Every Caribbean island requires a non-citizen to ask permission before owning land — except one. That single exception, Turks & Caicos, tells you almost everything about why this subject trips up buyers who've closed deals everywhere else in the world: the fee for permission ranges from a flat few thousand dollars to ten percent of the purchase price, the wait ranges from six weeks to well over a year, and getting either number wrong is the most common reason a Caribbean closing slips its timeline.
The short answer
Across St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada — the five citizenship-by-investment (CBI) islands — a foreign buyer generally needs an Alien Landholding License before holding real estate. The fee runs 5–10% of the purchase price in four of the five (St. Lucia uses a flat statutory fee schedule instead), and approval typically takes three to six months. Buy CBI-approved real estate in St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda or Grenada, and the license requirement is usually waived entirely. Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands run their own, tougher versions of the same license, each tied to a development obligation most buyers don't learn about until after they've closed. Turks & Caicos requires no license at all — the only government cost is stamp duty.
Why almost every island makes you ask permission first
Every one of these statutes predates the citizenship-by-investment industry by decades — Grenada's Aliens (Land-Holding Regulation) Act dates to 1922. They share the same colonial-era instinct: protect scarce land from being bought up wholesale by outsiders, and collect a fee and a paper trail every time it happens. CBI programs were layered on top generations later, which is why the two systems interact in ways that surprise buyers who assume citizenship-by-investment and land law are the same legislation. They're not. One grants a passport; the other decides whether you can legally hold the property you bought to get it. The CBI exemption, where it exists, is a carve-out from the license law, not a replacement for it.
St Kitts & Nevis: 10% of value, three months, and a CBI exemption most buyers miss
The governing statute is the Aliens Land Holding Regulation Act: a license fee of 10% of the property's value, with approval typically taking around three months. Buy CBI-approved real estate — the route into St Kitts & Nevis citizenship — and you generally don't need the license at all, and the 10% fee doesn't apply. I'd be careful with one claim agents repeat: that the fee is "waived in most developments." That isn't a standing policy — Nevis ran a genuine 90-day fee waiver in 2020 as a pandemic-era measure, and the language has stuck around in marketing copy long after it expired. The real, ongoing exemption is the CBI one, not a general developer discount.
The common mistake is budgeting the full 10% fee against a purchase that's already CBI-approved, and finding out later that it never applied.
Stamp duty is where I'd slow down before quoting an exact number. It's vendor-paid, and sources I trust disagree on the rate — some cite 6% for condominiums, others 6–10%, others up to 12% on other property types. Budget separately for an assurance fund contribution of roughly 0.2–0.5% and legal fees of 1–2.5%. From my office at Four Seasons Nevis, this is a conversation I have regularly with clients who assume the license process and the citizenship application are the same file. They're related. They're not the same thing.
Antigua & Barbuda: a 5% license, 2.5% stamp duty, and the CIP shortcut
Antigua's Non-Citizens Land Holding Regulation Act sets the license fee at 5% of the property's value under its original stamp-duty schedule; a 2020 amendment extended the same 5% treatment to non-citizen trust beneficiaries and gift transfers. Processing I'd budget at three to six months. As in Nevis, real estate purchased through the Citizenship by Investment Program at the $300,000 minimum is exempt from the license requirement entirely.
Outside that exemption, the buyer pays 2.5% stamp duty plus the 5% license fee — call it 7.5% to government before legal fees — while the vendor separately pays 7.5% stamp duty. That's a cleaner structure than most CBI peers, one reason Antigua real estate draws buyers who've already priced out Nevis or Grenada.
Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada: three cost structures under one CBI umbrella
These islands get lumped together as CBI markets under $350,000 — but the license costs nothing alike from one to the next.
Dominica. The Alien Land Holding License Regulation Act technically only requires a license above one acre residential or three acres commercial — but the Invest Dominica Authority's own guidance is that the 10% alien landholding fee applies to foreign purchases generally, regardless of that threshold. Budget for it on any Dominica real estate purchase. The full stack, per the IDA's own figures, runs to roughly 16.5% all-in on the buyer's side: 10% alien fee, 2% stamp duty, 1% judicial fees, 1% assurance fund, 2.5% solicitor's fees, plus 15% VAT on the professional fees. The seller pays 2.5% stamp duty separately. That's the highest all-in buyer stack of the five — worth knowing before comparing a Secret Bay villa's headline price against a similar unit elsewhere, since closing costs aren't comparable across islands even when purchase price is.
