By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian real estate market has “not quite turned the corner” and is splitting into two, Tribune Business was told yesterday, with the number of recorded mortgages down 17.3 per cent year-over-year for the 2013 first half.

Lionel Haven, chief operating officer at Computitle, the title-based services provider, said data obtained from the Registrar General’s Deeds and Documents section showed that while the high-end segment was showing signs of improvement, the mid and lower ends of the Bahamian real estate market continued to struggle.

The data culled by Computitle, which was supplied to Tribune Business, shows that the number of mortgages recorded at the Registrar General’s Department in the six months to end-June 2013 dropped to 1,158 from 1,401 the year before.

The number of total recorded conveyances was also down, dropping 16.5 per cent to 2,046 compared to 2,421 the year before.

However, pointing to signs of a high-end real estate revival, Mr Haven pointed out that the number of conveyances recorded for real estate transactions worth $5 million -plus had increased year-over-year from seven to nine. And the total property value involved had risen from $52.636 million in the 2012 first half to $74.4 million this year.

The data supplied by Computitle backs what several realtors had told Tribune Business earlier this year, namely that they were seeing a recovery in the high-end segment of the Bahamian market.

Buyers in this sector are often wealthy enough to conclude all-cash purchases, enabling them to escape an increasing obstacle for Bahamians - the need to obtain mortgage financing.

“It doesn’t appear as if there is any significant positive trend just yet,” Mr Haven told Tribune Business. “There’s nothing as yet, but hope springs eternal.

“We’ve seen an increase in the higher-end market, while there was a decrease in the lower end of the market. Many factors are involved in that.”

And he added: “It all shows the market has not quite turned the corner yet. But the interesting thing, in terms of the conveyances, is that the numbers are less but the dollar value for the properties being sold is pretty much the same.”

Mr Haven’s assessment was largely backed by Zack Bonczek, director of sales and marketing for the $200 million Palm Cay project, who said “the buzz on the street” indicated that market activity was picking up.

“There’s certainly been an increased interest in investing, but that hasn’t translated into an increased amount of deposit cheques being written,” Mr Bonczek said.

“But we’ve got to run before we can walk. Certainly, there’s signs of an improved economy, improved real estate market. The Bahamas is still a very attractive place to invest. Things are improving, but it’s not quite what we want to see yet.”

The total value of conveyancings recorded at the Registrar General’s Department during the 2013 first half was essentially flat year-over-year, standing at $381356 million compared to $392.108 million the year before.

The major decrease, though, was in the total value of mortgages being registered. This dropped almost 24 per cent, from $194.983 million in 2012 to $148.94 million this year, indicating the increased difficulty home buyers are having in obtaining mortgage financing.

The effects are most pronounced for properties valued at $500,000 or below. For those prices between $250,000 and $500,000, the number of conveyances recorded during the 2013 first half dropped from 140 to 118 year-over-year.

When it came to that segment’s mortgage recordings, these fell by more than 25 per cent to 91, with the total value of real estate involved also declining from $40.865 million to $29.904 million.

It was the same story in both the $100,000 to $250,000, and ‘below $100,0000 price point segments, where both the number of conveyancings and mortgages recorded, and their collective values, were down year-over-year.

In the latter bracket, total conveyances recorded fell by 16.5 per cent, to 1,485 from 1,779, while mortgages were off 6.8 per cent at 696 compared to 747.

As for the $100,000 to $250,000 price bracket, total conveyancings were down almost 17 per cent at 276, while recorded mortgages fell 31.3 per cent to 339, compared to 494 the year before.

“There’s no real upswing in activity in comparison to last year,” Mr Haven told Tribune Business. “As a matter of fact, the numbers are slightly down.

“It’s showing there’s no real considerable upswing in activity. What’s interesting in terms of the numbers, is that conveyances are down, but the difference in dollar value is not very significant. That speaks to the fact that the dollar value of what is being sold is up there.

“The adjustments that the bankers are making to their policies based on some of the conversations they’ve been having regarding government’s legislative plans, some of that is having an impact as well.”

Mr Haven added that Abaco’s conveyance and mortgage figures were receiving a boost from the Baker’s Bay project and other high-end developments on the island.

And, prior to 2010, the overall conveyancing and mortgage numbers had been boosted by deed recordings related to the Harbourside timeshare complex on Paradise Island - a project whose sales have now slowed down.