Cayman Islands Residential Property Price Index (RPPI): Understanding Property Trends and Affordability

Key takeaways about the Cayman Islands’ Residential Property Price Index (RPPI):

• District indexes: Seven Mile Beach, George Town, West Bay, and Other Cayman Islands, which include Bodden Town, East End, North Side, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.*
• Update schedule: George Town is published quarterly. The national index, Seven Mile Beach, West Bay, and Other Cayman Islands are published annually when transaction volumes support reliable estimates.
• Headline result: Sustained condominium price growth across all analytical districts since 2015.
• Data source: Stamp duty records from the Lands and Survey Department.
• Base year: 2015 equals 100; Published series 2015–2024.
• Scope: Condominiums only. Houses and other property types will be added when data allow.
• Method: Hedonic regression with constant-quality adjustments to show pure price change.
• The RPPI measures: Price movement only, not causes, valuations, renovation gains, or rent levels.
• Uses: Evidence for housing policy, lending oversight, planning, and public understanding.

* Seven Mile Beach is not an administrative district, it is an analytical district defined geospatially along the west of West Bay Road and is used as a proxy for foreign-financed transactions.

Introduction

The introduction of the Cayman Islands Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) provides an official, consistent measure of how the country understands its housing market. Developed by the Lands and Survey Department with technical assistance from the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the RPPI provides the first statistically verified measure of how residential property values change over time.

The index was officially launched on September 25, 2025, at the RICS Real Estate and Construction Forum held at the Grand Cayman Marriott Resort, with formal government announcement following on September 30, 2025.

For decades, conversations about Cayman’s housing trends relied on asking prices, individual appraisals, or market perception. None offered a consistent or comparable record of actual sales. The RPPI fills this long-standing gap by converting verified stamp-duty transaction data into a structured national index. Each entry represents a real sale, creating an evidence-based foundation for assessing growth, stability, and affordability across districts. It also raises the standard for transparency in the Cayman Islands real estate market.

As Hon. Johany “Jay” Ebanks, Minister of Planning, Lands, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, stated at the launch:

“The RPPI is a landmark achievement for the Cayman Islands. Reliable and transparent property data is critical not only for investors but also for families and policymakers. This index gives us a clearer picture of housing trends, supports sustainable growth, and helps ensure that our development decisions are based on sound evidence.”

Source: Government press release, RPPI launch, 30 September 2025.

Why a Price Index Matters

Accurate data shape effective housing policy. Without reliable measures of price movement, it is difficult to evaluate affordability, investment returns, or supply-and-demand balance. The RPPI addresses this by producing a transparent, continuous record that shows where and how prices have changed since 2015. It helps answer practical questions that affect households, planners, and lenders alike:

• How quickly have residential prices risen across different districts?
• Which areas show the strongest or most stable growth?
• What do these shifts imply for affordability and future housing access?

By turning individual transactions into aggregated insight, the RPPI allows Cayman to monitor market trends, identify emerging pressures, and support data-driven planning. It strengthens public understanding of how property values evolve and provides a factual basis for debate on ownership and growth.

Mr. Uche Obi, Director of the Lands and Survey Department, emphasized the collaborative nature of the project:

“The IMF’s support was instrumental in developing the Cayman Islands Residential Property Price Index. Their expertise helped us establish a robust, transparent tool that enhances market confidence, guides decision-making, and underpins the growth and stability of our property sector.”

Source: Government press release, RPPI launch, 30 September 2025.

From Observation to Evidence

The RPPI does not judge whether price change is good or bad; it records what has happened, not why. Yet even without causal analysis, it brings clarity to a subject that influences nearly every household, the cost of securing or maintaining a home.

For policymakers, it offers a benchmark for evaluating housing initiatives. For investors, it signals market performance based on verified outcomes. For residents, it introduces transparency into an area often shaped by speculation.

Mr. Adolphus Laidlow, Director of the Economics and Statistics Office, noted the significance of this transparency:

“This is Cayman’s first independent and transparent tool to track housing price trends. It enhances clarity in the property market, helps families, businesses, and government make informed decisions, and boosts investor confidence.”

Source: Government press release, RPPI launch, 30 September 2025.

By establishing a measurable link between transaction data and price trends, the RPPI moves Cayman’s housing conversation from anecdote to analysis. It lays the groundwork for a more informed discussion about affordability, access, and sustainable development in the years ahead.

Understanding the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI)

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) is the Cayman Islands’ first official measure of how residential property values change over time. It captures verified sales information submitted through stamp duty filings with the Lands and Survey Department, ensuring that only completed, market-based transactions are included.

Each record represents a real exchange between buyer and seller. This distinction is crucial. Listing prices and appraisals can reflect expectations, but they do not confirm what the market actually paid. By focusing solely on verified transactions, the RPPI provides an accurate reflection of market reality, not speculation.

How the RPPI Works

Every transaction used in the index includes specific attributes: sale price, district, floor area, parcel view, building height, and location type. These details allow analysts to compare similar properties across time. The RPPI then applies a statistical model that adjusts for these characteristics, ensuring changes in property type or size do not distort the results.

This method is known as a hedonic regression model, a recognized international standard recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It isolates true price movement by estimating what the same type of property would cost if sold today, holding its features constant. The result is a constant-quality index: one that measures how values change in the market, not how different kinds of homes affect average prices.

In practical terms, this means that if one quarter includes more oceanfront sales and another includes smaller inland units, the RPPI controls for these differences. The final figure reflects underlying price change, not variations in the mix of properties sold.

Scope and Data Selection

The RPPI currently tracks condominium sales only. This category was chosen because it produces the highest volume of comparable transactions, allowing for statistically sound results.

The index excludes:

• Standalone houses, which have more diverse characteristics and limited data volume;
• Family transfers, which may not reflect true market pricing;
• Self-build projects; and
• Undeveloped land, which follows different valuation dynamics.

Additionally, the RPPI excludes transactions where considerations were not reflective of market values due to the use of a now-closed tax loophole, cases where stamp duty was payable only on the land but not the building. These non-market transactions would have distorted the index by understating true property values.

Future phases of development will include houses and additional property types once sufficient verified data become available. The decision to start with condominiums ensures that early results are reliable, consistent, and representative.

Data Smoothing for Quarterly Results

The Cayman Islands’ residential property market is relatively small and heterogeneous, which creates challenges in measuring price changes at a quarterly frequency. The George Town quarterly index, while based on sufficient transaction volume, can exhibit considerable variability from quarter to quarter due to the composition of sales in any given period.

Smoothing applies to the quarterly George Town series only, using non-seasonal double exponential smoothing. Annual indexes are published without smoothing.

Why Methodology Matters

Accurate housing indexes depend on both data quality and methodological design. The RPPI’s reliance on official stamp duty data ensures every price recorded reflects a completed sale, verified through legal documentation. Its use of a hedonic approach ensures that comparisons are meaningful even when the mix of transactions changes.

By applying these principles, the RPPI provides a stable baseline for measuring long-term trends. It enables policymakers, researchers, and residents to observe how prices move quarter by quarter, stripped of market noise or isolated outliers.

Building a Transparent Housing Record

Beyond its technical design, the RPPI represents a shift in how Cayman tracks housing information. It introduces transparency into an area that has long been dominated by anecdotal reports or selective listings. Now, both government agencies and private citizens have access to a consistent record showing how values have changed since 2015.

This transparency supports more balanced decision-making. Whether assessing affordability, monitoring investment activity, or evaluating planning needs, users can reference an index built on verified market evidence. Over time, as coverage expands and historical depth increases, the RPPI will become one of the most reliable benchmarks for understanding housing dynamics in the Cayman Islands.

District Breakdown and Coverage

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) measures how condominium values change across different regions of the Cayman Islands. To make this analysis meaningful, the index is organized by analytical districts.

