True Blue, Grenada: two peninsulas, two completely different buys

Hold a hand out flat, palm down, and look at the fingers. That is the south coast of Grenada. A run of peninsulas pushing out into the water, each with its own character, its own prices, and its own idea of what living there means.

True Blue is two of those fingers, not one. That distinction is the most useful thing I can tell anyone who has just searched for True Blue, because the two sides are so different from one another that buying on the wrong one is a real mistake, and people make it.

Already looking at something here? Send it over and we will tell you which side it sits on. Talk to Tandem.

Where True Blue sits on the south coast

Start at the western end. Point Salines is the airport, and there is a good residential community around it along with a couple of the main hotels. Move east along the coast and the next peninsula is True Blue, which is where the two fingers come in.

Carry on east from there and the coast runs like this:

• Lance aux Epines. One of the larger residential peninsulas, heavy with private homes. Some student accommodation has appeared, but family houses still dominate it.
• Mount Hartman. Still largely undeveloped.
• Egmont. Home to Le Phare Bleu, a marina with a growing number of homes, apartments and condominiums, some of them available to rent.
• Fort Jeudy. A developed residential community now, with a genuine mix of Grenadians, expats and people who have come here to stay.
• Westerhall. The same, and the furthest east of the group.

Everyone who lives on this coast knows that running order by heart. It is the mental map you need before any conversation about where to buy makes sense.

There are two True Blues, and they want different buyers

The western finger has been about St. George’s University for close to 50 years. The eastern finger has been about families.

That is the whole article in a sentence. Everything below is the detail.

The west side is a university town, and it behaves like one

St. George’s University sits on the western peninsula, and a large student population comes with it. The campus is the anchor, and the apartment blocks built to house those students have grown taller and bigger with each passing year. The area has developed heavily and it is now close to saturation.

What has grown up around all of that is a proper little economy. Restaurants with food from most places you can name, a few bars, and a decent run of grocery and convenience stores. On the food in particular, the range surprises people who expect a small island to mean a small menu:

• Indian
• Greek
• Kosher
• Chinese
• Japanese, including sushi

There is also a marina under construction on this side, which will change the feel of the waterfront again once it opens.

Living there is a different question from investing there. It is student dominant, and it behaves that way. Evenings can be rowdy, and when they are not rowdy they are simply busy, because something is always happening. It is a very good place to go to school. For most families it is not the place to raise children, unless the university is the reason you are on the island in the first place.

I would make one exception to that. A younger family who actively want noise, movement and people around them can be happy on the west side, and some are. Just go in knowing what you are choosing.

Not sure which of the two you would actually want to live in? That is a 20-minute conversation, not a research project. Talk to Tandem.

The east side is residential, quiet, and rarely for sale

Cross to the eastern finger and the character changes completely.

It is still local and residential. Nice houses, some of them quite expensive, a few small bays and beaches, and a neighbourhood feel that the west side lost some time ago. The Chinese residence attached to the Chinese Embassy is here, which tells you something about how the area is regarded.

So far it has escaped the apartment buildings, and I expect it will keep escaping them, because it is already built out with very little vacant land left to work with.

The flip side of that is supply. Houses on the eastern peninsula do not come up often. They tend to belong to families who have been here for years, sometimes generations, and those properties change hands rarely and quietly. When one does come up, it usually moves before it is ever advertised. That is true across much of Grenada, and it is why so much of the best property here never reaches the open market.

How True Blue compares with the rest of the coast

For a family home, the traditional choices on this coast are Lance aux Epines, Grand Anse near the main beach, Westerhall and Fort Jeudy. Those are where Grenadian families, expats and new arrivals have historically settled, and they are still the obvious places to look.

True Blue East belongs in that conversation. It genuinely compares with all four. The condition attached is that you have to be comfortable with a far larger student population nearby than you would find in Westerhall or Fort Jeudy.

