How long must Eastern Caribbean citizenship property be held?
Edward Nguyen
A tropical seaside resort — illustration.
St Kitts and Nevis sets seven years; Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Lucia five; Dominica three, or five, and Grenada five, before the property can qualify another applicant. Early sale can cost citizenship.
St Kitts and Nevis bars resale of property bought for citizenship for seven years. Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Lucia set five years, in Antigua also until the development is substantially completed. Dominica sets three years, rising to five before the property can back another application, and Grenada bars it from backing another application for five years. In St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, an early sale can cost the seller their citizenship.
The holding periods side by side
| Country | Minimum investment | Holding period | Clock starts | Early sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Kitts and Nevis | USD 325,000 (approved development); USD 600,000 (single-family private home) | 7 years | Developer unit: the title document naming the main applicant as owner. Private route: the title document or the citizenship certificate, whichever is later | Liable to revocation of citizenship; disqualification; sale void |
| Dominica | USD 200,000 | 3 years; 5 years before the property can back another application | Grant of citizenship | Citizenship revoked; sale void or damages |
| Antigua and Barbuda | USD 300,000 | 5 years, and in any case not before the development is substantially completed | Not stated in the regulation; the citizenship unit’s page says the purchase. Resale to another applicant: five years from first use under the programme | Deprivation of citizenship and disqualification, unless Cabinet exempts |
| Grenada | USD 350,000 | 5 years before the property can qualify a new buyer | Grant of citizenship | No penalty found in the texts read |
| Saint Lucia | USD 300,000 (approved project; no new project approvals after 1 December 2025); USD 500,000 (built apartment or villa, from March 2026) | 5 years | Grant of citizenship | Not established |
The clocks start on different dates. All figures come from the countries’ laws, regulations and citizenship-unit pages, read on 6 October 2026. Government fees come on top of the minimum investment.
St Kitts and Nevis: seven years, and limits on the next buyer
The Citizenship by Substantial Investment Regulations 2024 say a unit in an approved development, bought under an application filed after 10 March 2023, may not be resold until seven years after the title document naming the main applicant as owner. Property bought on the private route may not be resold for seven years from the title document or the owner’s citizenship certificate, whichever is later. On The Legation Times’ reading, the words “not be resold” are not confined to buyers who are themselves applying for citizenship; no official interpretation was found.
A developer unit can be sold to a later applicant only if the owner applies successfully for it to be designated as approved private real estate. A condominium unit or share may be put forward for that designation if it has been sold once before under the programme and the resale period has passed; a single-family home carries no prior-sale condition. A property bought on the private route cannot be sold to another applicant unless Cabinet is satisfied that substantial further investment has been made. A seller in breach “shall be liable to” have citizenship revoked, is disqualified from further applications, and the sale is void. The minimum is USD 325,000 in an approved development or for a condominium unit on the private route, and USD 600,000 for a single-family home.
Dominica: three years, or five for the next applicant
Under S.R.O. 8 of 2024, real estate that qualified an applicant may not be resold until at least three years after the grant of citizenship, and it cannot support a later citizenship application until five years after that grant. A sale in breach leads to revocation of citizenship and possible disqualification, and the sale is void or damages are payable to the government. The minimum is USD 200,000 per main applicant in a Cabinet-approved project, and the government fee for this route is USD 75,000 for a main applicant alone. The resale wording has been the same since December 2023.
Antigua and Barbuda: five years, one resale to another applicant
The 2016 Regulations provide that a citizen who disposes of the property, or of shares in the company owning it, before five years or before the development is substantially completed is deprived of citizenship and disqualified from the programme, unless Cabinet exempts them. There is no sanction if the owner at the same time buys another approved project at the minimum price or makes another qualifying investment. The regulation does not say when the five years begin; the citizenship unit’s page says five years after the purchase, and it does not mention the completion condition or the once-only resale limit below.
An amendment made in July 2024 allows a property to be resold only once to qualify another applicant, and not until five years after it was first used under the programme. The same instrument set the minimum price at USD 300,000.
Grenada: five years before the next buyer qualifies
Grenada’s Citizenship by Investment Act was amended in 2019 to say that a person granted citizenship through an approved project “shall not dispose of the investment for the purposes of subsection (4) until the expiration of five years from the grant of his or her Citizenship”. Subsection (4) lets a buyer of that property apply for citizenship only after the five years. Whether the words also bar a sale to a buyer outside the programme is not settled by the text, and The Legation Times found no official guidance; nor did it find a penalty for an early sale. The rule does not apply to applications already before the committee when it took effect on 24 May 2019. The minimum is USD 350,000; a lower USD 270,000 applies per share only when two or more people buy a unit in a tourism-accommodation project.
Saint Lucia: five years, and no new project approvals
Saint Lucia’s regulations say an investment in an approved real estate project “shall not be sold or transferred for a period of at least five years after the granting of citizenship”. The minimum has been USD 300,000 since 1 July 2024. A March 2026 amendment closed applications to approve new real estate projects after 1 December 2025 and added a route for a “built real estate project”, an apartment or a villa, at USD 500,000, with the same five-year bar. The texts The Legation Times read do not say whether a resold property can qualify a second applicant, or what follows an early sale.
The regional floor
A memorandum of agreement dated 20 March 2024, signed by four of the countries in March and by Saint Lucia in June, set a minimum investment of USD 200,000 by 30 June 2024, counted net of commissions; the memorandum states that it creates no legal obligations. A regional regulator, the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority, was agreed in September 2025. The enabling Acts in St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda take effect on dates still to be fixed by order; Dominica’s parliament passed its bill in October 2025, and The Legation Times did not establish Saint Lucia’s position. On 28 September 2026 the St Kitts and Nevis citizenship unit said the framework “will take effect only once the Authority has been operationalised” and a commencement date agreed. The September 2025 announcement repeated a region-wide USD 200,000 minimum; the parts of the agreement The Legation Times read set no real-estate-specific price or holding rule and leave developer thresholds to the authority’s council.
What this article does not establish
Stamp duty and other purchase costs; whether Grenada’s rule also bars a sale to a buyer outside the programme; whether Saint Lucia allows a resold property to qualify a second applicant, and whether individuals can still apply under projects approved before December 2025; what follows an early sale in Grenada and Saint Lucia; when Antigua and Barbuda’s five years start under the regulation itself; how Dominica dates the grant of citizenship; and whether any amendment after the dates above, including 2026 gazettes in St Kitts and Nevis, has changed these rules.
Related programmes
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