There’s some great things about owning land in the USVI. The land laws are pretty much the same as in the US, so you don’t have to worry about weird arrangements like leaseholds and such. The taxes for residential property are very low compared to Texas at least, a little less than .4% assessed value/year. And developed land is actually taxed at a lower rate than undeveloped land. On the other hand, God help you if you own a business property. That rate is about 5 times as much as the residential rate, and time shares are even higher. The USVI government knows where the money is.
Some downsides to buying property in the USVI are these: Mortgages and Permits. The only way to get a mortgage is to go to one of the three banks that operate in the Territory. Of the three, only one, Banco Popular will fund a mortgage on undeveloped land. The closing process is straightforward for the most part. You have to get some proof that the property taxes have been paid for the last 10 years and a few other strange documents. Most likely it would be worth hiring a local lawyer to handle the closing. The biggest pain we had was the Bank. We have excellent credit and quite a few assets compared to what we were trying to borrow. The bank essentially requested every statement I had multiple times. This meant mailing 50 plus pages of paper to them. In the end the closing took almost three months mainly due to delays associated with the Bank. From talking to other people about this the other Banks are just the same. The next problem is actually getting permission to build on your land. The DPNR (Department of Natural Resources) handles all building permits in the USVI. In addition to this, a subset of this organization CZM (Coastal Zone Management) handles all cases that are within one mile of the coast. So first you have to apply to the CZM for a use/environmental permit, and then to the DPNR to get the building permit.
Here in Central Texas I’ve built a lot of stuff on our farm. In my town I take a crudely drawn elevation plan to the building inspector’s office. Usually they call me the next day to pick up the building permit. I do all the work myself on the building, then the building inspector comes out to inspect and sign off the permit. That was kind of what I was expecting in the USVI. Just after we bought the property I called the DPNR and spoke to the Director himself for 10 minutes. After that call I figured out that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore…