Nassau, The Bahamas
The Bahamas has no land register: title rests on a chain of recorded deeds in the Registrar General's Registry of Records, searchable online for about US$10 an hour, so Nassau's big owners are known from sale announcements and filings rather than from any public owner list.
9 buildings · 6 with an owner established · 23 sources · 5 tier B · 4 tier A · prepared 2026-10-20
Can you find out who owns it?
The Bahamas runs an unregistered land system on pre-1925 English conveyancing law: there is no state-guaranteed title, only a chain of deeds. Each conveyance is lodged for recording in the Registry of Records of Deeds and Documents (Registrar General's Department) under the Registration of Records Act, 1928, which gives it priority and 'put[s] the world on notice' of ownership. Anyone with a purchased code can search the online Registry, quoted at US$10 per 60 minutes, though older deeds are not all online; a title is proved by an attorney tracing deeds back 30 years to a 'good root' or a Crown grant. There is no bulk owner file, and the beneficial-ownership register is not public.
Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time
Cost of one title searchUS$10 per 60 minutes of online Registry of Records access (as quoted in the Legal 500 Bahamas Real Estate guide; the Registrar General's own pages refused automated access); recording a deed costs $4.50 per page
Bulk ownership dataNone published
Sale pricesNo transaction data published
Sites that forbid taking their data
- www.legal500.com — “[Subscribers may not] reproduce, distribute or make available any content from the Legal 500 Services to any third party (including clients), except with our prior written consent; ... commercially exploit or otherwise use the content as part of any external product, publication or service.”
- www.prnewswire.com — “[You may not] use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other manual or automatic device or process to access, search, download, retrieve, index or "data mine" any content or data from the Site”
- ewnews.com — “You may access this from Eye Witness News for your own personal use subjected to restrictions set in these Terms and Conditions. ... [You must not] Reproduce, duplicate or copy material from Eyewitness News”
- www.bisxbahamas.com — “a file, a portion of this website, or other document provided on this website may only be viewed or printed once for your own personal, noncommercial use. No one may make any use whatsoever of the contents of this website, whether for direct commercial or monetary gain or otherwise, without the prior written permission”
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantis Paradise Island (Royal Towers, Coral Towers, The Cove, The Reef) One Casino Drive, Paradise Island, Nassau 3,805 rooms; 60,000 sq ft casino (en.wikipedia infobox) |
Hotel | Brookfield Asset Management The Bahamas Investor (4 May 2012): the Government approved 'the sale of the Atlantis Paradise Island resort by Kerzner International Holdings to Brookfield Asset Management', in which 'substantially all of its Paradise Island assets, including the Atlantis Resorts & Casino and the One & Only Ocean Club', passed to Brookfield 'in exchange for Kerzner being released from approximately $175 million debt owed to Brookfield'. Conditions: 8,000 staff, $50 million a year invested. The Tribune (4 Feb 2020, s17): Brookfield had 'received a number of offers ... but have made a determination not to sell at this time'. Wikipedia still gives Brookfield as owner 'as of 2023'. No later sale was found. |
Public company | —B |
| Baha Mar (Grand Hyatt, SLS Baha Mar, Rosewood Baha Mar, casino) Cable Beach, West Bay Street, Nassau 1,000-acre resort; 2,200 rooms in three hotels, 284 residences, 100,000 sq ft casino (en.wikipedia) |
Hotel | Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) The Tribune (5 and 8 Dec 2017): 'BAHA Mar's sale to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) was completed by the December 1 closing deadline'; CTFE 'confirmed ... it had finally completed Baha Mar's purchase from the China Export-Import Bank's Perfect Luck Investments vehicle'. The $4.2 billion project had been through 'Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filings, hostile litigation, provisional liquidation, receivership and liquidation'. CTFE's Heads of Agreement committed it to 'acquisition consideration, pre-opening expenditures and operating losses and capital spending of at least $2 billion'. 'No purchase price was disclosed.' Hotel brands are operators, not owners. |
Private company | —A |
| British Colonial Hotel (formerly British Colonial Hilton) and the adjoining Pointe / Margaritaville Beach Resort 1 West Bay Street, downtown Nassau (site of Fort Nassau) 288 rooms on an 8-acre plot; 7 floors (en.wikipedia) · 7 floors |
