX is unmatched when it comes to educating its members and giving them the tools to be the best.”

Mrs. Higgs agreed and said "We learned a lot and had fun meeting wonderful people from all over the world. It was inspiring to see how many agents have soared to the top through RE/MAX. We’ll definitely be in Las Vegas next year."

Education was front and center throughout the week. Tip-filled sessions on social media, marketing, technology and other relevant topics were held each day. “It was wonderful, a lot of very useful information,” said a former agent, Nassau sales associate of RE/MAX Paradise Realty. “We’re excited to get back to our office to practice what we learned.”

Frank Knowles, RE/MAX Paradise Realty’s agent in Hope Town, Abaco, said that he “thoroughly enjoyed meeting and learning from such a vast network of realtors, especially from RE/MAX Cayman agents who we share a lot of similarities with.”

RE/MAX is a global franchise of more than 6,800 independently owned and operated offices in 70 different countries and nearly 100,000 agents.

RE/MAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger. From a single office in Denver, Colorado, RE/MAX has grown to be a global network of nearly 100,000 sales associates in more than 75 countries. RE/MAX was honoured as the leading real estate franchise in the “2009 Franchise Times Top 200.” No one sells more than RE/MAX!

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Some Great News for The Bahamas Economy!

Despite the ongoing pessimism regarding the global economic outlook, The Bahamas continues to get great news with the announcement of some very positive events!

Firstly, the Minister of Tourism, Mr. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace was quoted recently in The Nassau Guardian newspaper as saying, "In the middle of a recession, 2010 will see an increase of over 400,000 new air-seats bringing a potential visitor spend of an additional $400 million compared to 2009," during a debate on the government's mid-year budget in the Senate. "These new seats include non-stops to Exuma, to Abaco and to Eleuthera from the United States and Canada that have either never been seen before or haven't been seen in decades."

This potential injection of revenue into the local economy will surely have a profound effect on the economy of our country! Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace went on further to say, "We are restoring the proximity advantage of The Bahamas by having that proximity reflected in the cost of travel to The Bahamas. That, as I mentioned earlier, is the first of six strategies that we outlined for tourism over a year ago. There is very strong research to show that for flights under three hours in length, the customer would rather spend their hard earned money enjoying themselves at the destination instead of consuming their funds in airfare cost in traveling to the destination. We are obliging them." The remarkable part to this statement is that proximity not only the tourist visitor but the second home owner as well!

Another very encouraging bit of news is that the new Baha Mar Resort in Cable Beach seems to finally be moving forward with the release of the news that there will be an estimated $7 Billion (with a B) in wages injected into the Bahamian economy in the next 2 decades. A report by the Oxford Economic Company, seen by Guardian Business, set out some of the key economic benefits which could create a "transformative economic event for The Bahamas in terms of tourism, economic multiplier effect, infrastructure and social change".

Yesterday Hu Dingxian, Ambassador to The Bahamas for the People's Republic of China, re-asserted his country's commitment to the project saying: "Baha Mar is an important project for the long-term benefit of The Bahamas. It is exciting that two Chinese companies, China's Exim Bank and China State Construction, are participating with Baha Mar to bring this project to fruition."

The benefits outlined in the report include:

* 6,500 Bahamians directly employed by Baha Mar by 2014
* A further 2,000 jobs indirectly created by the project, totaling 8,500
* $5.5 billion in direct wages going straight into the pockets of Bahamian families
* A further $1.5 billion in salaries for those indirectly employed
* A $14.8 billion contribution to The Bahamas gross domestic product GDP - a massive boost to the national economy.
* $24.5 billion extra in visitor spending over a 20 year period, though spending and direct taxes, taking the total contribution for the resort to $33.6 billion over the next two decades
* An extra $6.2 billion in government revenues over a 25-year horizon.
* Visits to the property jumping from 250,000 this year to 644,000 by 2016, generating a predicted 2.3 million visitor nights. Figures have also predicted that the development will inject $880 million into The Bahamas in its first year of operation through direct taxes and spending.

It is clear to see that the future of the Bahamas economy and, as a result, the Bahamas real estate market will be enormously effected over the next several years! There is no better time than now to get into the Bahamas real estate market!

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