Tortola is BVI’s top market for real estate sales
Tortola continues to dominate real estate activity across the BVI, accounting for the largest share of sales value and transactions among all islands over the last five years, according to the 2025 BVI Property Review published by real estate firm Smiths Gore & Cire.
Data presented in the report show that between 2020-2025, Tortola recorded 1,113 transactions valued at approximately $350 million, making it by far the territory’s most active and valuable property market over the review period. The island’s performance significantly outpaced all others, underscoring its central role in the BVI’s real estate sector.
Over the review period, Tortola’s annual sales volumes ranged roughly between $45 million and nearly $80 million, with annual sales reaching as much as $78 million in 2021, far exceeding comparable figures for other islands.
By comparison, Virgin Gorda recorded 138 transactions valued at approximately $114.5 million over the last five years, while Oil Nut Bay accounted for 32 transactions totalling approximately $199.4 million, reflecting the high-end nature of sales in that luxury development, despite the far fewer deals. Anegada saw 47 transactions worth around $5.1 million, and Jost Van Dyke recorded 28 transactions valued at $7.8 million.
Smaller markets remained niche but notable. Great Camanoe registered 13 transactions valued at $6.4 million, while Scrub Island recorded one transaction worth $1.5 million. Moskito Island also logged a single high-value transaction of $6 million, highlighting the impact that individual luxury sales can have on overall figures.
Sales to Belongers and non-Belongers
The report also illustrates the breakdown between sales to Belongers and non-Belongers, using pie charts to show that Tortola’s large transaction base includes a significant proportion of sales to Belongers, in contrast to some outer islands and resort-style developments where non-Belonger purchases dominate.
Smiths Gore & Cire note that Tortola’s position as the territory’s commercial and population centre continues to drive demand across residential, land, and mixed-use property types. The combination of higher transaction volumes and strong overall value reinforces the island’s status as the backbone of the BVI real estate market.
Overall, the 2025 BVI Property Review confirms that while luxury and boutique developments on smaller islands command impressive price tags, Tortola remains the undisputed top market for real estate sales in the British Virgin Islands, both in terms of volume and total value.
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we are being priced out of our own country, the cost of buying land on tortola is unreachable for most of our average citizens
they do realise Oil Nut Bay is part of Virgin Gorda???
Think it was intentional just to get the point across, buddy
Tortola sold about $350million of realestate yet the 9th District alone sold $319 million lol and people want to complain about the expats yet keep selling their lands so they can be buy things like the Joneses
Yet locals can’t get land. Something needs to be done about that
if bith your great gran parents are from the Virgin islands then your family would of had land, maybe just sold it off, but you can apply for Crown Land even if just your family is from here , just takes a while to get.
i apply for crown land when i was in highschool, i am out of school over 20 years now and never recieved a notice about it, its a joke
What needs to be done is PRIORITIES!!! What do you mean ‘something needs to be done about that’? Like someone should just ‘GIVE’ you land? WTF? If you want land, work and buy land, it’s not that hard!
Very true..the British Virgin Islands has prestige luxury homes but who can afford it? The Elites and expats or a very well paid individual while the rest of us sit and admire.
locals sitting on over 500k valued land and the banks wont give loan to build but others can come in with outside financing and build well sah
The 2025 Property Review quietly separates Oil Nut Bay from Virgin Gorda, and that alone signals the shift. The development is being treated as its own enclave and not as part of the island’s community.
The numbers make the point even clearer. Virgin Gorda recorded 138 transactions worth $114.5 M over five years. Oil Nut Bay, with only 32 transactions, somehow totals $199.4M which is an average above $6M per sale. That pricing effectively removes locals from the market and sets the stage for a gated, high net worth zone operating with its own gravity.