Hotel | China State Construction Engineering Corporation English Wikipedia: 'The hotel was sold on October 24, 2014 to the China State Construction Engineering Corporation.' From 2016 to 2019 'the group constructed a $250 million complex, originally known as The Pointe, adjacent to the British Colonial, located on the hotel's former parking lot', now branded Margaritaville Beach Resort Nassau. The hotel closed on 15 Feb 2022, left the Hilton brand, and reopened as the British Colonial Hotel on 19 Dec 2023. No price is stated. CSCEC is a Chinese state-owned enterprise; which subsidiary holds title was not established. Wikipedia only, so tier B. |
Government | —B |
| Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS) Windsor Field, western New Providence 585,000 sq ft of terminal space after the US$409.5M redevelopment (en.wikipedia) |
Civic | Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD), owned by the Government of The Bahamas English Wikipedia's infobox gives the owner as 'Nassau Airport Development Company (Government of The Bahamas)' and the operator as Vantage Airport Group (the operator, not the owner). In 2006 NAD signed a 10-year management agreement with YVR Airport Services, the commercial arm of Vancouver Airport Authority, 'to manage, operate and redevelop the airport'. The three-stage redevelopment cost $409.5 million and produced 585,000 sq ft of terminal space. The airport handled about 4.1 million passengers in 2019 (infobox). NAD's own documents were not opened, so tier B. |
Government | —B |
| Nassau Cruise Port (Prince George Wharf) Prince George Wharf, Bay Street, downtown Nassau |
Civic | Not established a paid title search would answer it The Bahamas Investor (25 Feb 2019): Global Ports Holding's '$250 million winning proposal' would transform Prince George Wharf into a port and waterfront 'managed by Nassau Cruise Port Ltd (NCP), a specialty purpose vehicle'. Planned NCP ownership: 'Global Ports Holding will own 49 per cent of the company, while another 49 per cent will be owned by the Bahamas Investment Fund (BIF)', with 2 per cent for a charitable YES Foundation. That is the operating company holding a concession. Who holds title to the wharf land itself was not confirmed from a source we could open; the government statement that the port stays public is on a site that bars reproduction and returned HTTP 500. |
Not established | —A |
| Parliament Building (House of Assembly and Senate), Parliament Square Parliament Square, Bay Street, Nassau |
Civic | Government of The Bahamas English Wikipedia: the Parliament of The Bahamas 'currently sits at the Bahamian Parliament Building in Nassau, the national capital'; the statue of Queen Victoria in Parliament Square was put up after her death in 1901. No register entry or deed was opened. That the seat of the legislature belongs to the state is inferred from its function, not stated in a document, so tier B. |
Government | —B |
| Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre, Oakes Field, Nassau 15,023 seats, expandable to 23,000 (en.wikipedia) |
Civic | Government of The Bahamas (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture) English Wikipedia's infobox gives the owner as the 'Bahamas Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture'. The stadium seats 15,023 and 'can be expanded to hold 23,000'. The site is the former Oakes Field, which was Nassau's main airport until 1 Nov 1957 (Wikipedia, Lynden Pindling International Airport article). No ministry or register document was opened, so tier B. |
Government | —B |
| University of The Bahamas, Oakes Field Campus Oakes Field, University Drive, Nassau 60,000 sq ft university library opened 2011 (en.wikipedia) |
Institutional | Not established a paid title search would answer it English Wikipedia: the University of The Bahamas 'is the national public institution of higher education', with its main campus at Oakes Field in Nassau and the Grosvenor Close Campus (nursing and health sciences) also in Nassau. Its main library, opened in 2011, has 60,000 sq ft. Nothing we could open says whether the university corporation or the Crown holds title to the campus land, so the owner is left blank. |
Not established | —A |
| Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) Shirley Street, Nassau approx. 405 beds (en.wikipedia) |
Institutional | Not established the source would not open English Wikipedia: PMH 'is the largest hospital in The Bahamas', opened in 1952 as the Bahamas General Hospital and renamed in 1955, with 'approximately 405 beds'. The Public Hospitals Authority, created in July 1999 by the Public Hospitals Authority Act, 'is responsible for' PMH, Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre and Rand Memorial Hospital (Wikipedia, Public Hospitals Authority). Search snippets attribute to the Authority's own site a statement that the Act vested in it the ownership of the hospitals' land and buildings, but phabahamas.org now serves a placeholder page with no such text, and the statute host refused us, so the owner is left blank. |
Not established | —A |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
No official assessed values or sale prices are published for Nassau. Real property tax rolls are not open, and the 2003 Lands and Surveys paper says that 'Neither the Valuation Section nor the Department of Lands and Surveys systematically monitors property prices'. The figures below are the few stated values available, each dated.
