Surging from an economy almost entirely dependent on producing agricultural commodities for exportation to a much more modernized and diversified one, the country’s growth is a shock to the world.
For many years, the country depended on the exportation of cocoa, bananas, and nutmeg to various countries but the fluctuation in the prices of their exported goods, natural disasters, and the threatened removal of the preferred trading agreement contrived the government to seek various ways to expand the Island’s economic base.
Grenada’s metamorphosis from a country that solely depended on agriculture alone to a country with a manufacturing sector, a financial service sector, and a tourist sector is admirable. Meanwhile, Covid-19 has had a limited impact on the health of Grenada’s population.
The government closed the country to international commercial traffic between March and August 2020. These initial measures kept the number of cases under control but by the time the local airport reopened, there had been a total of 24 cases of Covid-19 reported. Opening the borders were required to support tourism, which accounts for 80% of the exports of the country and 57% of its economy.
This decision led to a substantial increase in the number of cases in December 2020. The economic impacts of the virus have been devastating. To tackle the impact of the pandemic in 2020, the government rolled out an emergency relief program worth 2% of the country’s GDP equivalent to USD 23, 000, 000. Some of the measures included payroll support, expansion of government employment programs, deferred tax collection, and increased health care expenditure.
According to the Century 21 Grenada Real Estate Report 2017, the Grenadian real estate market has been improving since 2012 and is projected to continue growing into 2017. In 2016 the country’s real estate market saw a nearly 23% increase from 2015. Even so, Grenada remains a buyer’s market with its affordable real estate.
Since the introduction of the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Program in 2013, Grenada has seen a tremendous boost in its real estate market. Investors looking to invest in luxury, have dual citizenship, a holiday house, or property to retire have added Grenada to their luxury property portfolio. Its real estate market is diverse; there are various properties on the market, ranging from luxury villas and modern apartments to historical plantation homes.