This is the first step in a familiar progression across the Caribbean
1. Price out the locals.
2. Consolidate ownership into a gated, high net worth enclave.
3. Operate with the autonomy and influence of a “state within a state.
By presenting Oil Nut Bay as a separate category, the report normalizes the idea that it is a distinct jurisdiction, socially, economically, and eventually politically. Meanwhile, the rest of Virgin Gorda is left with a fraction of the value and none of the leverage.
Tortola may dominate the overall market, but the real story is the rise of micro states on the outer islands, where non Belonger ownership defines the landscape more than the people who live there.
Oil Nut Bay isn’t just expensive. It is becoming a state within a state. And the data shows the transformation is already underway.
The government really sat back and let all this nonsense happen. smh
That is a problem where local government elected officials were sim[ply out-negotiated, out-smarted and out-whimed by experts who have been doing such for centuries.
Indeed, the time will come when the local will not be considered a part of the landscape, but as an inferior to be pushed back and isolated.
History does not lie. Palestine is a prime example of that.
You can’t have it both ways. You cannot simultaneously tout a territory’s high per-capita income on the global stage as evidence of sophistication and success, and then decry the very economic conditions that make that income possible. That’s a contradiction.
The dynamics being described—gated communities, high-net-worth enclaves, locals being priced out of certain neighborhoods—are not pathologies unique to the BVI. They are features of every affluent society. Show me a place where someone willingly pays $6 Million for a residence and the surrounding community remains an open, unrestricted commons. That place does not exist.
Even wealthy locals, tend to live in enclaves of one kind or another. This is , plainly and uncomfortably, a story about who has money and who does not. Pretending otherwise may feel morally satisfying, but it does not make it true.
Yes, there are areas—Oil Nut Bay being an obvious example—that will never be accessible to most people. But that is no more scandalous than the fact that most Americans will never own property on Madison Avenue NY. Affluence has always been spatially selective.
What matters is not whether every citizen can buy into the most exclusive developments, but whether there exists a meaningful supply of affordable property within the broader market. In the BVI, such property does exist. And there should be no feeling of entitlement that just because I was born here gives me the right to have access to high value property . That is not only unrealistic because it would discourage anyone from purchasing and property in the BVI but also goes against the principle of private property.
If you look at which Ministers hold land at Oil Nut you will understand how it becomes its own State.
Corruption is a marvelous thing for some people.
Which Minister owns land at ONB? You all just talk so much f**king nonsense!
DJ and the ONB team really marketed their “blue zone” utopia to HNW clients and prob recouped their initial purchase 100s of acres with selling a couple 1-5 acre plots.
all everybody have to do now is get a real estate trade licence because the 10% is sweet. I remember the days when what was considered a house spot in a typical neighborhood was $25K. Not now
I saw the Premier looking immaculate at His Christmas party in January although they begged him not to have a party he refused advice and said this party is long overdue. No real time investments or policies for the greater good of the Virgin Islands, he is certainly the Prodigal’s Son.
Soon Tortola is going to be overpopulated like St Thomas!!!!
I think the young Virgin Islanders who do not own a piece of land must focus on the goal of doing so. Land is epensive, but is worth the sacrifice. Lots of us before you had to sacrifice. We bought our land and paid it off deligently every month and then went in for a mortgage. It is important to build a good relationship with the bank, get you credit ratings up. If you are in a two income home, even better. That makes it even easier. Stop spending $200 on hair and Gucci and Louis Vitton and concentrate on a legacy for yourself and your children. Your little piece of the pie.
Most of you run to the bank to change a car every three years which makes no sense since the roads will break them in six months and make them old. Sacrifice to get what you want. Ask your family and friends if they know anyone selling land and that you are interested in a house spot. Then ask them to assist you with man power to build. Be proactive, it is the only way to get along in life. And while I have your attention, stop this shotting hard liquor bull crap and build a decent life for yourself and your children and most importantly, fear God for we reap what we sow. Live a clean life seeking God and his righteousness and everything else will be added. That’s what the Word says.
sage advice.its also the way the wealth is built in many other places including the US.