These categories were derived from the official administrative districts but are specifically structured for the RPPI to better reflect market dynamics, with the key difference being the separation of Seven Mile Beach into its own category.

Districts Included in the Index

The RPPI currently produces separate indexes for:

• Seven Mile Beach
• George Town, the capital and economic hub;
• West Bay, a growing residential and commuter district; and
• Other Cayman Islands, which include Bodden Town, East End, North Side, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.

District weights reflect each area’s share of verified transactions. Download: Cayman Islands RPPI – Indexes Weights Rates (CSV).

Together, these categories account for nearly all condominium transactions in the Cayman Islands. Each district index shows how average prices for comparable units have evolved, allowing users to identify patterns specific to each region.

Why District Analysis Is Important

Cayman’s residential market is not uniform. Each district operates within its own financing base, land use pattern, and buyer mix. Disaggregating results makes it possible to distinguish between trends driven by local demand and those influenced by international investment.

• George Town shows strong and consistent appreciation, supported by local mortgage lending, employment proximity, and redevelopment activity.
• West Bay combines local ownership with new construction corridors, showing gradual but steady gains.
• Bodden Town, East End, and North Side experience slower growth but remain stable, with lower density and fewer speculative sales.

This structure helps planners and analysts see where affordability may be tightening or where growth corridors are emerging. District-level comparison is also useful for identifying regional imbalances, areas where supply expansion or infrastructure investment may be most needed.

The Role of Seven Mile Beach

Although Seven Mile Beach is not designated as a separate administrative district, it remains one of Cayman’s most influential submarkets. Its concentration of foreign-financed, high-value condominium transactions significantly affects national averages.

Seven Mile Beach is a separate analytical district in the indexes and is a proxy for foreign-financed transactions. Mortgage charge studies show relatively few domestic charges for SMB sales, indicating a high share of cash or foreign financing.

How District Data Support Decision-Making

Breaking results into districts turns abstract price change into practical insight.

• For planners, it shows where population and development pressures are concentrated.
• For lenders, it highlights which regions have the fastest appreciation or the most stable collateral values.
• For residents, it clarifies how property values in their area compare with others over time.

Because each district index adjusts for quality and property type, users can trust that variation reflects true price differences, not changes in sales composition. Over time, as new property types are added, this regional structure will become even more useful for policy evaluation, market monitoring, and affordability studies.

A Foundation for Future Expansion

As the RPPI grows, district-level results will serve as the core framework for interpreting wider housing trends. Once houses and additional property types are incorporated, this regional view will help connect price movement to factors such as transportation access, community development, and land availability.

By combining verified sales data with geographic analysis, the RPPI lays the groundwork for a comprehensive spatial understanding of Cayman’s housing market, one that supports evidence-based decisions at both the local and national level.

What the First RPPI Results Show

The first release of the RPPI provides a verified record of how residential property values have changed between 2015 and 2024. It offers Cayman’s first reliable, comparable view of housing market performance across time and geography.

The data confirm a consistent upward trend in condominium prices, with all districts showing long-term appreciation. While quarterly fluctuations occur, the overall pattern is steady growth, underscoring the strength and resilience of Cayman’s housing market.

A Decade of Verified Growth

In 2024, the national condo price index increased by 9.1 percent year over year. Since 2015, national prices are up 181.8 percent, with Seven Mile Beach up 240.3 percent, George Town up 140.3 percent, West Bay up 138.3 percent, and the Other Cayman Islands up 118.1 percent. Quarterly movements can be choppy in low-volume periods, while multi-quarter and annual series are smoother and reveal the underlying trend.

Although the index does not identify causes, the data reveal a market where price increases are structural rather than temporary. The fact that every district displays positive long-term movement indicates that appreciation is not confined to isolated segments but has become a system-wide characteristic.

District-Level Variation

While overall growth is consistent, the pace of appreciation varies by district.

