The prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis has refused to engage in a war of words with Antigua & Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, who, yesterday, criticised the St Kitts/Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) calling it “questionable”.
Asked to comment, Dr Timothy Harris told OBSERVER media, “I don’t know why he would say that and I do not want to go for a tit-for-tat with my colleague prime minister,” adding that he doesn’t understand the basis for Browne’s statement.
The SKN leader was referring to comments made by the Antigua & Barbuda PM during an appearance on OBSERVER AM on Tuesday.
In response to claims made by the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) Public Relations Officer, Damani Tabor, who stated that Antigua’s CIP programme was not as beneficial to its economy as was the St Kitts and Nevis’ version due to a lack of real estate development, Browne said that many of the investors benefiting from the St Kitts/Nevis CIP, had in fact, been turned away from Antigua.
“I am fully aware that there are a number of speculators operating within St Kitts. Many of them came here and tried to do the same thing and we sent them away,” he told OBSERVER media, while at the same time admitting that having more residential or real estate developments would be more lucrative for Antigua & Barbuda.
“What they have done in St Kitts is they have literally built apartments funded by CIP money. So they might build an apartment for US $100,000; they charge their client US $500,000 for it — they get a profit of $400,000 US for it and the person gets a unit. Many of them, when they come to St Kitts and they see the unit, they are very disappointed based on what they paid.”
According to the St Kitts Nevis CIP website, investors must finance a designated real estate project valued at a minimum of US $400,000 to qualify for citizenship under the real estate option. Only villas and condominium units from an approved developer can qualify for citizenship.
Browne said the deal is a raw one for local real estate developers.