Average cost of a home, New ProvidenceBSD 170,000
Stated by the housing minister, Tribune, 18 Oct 2024 (s20). BSD is at par with USD.
Oceanfront land, NW/NE New Providence and Paradise IslandUS$400–1,200 per sq ft; condos US$200–300 per sq ft
Land in The Bahamas, Department of Lands and Surveys paper, Feb 2003 (s22): such properties 'routinely sell for more than US $1 million'. Twenty years old.
Baha Mar project costUS$4.2 billion
The Tribune, 5 Dec 2017 (s3), describing the project CTFE bought; this is a project cost, not a sale price (none was disclosed).
Land in dispute (national)About 25% of all land
Land in The Bahamas, Feb 2003 (s22): 'It is estimated that twenty five percent (25%) of all land is in dispute and the main reason is the lack of clear documentation.'
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
The Crown is by far the largest landowner in The Bahamas. A 2019 Tribune column puts Crown land at 'approximately 70 percent of all land in The Bahamas', but gives no New Providence figure, and none was found from the Department of Lands and Surveys. The rest of the State's holding is spread across separate public bodies: the airport company, the Department of Housing, ministries and public corporations. A 2003 Department of Lands and Surveys paper says land records are kept apart by about seven agencies with no common property identifier, so no ranking of holders can be built from the public record. Private resort owners hold the largest private blocks. Who holds title to each parcel sits on the paid deeds registry, one deed at a time.
| Name | Type | Holding as the source states it |
|---|---|---|
| The Crown (Government of The Bahamas), administered by the Department of Lands and Surveys The Tribune opinion column (17 Jun 2019): 'Crown Land amounts to approximately 70 percent of all land in The Bahamas'; Crown land 'is managed by the Department of Land and Surveys'; more than 30,000 applications from Bahamians for Crown land were outstanding. The column cites no source for the 70% figure, so it is tier B and is not a New Providence figure. The 2003 Lands and Surveys paper (s22) lists the Department's Crown-land duties: managing disposable Crown land, collecting rents on Crown tenancies, and surveying and subdividing it. |
Government | About 70% of all land in The Bahamas (nationwide; undated estimate)B |
| Department of Housing (Government of The Bahamas) The Premier Estates I EIA, quoted by the Tribune (22 Jan 2026), describes '30 acres of government lands (Perpall Tract) vested in the Department of Housing'. The same report says 50 acres of the Perpall Tract wellfield area are planned for a new hospital. Its total land holding is not published. |
Government | 30 acres at Perpall Tract (Chippingham), vested in the DepartmentA |
| Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD), owned by the Government English Wikipedia names NAD (Government of The Bahamas) as the airport's owner and Vantage Airport Group as its operator. No acreage for the airport estate was found. Tier B: no NAD document was opened. |
Government | Lynden Pindling International Airport: two runways (3,358 m and 2,537 m), 585,000 sq ft of terminalsB |
| Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (Baha Mar) Wikipedia: Baha Mar is 'a 1,000-acre (400 ha) resort complex' owned by CTFE (s11). The Bahamas Investor (2010) described the original project as redeveloping '1,000 acres of the Cable Beach strip' (s24). CTFE completed the purchase in Dec 2017 (s3). No register extract was opened, and part of the acreage may be leased rather than freehold. |
Private company | 1,000-acre resort at Cable BeachA |
| Brookfield Asset Management (Atlantis, Paradise Island) Brookfield took 'substantially all' of Kerzner's Paradise Island assets in 2012 (s2). A search snippet put Atlantis at 560 acres, but that page was not opened, so no acreage is given here. |
Public company | Not quantified from an opened sourceA |
| Royal Caribbean Group (Royal Beach Club, Paradise Island) The Tribune (31 May 2023): 'Royal Caribbean assembled 13 of the 17 acres it plans to use for the Royal Beach Club by steadily acquiring multiple residential properties on western Paradise Island from their owners', and is leasing 'the four Crown Land acres'. Site clean-up was estimated at about $50m, with another $50m-plus for infrastructure. |
Public company | 13 privately owned acres plus 4 acres of Crown land on lease (17-acre site)A |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