• George Town, the island’s commercial and administrative center, recorded the most consistent price increases. Its combination of employment access, redevelopment, and mortgage-financed ownership supports stable year-round demand.
• West Bay shows steady appreciation and has recorded consistent growth since 2015.
• The Other Cayman Islands, which include Bodden Town, East End, North Side, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, display slower but positive growth. Their smaller sales volumes limit quarterly variation, but the long-term trend remains upward, confirming broad-based appreciation across the Cayman Islands.

This district variation helps clarify how different market forces operate simultaneously. Areas dominated by local financing show gradual, sustainable growth, while zones with higher foreign participation reflect stronger but more concentrated appreciation.

Market Resilience Through Economic Disruption

The series shows resilience through recent global disruptions. While earlier shocks such as Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and the 2008 financial crisis predate the published index, the 2015–2024 record indicates steady long-run appreciation despite short-term variability. More recently, the market demonstrated notable stability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Influence of Seven Mile Beach

Seven Mile Beach plays a defining role within the national results. Although not a separate administrative district, it represents one of Cayman’s most valuable residential corridors, attracting significant foreign-financed condominium sales.

These high-value transactions contribute substantially to the overall index, raising the national average. However, because the RPPI adjusts for quality and type, its methodology ensures these sales do not distort the broader picture. The index continues to reflect real underlying price movement, not the influence of a few luxury transactions.

Seven Mile Beach also illustrates how global investment interacts with a limited local supply. Its sustained demand from non-resident buyers helps explain why Cayman’s aggregate index has remained on an upward path, even through periods of slower local economic activity.

Market-Wide Consistency

One of the most important findings from the RPPI is the consistency of growth across districts. No region shows long-term decline. This uniformity reinforces what many residents have observed, homeownership has become more valuable over time but also increasingly costly to enter.

It confirms that appreciation is a national phenomenon, not just a coastal or urban trend. From central George Town to eastern North Side, verified sales data show that residential values have strengthened throughout the island.

Implications for Affordability and Planning

While the RPPI does not measure affordability directly, it establishes the factual basis for future analysis. By showing where and how prices have risen, it allows policymakers, lenders, and researchers to evaluate how housing access has changed relative to income and supply.

For residents, it validates the perception of a market moving steadily upward. For planners, it highlights districts under the greatest demand pressure, information critical for aligning infrastructure, zoning, and housing initiatives with real-world trends.

In short, the first RPPI release transforms anecdote into evidence. It confirms that Cayman’s residential market has experienced sustained appreciation, distributed across districts, shaped by both local demand and external capital, and likely to remain a central factor in affordability discussions for years to come.

What Drives Long-Term Price Growth

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) records how property values have changed since 2015. It does not identify direct causes, but its long-term pattern of steady appreciation reflects structural characteristics of the Cayman Islands housing market. These include limited developable land, strong local and foreign demand, access to financing, and a stable investment climate. Together, these features explain why prices have continued to rise across all districts for nearly a decade.

Limited Land and Geographic Constraints

Cayman’s land area is small, and most available parcels suitable for housing are already concentrated on Grand Cayman. The island’s physical size places natural limits on expansion, especially near employment centers and existing infrastructure.

Even as population and economic activity grow, supply cannot increase quickly enough to meet rising demand. This imbalance has led to persistent upward pressure on residential prices, particularly in urban and coastal districts where developable land is scarce.

The RPPI’s continuous upward trend confirms this structural reality. It reflects a market shaped less by short-term speculation and more by the finite geography of an island economy where demand consistently exceeds supply.

Local and Foreign Demand

Housing demand in Cayman comes from two primary sources: resident households and foreign investors. Each segment influences prices in different ways.

Locally financed buyers, supported by mortgage lending through domestic banks, anchor demand in George Town, West Bay, and surrounding communities. Their purchasing activity maintains steady appreciation in neighborhoods where ownership is tied to employment, family life, and local stability.