St. Lucia. The outlier on structure, not just cost. The Alien Landholding (Licensing) Act, passed March 2020, charges flat statutory fees rather than a percentage of value: a Certificate of Eligibility at $3,000 (one year) or $10,000 (ten years), then a license fee tiered by acreage — $100 for a subdivided lot, $2,500 up to one acre, $5,000 for one to five acres, $10,500 for five to ten acres, $20,000 above ten acres, with a $3,000-per-acre-per-year penalty for non-development. For most single-villa or condo buyers of St. Lucia real estate, that flat fee works out cheaper than Dominica's or Grenada's percentage. The trade-off is a two-step process — eligibility, then license — routed through Planning, the Attorney General's Chambers, and Cabinet for anything over an acre: typically three to six months. Buyer stamp duty is 2%; the vendor's tax is 5% for a resident/citizen seller, 10% for a non-resident. An EC$5,000 application fee still circulates online — that's the pre-2020 regime; confirm which act a source is quoting.
Grenada. The Aliens (Land-Holding Regulation) Act sets the fee at 10% of the purchase price, net of contents and furniture. The license takes around three months, the full transaction three to six, and the application requires a police record, two character references and a banker's reference — more documentation than any of the other four CBI islands. Buyers of CBI-approved real estate at Grenada's citizenship minimum are generally exempt.
One number gets misattributed constantly: Grenada's 15% property transfer tax on a sale is a vendor-side tax on a non-national seller (first EC$20,000 exempt) — not a buyer-side cost.
It is an easy figure to misapply, because it belongs to the seller's side of the transaction rather than the buyer's. Read any cost estimate closely enough to see which side of the deal each tax actually sits on before you budget against it.
The real buyer-side stack is the 10% license plus roughly 1% stamp duty and 2% legal fees (15% VAT on the legal component). Grenada real estate at developments like Hilton Condo Residences prices that stack in up front.
Anguilla and the BVI: harder, slower, and worth knowing before you fall for the view
Neither runs a CBI program, but both draw buyers who've shopped the five above — usually for the real estate itself. Both also run tougher versions of the same license.
Anguilla. The Aliens Land Holding Regulation Act requires a $400 application fee and a government interview. Government guidance puts approval typically within two to three months, with the fastest cases moving in as little as three weeks. What catches people off guard isn't the application; it's the collection deadline. Once the Executive Council grants the license, you have two months to collect it or it's cancelled outright and you restart from zero.
It's easy to treat the license grant as the finish line when the collection window is the one that actually matters.
Undeveloped land carries a real obligation: a minimum 2,000 square feet of gross external floor area built within 18 months of issuance. Miss it and the penalty starts at EC$500 a month for the first year, doubling after, with forfeiture proceedings possible. Lots for non-belongers are generally capped around half an acre, and the best beachfront is effectively off the table.
On cost, Anguilla is genuinely hard to quote right now. Standard: 12.5% stamp duty on the license plus 5% transfer duty — 17.5% total. A reduced rate — 5% developed / 6.25% undeveloped, plus 5% transfer, for 10%/11.25% total — ran from 2017-era stimulus measures through a stated expiry of December 31, 2025, following a December 2024 extension. Whether that reduction has been extended again or has reverted to the standard 17.5% isn't something to assume either way. Get written confirmation from an Anguilla attorney before wiring anything — this is a live number. Separately, a minimum $750,000 real estate investment qualifies for Anguilla's residency-by-investment route, worth knowing if the license is really a step toward Anguilla flat tax residency.
British Virgin Islands. The Non-Belongers Land Holding Licence application fee is listed at $200 per individual on the Government's own page, though $500 is what gets reported under the December 2023 policy — confirm which figure the current schedule actually carries before you budget it. Government-stated processing time is 8 to 12 weeks. Treat that as a floor, not an estimate. Practitioners routinely report two to three months for approval plus another one to two for the Governor's sign-off, and under the old paper-based system the whole process could run 12 to 18 months. That gap is the most important fact in this section.
Stamp duty runs 12% of the higher of appraised value or price for a non-belonger, versus 4% for a belonger. Cabinet tightened policy on December 18, 2023: development completion extended from three years to five (optional paid two-year extension, hard seven-year stop), a new $350,000 minimum capital investment on undeveloped land, twelve penalty categories carrying 1–10% fines, and Governor forfeiture powers. The volume is real: the Premier told the House of Assembly in February 2025 that the BVI issued 67 licences in 2023 and 81 in 2024 — 148 over two years — generating roughly $12.7 million in stamp duty revenue, led by Tortola (85) and Virgin Gorda (45).