New homes in New Providence are built in subdivisions on lots of about 5,000 sq ft, and the Government is the largest single developer: the Ministry of Housing and Urban Renewal and the Department of Housing build affordable subdivisions on government land, sometimes in public-private partnerships with private builders. The housing minister put the shortage at '12,000-plus' units in Oct 2024 and the average New Providence home at $170,000 (s20). No builder league table, housing-starts series or builder-level completions count is published. The figures below are each builder's own project counts as reported by the press, so they cannot be compared as market shares.
| Name | Type | Units as reported |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Housing and Urban Renewal / Department of Housing (Government of The Bahamas) The Tribune (22 Jan 2026), quoting the project's Environmental Impact Assessment: the Ministry 'proposes to develop a subdivision, and build 147 affordable residential houses on 30 acres of government lands (Perpall Tract) vested in the Department of Housing', in one phase on 50 ft by 100 ft lots, over about two years and at about $30m in total. This is a planned project, not completions. |
Government | 147 homes planned at Premier Estates I (Perpall Tract), about US$30MA |
| Arawak Homes The Tribune (22 Apr 2022): Arawak Homes was building the Pinecrest subdivision in southern New Providence 'in a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Government's Ministry of Housing'; 'Some 47 homes are due to be built in the first phase'. Its total output is not published. It is a privately held Bahamian company; its ownership was not established from a document. |
Private company | 47 homes in the first phase of Pinecrest (2022)A |
| Bahamas Property Fund Ltd The Tribune (4 Jul 2025): the BISX-listed fund is moving into residential development. Beaumont House downtown is being redeveloped at an all-in cost the manager put at $20m-$30m, and a 'beach club property' opposite Sandyport was bought for $4.7m to be 'got on to the residential market' as town homes or condos. No unit count has been set yet. |
REIT | Two residential redevelopments in progress (Beaumont House; site opposite Sandyport bought for $4.7m)A |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Nassau has no listed REIT sector to speak of and no published landlord league table. Its office stock is small and owned building by building by banks, private holding companies and the Government, which is itself both a large owner and a large tenant of leased private space. The one listed commercial landlord, the Bahamas Property Fund, publishes audited accounts through BISX. Everything else below comes from sourced press reports of company accounts. The resort owners (Brookfield at Atlantis, CTFE at Baha Mar, CSCEC downtown) hold by far the most commercial floor area, but they are hotel owners and appear in the marquee list instead.
| Name | Type | Holding as the source states it |
|---|---|---|
| Bahamas Property Fund Ltd (BISX: BPF) BISX lists BPF under 'Real Estate Investment Trusts'; its 'principal business activity ... is investing in commercial properties' (s16). The Tribune (4 Jul 2025), from the 2024 audited accounts: total assets $57.72m. Its first three investments are the Bahamas Financial Centre (Charlotte Street, downtown), One Marina Drive (Paradise Island) and Providence House (East Hill Street). It is building a $12m-$13m warehouse on Carmichael Road, redeveloping Beaumont House downtown, and paid $4.7m for a site opposite Sandyport. RF Bank & Trust is its manager (management, not ownership). In 2014 the Financial Centre was about 30% vacant (s14). |
REIT | Total assets US$57.72M at end-2024 (BSD at par), up 31.7% from US$43.817MA |
| Government of The Bahamas (as tenant of leased private office space) The Tribune (17 Dec 2014) shows the Government leasing private commercial buildings rather than only owning them: a Ministry of Agriculture lease filled the Island Traders Building on East Bay Street to 100%. A 2017 Tribune report on a private property group's accounts (not cited because its URL names an individual) described three plazas leased to the Government on 10-year terms. This entry records the Government as a large tenant, not as an owner of those buildings. |
Government | Not quantifiedA |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Title holder of Prince George Wharf land (Government or a port authority); a government statement that it stays publicly owned is on ewnews.com, which bars reproduction and returned HTTP 500.
