For anyone living in the UK or Europe, who has been sitting on the sidelines waiting to buy a Caribbean property, now may be the time to jump and make that property purchase in the Caribbean. Movements over the past month have seen the pound and euro fall around 5% in value against the US$Dollar, which is used for pricing most Caribbean properties.
It is difficult to predict whether this slide will continue, as the international money markets weigh the relative strengths of the US economy against the Eurozone. However, with little growth predicted through 2008 and 2009 and the threat of recession looming; there is a very real chance that the recent slide in the value of the pound and euro could continue to erode the value of these currencies possibly back to the levels sustained for many years through the 1990's, where the dollar stabilised at around US$1.55 to the pound.
It may be far fetched to predict such a decline in the buying power of the pound; however very few would have predicted in the 1990's that the dollar would have slipped to the recent levels of US$2 to the pound and it would have been even harder in the 1980's to have predicted this fall, when the dollar reined supreme at US$1 to £1.
For the time being, those pondering a Caribbean property should take heed of the changing climate and make their property purchases over the next few months, to enjoy what are still traditionally very favourable rates of exchange against the US dollar.
