• On-site News • 2 June 2015
Traffic through the resort in May slowed considerably from April. During the second week of May, a corporate group bought-out the entire resort, resulting in a very slow week for the real estate office as the resort was closed to all outside visitors. Throughout the rest of May the resort primarily hosted group bookings, which typically generate little, if any, interest in real estate.
The impact on our office was dramatic, as walk-in traffic fell considerably in May. Every morning we open the office at 8am and try to spend time in the lobby mingling with guests. This effort did little to stimulate walk-ins or generate conversations. Our office conducted a few site tours and we have welcomed ten guests throughout the month.
Leads generated via the Four Seasons website in May were equal to the traffic received in April. We typically respond to leads in less than two hours of receipt. At least 30% of the leads responded to our initial email and began conversations with us. Web generated leads are typically very engaging, and this past Spring one put a villa under contract!
Citizenship purchases within the Federation have slowed considerably, as new programs are strongly competing against St. Kitts and Nevis. Application processing times have increased and the Canadian Visa issue has scared away buyers who fear the potential impact to other programs. We continue to actively meet with leadership at CIU and we applaud their efforts to improve processing times and clear-out the backlog.
We will continue to monitor progress at CIU and work towards helping everyone who has a home under contract with a citizenship buyer to close.
Given this environment we are increasing our efforts to court lifestyle buyers through our partnership with Knight Frank and Doulgas Elliman. We have completed the initial phase of our launch and we are starting to see our listings added to their websites. Just this morning Knight Frank published listings for two of our homes:
Villa 1719 – http://search.knightfrank.com/RSI150524
Villa 1412 – http://search.knightfrank.com/RSI150520
There is a world of buyers out there and we believe Knight Frank and Douglas Elliman can introduce them to you.
Resort traffic is expected to remain light through the beginning of the month with an increase towards the end, with the expectation of a busier July. Our website is nearing completion and we expect to be more pro-active in our email marketing efforts.
FSRE closed the sale of Villa 1431 yesterday, and we expect to have two more closings within the week! We are acting as the listing and selling agent in all transactions!
Sincerely,
Eric Johnson
Director – Sales & Marketing
Four Seasons Resort Estates – Nevis
Office 869-469-1199
Mobile 869-662-0106
