By James Whitfield · Caribbean & Island Residences, Nassau · September 2026
The Bahamas is straightforward to buy into and harder to belong to than most buyers expect. There is no income tax, no capital gains tax and no inheritance tax; there is also no citizenship-by-investment programme, and no amount of property will produce a Bahamian passport. What money buys is residency, and the price of that went up sharply in January 2025.
What changed, and by how much
If you are working from guidance published before 2025 — including our own, until today — the numbers you have are wrong:
Previously published
Current
Economic permanent residence
$500,000 for accelerated consideration
$1,000,000 minimum, held at least 10 years
Government fee, permanent residence
$10,000, plus $100 per dependant
$15,000, plus $300 per endorsement
Annual residence permit
B$1,000, plus B$25 per dependant
$3,000, plus $300 per dependant
Landholding without prior approval
Up to 5 acres
Under 2 contiguous acres, residential, and subject to conditions
Tax on the conveyance
Stamp tax 2% rising to 10%, with relief under $250,000
VAT at 10% for non-Bahamians; the relief is for Bahamians only
Buying: registration or permit
Foreign ownership is governed by the International Persons Landholding Act, and the first question is which of two routes you fall into.
A Certificate of Registration, applied for after closing, covers a permanent resident, or a first-time non-Bahamian buyer acquiring residential property. It does not apply where the purchase would leave you owning two or more contiguous acres.
A Permit, which must be obtained before closing, is required for a second or subsequent non-Bahamian purchase, and for investment or commercial acquisitions. The consequence of getting this wrong is not a penalty: an acquisition that required a permit and did not have one is null and void. Each costs $1,000.
Since 1 July 2025 a permit also carries a clock. It expires if the holder fails, within 180 days, to pay the VAT on the conveyance and notify the Chief Valuation Officer. Where the land has not been acquired within 180 days of grant, the permit extends automatically for a further 180 days provided a Permit Extension Notice and the fee reach the Investments Board at least 30 days before expiry. No permit may be extended more than twice.
What the purchase actually costs
The single most expensive correction on this page. Our 2014 guide described a stamp tax starting at 2% and reaching 10% only above $250,000, and a first-time buyer exemption below $250,000. Stamp duty on conveyances has since been replaced by VAT, the graduated bands apply to Bahamian buyers, and the first-home concession is a Bahamian concession.
A non-Bahamian buyer pays VAT at 10% on the conveyance, flat, whatever the price. On a $900,000 house that is $90,000, where our old page implied a graduated figure and a possible exemption. Add legal fees, customarily around 2.5% of the price plus VAT on the fee, and recording charges. VAT on mortgages and debentures runs at 1% of the sum secured. The VAT falls due within 180 days of execution.
Real property tax is then annual, and every owner is liable unless exempted — the exemptions run to Bahamians owning vacant land or land on a Family Island, not to foreign owners. Condominium-hotel units are taxed at 75% of the residential rate, capped at $150,000 a unit, and the tax is waived where net VAT from rentals exceeds it.
Residency: three doors, and what is behind each
An Annual Residence Permit lets a non-Bahamian reside on a yearly basis. The general resident fee is $3,000 a year or any part of a year, with dependants at $300. It renews annually and confers nothing permanent.
A Home Owner’s Residence Card is the instrument most second-home buyers actually use. It attaches to ownership, is renewable, and facilitates entry and residence for the owner and immediate family for its validity. It is applied for through the Director of Immigration. The Immigration Department’s published fee scale does not list a figure for it, so ask.
Permanent Residence is the substantive status, and the economic route is now the one that has moved. The Department lists a minimum investment of $1.0 million, confined to Bahamian real estate or Zero Coupon Bonds issued by the Central Bank, and held for at least ten years. That last condition is the part worth pausing on: this is not a purchase, it is a ten-year lock-up. The processing fee is $200; the certificate fee is $15,000, with endorsements for spouse and dependants at $300 each.
There are nine other eligibility categories, most of them long-service routes — spouses of Bahamians after five years of marriage, and police officers, teachers, nurses, clergy and doctors with ten or twenty years of service. The Department publishes no processing time.
Citizenship: what property cannot buy
The Bahamas does not sell citizenship. Our 2014 page on the subject has been withdrawn rather than updated, for two reasons: it was written in mangled English that we should not have published, and its account of who acquires citizenship by descent has since been overtaken by litigation.
The position in outline. Naturalisation is possible after a substantial period of lawful permanent residence, at the discretion of the authorities. Citizenship by descent and by marriage is governed by Articles 8 and 10 of the Constitution, which are gendered: the foreign spouse of a Bahamian man may apply through marriage; the foreign spouse of a Bahamian woman may not. A 2016 referendum to change that was defeated at the polls.
The courts have moved where the referendum did not. In a judgment delivered on 4 May 2023, the Privy Council upheld the Court of Appeal and confirmed that a person born in The Bahamas to a Bahamian father and an unmarried non-Bahamian mother is a Bahamian citizen — a ruling reported to affect around 1,400 pending applicants.
This is a contested and personal area of law and we are not going to summarise it into a checklist. Anyone whose claim runs through descent or marriage should take Bahamian counsel.
A word about the register this page used to strike
The 2014 version of this guide opened by recommending the Bahamas as offering “the tax advantages of Dubai while living in Florida”, alongside “the company of many tax exiles”. That is brochure copy, and it is not the register this publication should have been writing in. The jurisdiction has real advantages and they do not need selling; what a buyer needs is the number they will be asked to pay, which is what this page now carries.
Sources
Bahamas Department of Immigration — Permanent Residence eligibility and the $1.0 million economic investment threshold; published immigration fee scale.
International Persons Landholding Act, including the amendment in force from 1 July 2025 on permit expiry and extension.
Published legal guidance on Bahamian real estate, for VAT on conveyance, real property tax and the registration/permit distinction.
Privy Council judgment of 4 May 2023 on citizenship of children born in The Bahamas to unmarried parents.
Holiday Home Times, original reporting, 22 June 2014, 2 July 2014 and 7 September 2019, now consolidated into this page.
This is journalism, not legal or tax advice. Bahamian government fees are set by the Budget and change. Instruct a Bahamian attorney before contracting — and, if you intend to let the property, before closing rather than after.
You are reading about The Bahamas. Foreign-ownership rules, purchase taxes and letting licences there move more often than buyers expect, and the change usually lands after you have committed. We will email you when they do.