Lance aux Epines is the closest comparison, and it is drifting slightly in the same direction. Some student accommodation has arrived there too, though private homes still set the tone. Fort Jeudy and Westerhall are more mixed: traditional Grenadian houses alongside a rising number of apartment buildings.

For the wider picture on buying here from overseas, the process and the costs, see our guide to buying property in Grenada.

Buying for income, or buying for a life

This is the decision that sorts people into one peninsula or the other, and it is worth being blunt about it.

If you want rental income, the west side is where to look. An apartment or condominium, a share in a business running a condominium building, a straightforward rental play aimed at the university population. The demand is built in and it renews itself every academic year.

Hideaway at True Blue is the development we talk about most on that side. It is one of our favourites under the citizenship by investment programme, it is complete and operating, and it is owned and run by a Grenadian who has lived here most of his life and built a serious record as an entrepreneur. We think he is a credible person to invest alongside, which is not something we say about every developer.

It also does something very few developments here can. Because it is finished and already earning, the developer pays owners five years’ rent up front, shortly after closing, and buys the unit back at fair market value when the five years are up. One thing to know before you fall for it, though: you cannot stay there yourself. It is full of students all year, which is exactly why it works. Our full guide to Hideaway covers the prices, the two ownership options and the buy-back in detail.

If you want a second home, go east. A house on the eastern peninsula is a lovely thing to own and a lovely place to spend time. You will wait longer for the right one, and you will probably hear about it through a person rather than a portal, but they do come up and we can help you find one.

The honest downsides

Every area has them, and True Blue has three worth naming.

The west side is close to saturation. The land has largely been used, the buildings have gone up, and anyone imagining a quiet spot near the university has missed the last 20 years.

It is loud, at least some of the time. A student town in the evening is a student town in the evening, and no amount of brochure language changes that.

And plots are getting hard to find. There is still land for sale on the west side if you want to build, whether that is residential, retail, a restaurant or a bar aimed at the student market. But it is harder to get hold of every year and the price per square foot has risen significantly.

I would not let the price put you off on its own. If you are buying into the student economy, the returns available can justify a higher entry price per square foot. Work the numbers on what the thing earns rather than what the dirt costs.

If citizenship is the actual reason you are reading this

Some people arrive at True Blue through property and some arrive through the citizenship by investment programme. If it is the second, the answer is reasonably simple.

For a citizenship application on this peninsula, Hideaway is what we would point you towards. It is approved, it is built, and it sits in the strongest rental catchment on the island. A shareholding starts at the $270,000 government minimum, and whole apartments start at $400,000. We would rather put a family into something finished and earning than into something still being drawn.

How it compares with the other approved developments is in our look at Grenada’s approved citizenship projects.

For how the programme itself works, our citizenship by investment page covers the routes, the thresholds and the five-year hold in plain terms.

This is a small island, and we know who is selling

Here is the part that does not show up in a search result.

Most of what matters about buying in True Blue is not published anywhere. Which side of the peninsula a listing is really on. Whether the quiet house on the east is about to come up because the family has decided to sell. Which building on the west is well run and which one is not. What a plot actually trades for, as opposed to what it is advertised at.

We live here. We know the owners, the developers and the agents, and in a lot of cases we know what is coming before it is on a website. You do not need to build that picture yourself, and you would struggle to from 4,000 miles away. Tell us what you are trying to end up with and we will do the finding, the filtering and the awkward questions, then come back to you with the three or four things worth your attention.

That is the job. It is why we are on the island rather than in an office somewhere else selling Grenada from a brochure.

Where to start

If you want an investment or a business on this peninsula, look west. If you want a private community and a family home, look east, or at one of the other residential areas along the coast. If citizenship is the driver, Hideaway is the one we would put in front of you first.

Talk to Tandem and tell us your goals. We will tell you honestly if True Blue is the answer for you, because sometimes it is, and there are other peninsulas on this coast. You can also reach us on WhatsApp only or through our Contact page.