Real Estate in Jamaica - NYTimes.com This airy five-bedroom house, called Tradewinds for the breezes that sweep through it, is built of concrete with cedar shingles in the tradition of West Indian Colonial architecture. It has a 1,200-square-foot veranda, and the third and top floor has a terrace overlooking an 18-hole championship golf course and the Caribbean. Spanning 6,000 square feet - and with tray ceilings, crown molding and hardwood floors throughout - it went up in 1992 on about an acre landscaped with royal palms and bougainvillea. The property, which also has a one-bedroom guest cottage, is part of the exclusive Spring Farm subdivision in Montego Bay on Jamaica's northwest coast. The street entrance, flanked by lion statues on pedestals and white pillars, is on the third floor. A central hallway runs the length of the villa, toward French doors that open onto the terrace overlooking the golf course. On the left side of the hall are two bedrooms, each with an en-suite bathroom that has a tub; on the right is the master suite, where a wall of casement windows looks out on lush grounds, and French doors open to the terrace. The 500-square-foot master bath has a marble-tiled tub and a large walk-in shower, as well as a big closet. One of the other two bedrooms also opens to the terrace. The living and dining areas, with French doors opening to the covered veranda, are down a flight of stairs in the central hallway. The formal dining space and the kitchen are to the left of the staircase; the living room, a study and a full bath are to the right. The kitchen has handmade cedar cabinets and countertops of granite and Corian. The veranda has its own dining and sitting areas, as well as a built-in bar. The first floor has two one-bedroom suites, one for guests and the other for staff. Most rooms have wall-mounted air-conditioners. Off the veranda is a small oval-shaped swimming pool with a Caribbean view. The lot is terraced, with two large wooden decks serving as viewing platforms for the Half Moon golf course, one of Jamaica's most prestigious. Several other golf courses are within a half hour's drive, among them Cinnamon Hill and White Witch, said Nicola Delapenha, a sales associate with Coldwell Banker Jamaica Realty, which has the listing. "This house is ideally located to be a golfer's paradise, if that's really your thing," she said. Also nearby is the Half Moon Resort, which has a pristine beach and the well-known Sugar Mill restaurant among others, as well as a new shopping center with a supermarket, Ms. Delapenha said. The international airport in Montego Bay, the fourth most populous city in Jamaica with about 97,000 residents, is a 15-minute drive. The financial crisis thinned the ranks of foreign buyers in Jamaica, while fraudulent investment schemes devastated those seeking to buy locally, said Deborah Cumming, the managing director of Century 21 Heave-Ho Properties. The investment schemes, set in motion before the financial crisis, made many Jamaicans wealthy almost overnight and fueled a real estate boom that then went bust, Ms. Cumming said. "The money dried up, and a lot of people weren't able to complete their real estate transactions," she said. From mid-2008 to 2010, some prices dropped by more than 50 percent, Ms. Cumming said. Inexpensive and midprice houses have largely rebounded, but luxury sales continue to lag, making it a buyers" market, brokers said. "What we're finding," said Anya Levy, a certified residential specialist and broker with Re/Max Elite, "is the people who usually have a second home, a vacation home, they can't afford it anymore, so they're selling, and because there's so few buyers out there, you can get a great deal now on a villa." Vacation homes range from about $250,000, for beachfront apartments, to $3 million for villas, while the bulk of the properties are about $1.5 million, Ms. Cumming said. Jamaica had one of the highest homicide rates in the world in 2009, but numbers improved by 33 percent in 2011 because of tougher law enforcement measures. Crime tends to be concentrated around Jamaica's capital, Kingston, and nearby St. Andrew Parish, more than 100 miles from the gated subdivisions and communities of Montego Bay on the north coast, which is favored by second-home owners. Yet Jamaica's reputation for crime, coupled with its lack of tax-haven status or sophisticated tourism development, has kept home prices lower than those found in islands like the Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados or the Caymans, Ms. Levy said. Properties listed for $1 million to $3 million in Jamaica might sell for $8 million to $10 million on some Caribbean islands, Ms. Delapenha said. The majority of foreign buyers in Jamaica are from the United States and Canada, though English-speaking European buyers are also well represented, agents said. There are no restrictions on foreign buyers in Jamaica. Buyers must use a local lawyer to represent them and can expect to pay anywhere from 4 to 5 percent of the sale price in lawyer's fees, stamp duty, registration and other fees, including mortgage origination fees if a buyer takes out a loan. Because sales are sluggish, the fees for lawyers and mortgages are now highly negotiable, Ms. Cumming said. Interest rates for mortgages have also dropped substantially in the past year, making it an especially good time to buy, she said. "About a year ago," she said, "our interest rates were at 16 to 18 percent. Now you can get a mortgage for 9 percent or even less, maybe 6 percent, if you take the mortgage in U.S. dollars. Jamaican Ministry of Tourism: Tourismja.com Realtors Association of Jamaica: Realtorjamaica.com Real Estate Board of Jamaica: Reb.gov.jm English, Jamaican patois; Jamaican dollar (1 JMD = $0.01) Annual property taxes on this home are 25,000 Jamaican dollars. Nicola Delapenha, Coldwell Banker Jamaica Realty, 011-876-946-0007; Cbjamaica.com