- Whether the Public Hospitals Authority Act vested ownership of Princess Margaret Hospital's land and buildings in the Authority (a search snippet attributes this to phabahamas.org, which now serves a placeholder).
- Current Registrar General fee schedule for Registry of Records searches; www.bahamas.gov.bs and laws.bahamas.gov.bs both refused robots.txt (403). The US$10 per hour figure comes from the Legal 500 guide.
- Atlantis after 2023: a Bloomberg report (7 Sep 2023, cited on Wikipedia) said Brookfield was weighing a $2.5 billion sale; no completed sale was found in the Tribune or the Bahamas Investor.
- Which CSCEC subsidiary holds the British Colonial and Margaritaville title, and whether it has changed since 2014.
- Crown land acreage on New Providence specifically; a 2002 Lands and Surveys schedule (73% Crown nationally) is reported in the Nassau Guardian, whose robots.txt bars Claude agents.
- Owners of downtown Bay Street office stock and the main malls (Mall at Marathon, Harbour Bay); no filing or sourced sale was found within the search budget.
- Public Hospitals Authority, University of The Bahamas and Hotel Corporation (Tourism Development Corporation since 2018) land holdings.
- A private Nassau developer's 2015 accounts (Tribune, 16 Jun 2017) reported over $83M of assets, three government-leased plazas and 87 condo units sold at Venetian West. Left out because the article's URL names an individual.
§
Sources
- Bahamas: Real Estate — country-specific Q&A (Legal 500 Country Comparative Guides) — The Legal 500 · openA
- Government backs Atlantis sale — The Bahamas Investor · openA
- Baha Mar closing 'paves way' for more expansion (with 'Baha Mar sale meets December 1st deadline', 5 Dec 2017: https://www.tribune242.com/news/2017/dec/05/baha-mar-sale-meets-december-1st-deadline/) — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- British Colonial Hotel — Wikipedia · openB
- Lynden Pindling International Airport — Wikipedia · openB
- Global Ports Holding wins bid to run Nassau Cruise Port — The Bahamas Investor · openA
- Parliament of the Bahamas — Wikipedia · openB
- Thomas Robinson Stadium — Wikipedia · openB
- University of the Bahamas — Wikipedia · openA
- Atlantis Paradise Island — Wikipedia · openB
- Baha Mar — Wikipedia · openA
- Princess Margaret Hospital, Nassau; Public Hospitals Authority — Wikipedia · openA
- Fund targeting $20m growth after closing Sandyport deal — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- Top realtor eyes 50% vacancy rate slash — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- Bahamas Property Fund Ltd. (BPF) listing page — Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) · openA
- ATLANTIS SALE IS ABANDONED: Owners take resort off the market and now plan to reinvest — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- Gov't plans $30m investment on 147-unit affordable homes — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- Arawak Homes 'umbrage' on former-PM's criticism — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- Bahamas suffering '12,000 plus' housing unit shortage — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- ISLAND INSIGHTS: Crown Land – ownership and management (opinion column) — The Tribune (Nassau) · openB
- Land in The Bahamas (paper for the IDB/USAID/DFID Workshop on Land Policy, Administration and Management in the English-Speaking Caribbean), Department of Lands and Surveys — Government of The Bahamas, hosted by the Office of the Prime Minister · openA
- Half of Royal Caribbean's PI investment on site clean-up — The Tribune (Nassau) · openA
- Baha Mar deal is a first for the region — The Bahamas Investor · openA