Turks & Caicos: the one island that skips all of this
TCI is the genuine exception: no alien landholding license, no restriction on foreign ownership. A non-citizen buys the same way a citizen does. The only cost is stamp duty, tiered by price and island: on Providenciales and the private cays, 0% under $25,000, 6.5% between $25,000–$250,000, 8% between $250,000–$500,000, 10% above $500,000; on Grand Turk, North Caicos, Middle Caicos, South Caicos and Salt Cay, 5% between $25,000–$100,000, 6.5% above. Note that the capital, Grand Turk, sits on the lower scale, not the higher one — the split is by development intensity, not by administrative importance.
TCI also runs a Permanent Residence Certificate tied to a completed home — $1,000,000 on Providenciales and the private cays, $300,000 on Grand Turk and the lesser-developed Caicos islands — with no physical-residency requirement to obtain the PRC itself. For a buyer who's navigated a license elsewhere, TCI is the cleanest transaction in the region; it's just not paired with a citizenship pathway.
What this means when you're comparing islands
The pattern: the five CBI islands charge 5–10% of value (or a flat fee, in St. Lucia) and take three to six months, with CBI-approved purchases usually skipping the license in St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua and Grenada. Anguilla and the BVI sit at the expensive end rather than the cheap one — Anguilla's standard stack is 12.5% licence stamp duty plus 5% transfer duty, and the BVI charges a non-belonger 12% stamp duty — and both attach development timelines that are harder to predict. Turks & Caicos skips the license entirely.
One regulatory shift is worth watching underneath this. In September 2025 the five CBI states signed the agreement creating the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority, headquartered in Grenada, with St Kitts & Nevis and Dominica passing enabling legislation that October. ECCIRA's mandate runs toward agent licensing and program integrity — but tighter oversight of what counts as an "approved" project can change whether a specific property still qualifies for the license exemption. Weighing a purchase against the full menu of Caribbean citizenship programs? Confirm a project's approved status the week you close, not the year you first saw the price list.
Key takeaways
- Five islands run CBI programs — St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada — and each requires a non-citizen to hold an Alien Landholding License, typically 5–10% of value (St. Lucia uses a flat fee schedule) and three to six months to approve.
- Buying CBI-approved real estate in St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda or Grenada generally exempts you from the license requirement and its fee entirely.
- Anguilla and the BVI run tougher, non-CBI versions of the same license, and they cost more rather than less — Anguilla's standard 12.5% licence stamp duty plus 5% transfer duty, and 12% BVI stamp duty for a non-belonger — with development deadlines and forfeiture penalties on top.
- Turks & Caicos is the regional exception: no license, no ownership restriction, just stamp duty.
- Several widely quoted numbers — Grenada's 15% transfer tax, St Kitts's stamp duty rate, Anguilla's 2026 discounted rate — are commonly misattributed or currently unsettled; confirm them with local counsel before wiring anything.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an alien landholding license if I'm buying CBI-approved real estate? In St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda and Grenada, generally no — approved citizenship-by-investment real estate is typically exempt from the license and its fee. Dominica and St. Lucia don't offer the same blanket exemption, so budget for the license regardless of whether the purchase is CBI-linked.
How much does an alien landholding license cost across the Caribbean? Most CBI islands charge 5–10% of the purchase price — Antigua at 5%, and St Kitts & Nevis, Dominica and Grenada at 10%. St. Lucia is the exception, charging flat statutory fees from $100 to $20,000 depending on acreage rather than a percentage of value.
Which Caribbean islands don't require any landholding license? Turks & Caicos is the only jurisdiction here with no license and no restriction on foreign real estate ownership at all. Every other island covered — the five CBI islands, Anguilla and the BVI — requires some form of government approval before a non-citizen can hold title.
How long does the alien landholding license process actually take? Across the five CBI islands, budget three to six months. Anguilla can run two to six months depending on the file. The BVI's official estimate is 8 to 12 weeks, but practitioners routinely report two to three months for approval plus another one to two months for the Governor's sign-off — and historically, under the old paper-based system, cases ran 12 to 18 months.
What happens if I don't develop land I've bought under one of these licenses? In Anguilla, undeveloped land carries an 18-month construction deadline with escalating monthly penalties and possible forfeiture. The BVI's 2023 changes extended the window to five years but added twelve fine categories and Governor forfeiture powers. St. Lucia charges a flat $3,000-per-acre-per-year penalty for non-development. Read the license conditions before you close, not after.