Foreign-financed buyers, concentrated in areas such as Seven Mile Beach, contribute higher-value transactions. These sales often involve second homes or investment properties, bringing external capital into a market with limited inventory. While the RPPI’s methodology prevents these transactions from distorting results, their presence raises the national average and underscores Cayman’s position as a globally connected housing market.

This dual structure, local participation combined with international investment, helps explain why growth is both broad-based and resilient. Even when one segment slows, the other sustains demand, keeping overall values on an upward path.

Financing and Economic Stability

Cayman’s well-developed financial system supports access to homeownership through long-term lending, while also attracting external capital seeking stable returns. This availability of credit underpins steady domestic demand and allows households to enter the market despite rising prices.

At the same time, the absence of property taxes and Cayman’s reputation as a politically and economically stable jurisdiction make real estate an attractive store of value. Investors view residential property as a secure, income-generating asset in a region with consistent population growth, sound regulation, and low inflation volatility.

These conditions, stable governance, legal clarity, and open financial channels, reinforce confidence among buyers and lenders alike, supporting sustained price growth across economic cycles.

Infrastructure and Market Confidence

Public investment in roads, utilities, and community facilities enhances access to previously underdeveloped areas, raising their long-term desirability. As connectivity improves, formerly peripheral zones become viable residential locations, broadening demand while maintaining upward price momentum in core districts.

Meanwhile, consistent data transparency, now strengthened through the RPPI, helps investors and homeowners make more informed decisions. By showing that appreciation has been steady rather than speculative, the index itself contributes to market confidence. Reliable evidence encourages participation and supports stable expectations about long-term value.

A Market Defined by Scarcity and Stability

The RPPI’s findings confirm that Cayman’s residential market has followed a persistent growth trajectory, shaped by limited land, strong demand, and policy continuity. Prices have not moved uniformly across districts, but all show the same direction over time.

This pattern suggests that appreciation is a structural feature of Cayman’s housing environment. It reflects the interaction of geographic limits, financing access, and external investment, factors unlikely to change in the near term.

For households, this means homeownership continues to serve as both a living necessity and a financial asset. For policymakers, it reinforces the importance of planning tools that balance market stability with housing accessibility.

Although the RPPI does not explain causation, its record confirms that Cayman’s housing market operates under conditions that consistently favor appreciation, sustained by long-standing economic and spatial realities.

What RPPI Means for Homeowners, Renters, and Property Services

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) confirms that residential values in the Cayman Islands have increased steadily since 2015. This sustained appreciation has different consequences for homeowners, renters, and property service providers, each of whom interacts with the housing market in a distinct way.

While the RPPI records price movement rather than economic outcomes, its results highlight how a decade of rising values has reshaped both household finances and service demand across the island.

Homeowners: Rising Equity, Higher Costs

For Caymanian homeowners, steady price appreciation has strengthened household balance sheets. Properties purchased in earlier years are now worth significantly more, increasing equity and providing collateral for financing or investment. This growth supports household stability and long-term wealth building, especially for families who entered the market before the most rapid gains.

However, rising prices also increase replacement and transaction costs. Homeowners seeking to move within the same district now face higher purchase prices, larger stamp duty payments, and higher insurance valuations tied to asset appreciation. Even for those who remain in place, maintenance expectations rise with property value, as owners seek to preserve or enhance their investment.

These dynamics benefit established owners but make mobility within the market more difficult. Selling often improves balance sheets, but re-entry at higher prices can offset gains. The result is a housing market where ownership stability is rewarded, but movement, whether upgrading or downsizing, becomes increasingly expensive.

Renters: Extended Tenure and Access Constraints

The RPPI does not track rental rates, but continuous price growth indirectly affects the rental market. As property values rise, some landlords adjust rents to reflect higher replacement and maintenance costs. Over time, this creates upward pressure on monthly payments, particularly in districts where supply is limited and demand remains high.

For aspiring homeowners, rising prices increase the time required to save for deposits. This extends rental tenure, the number of years tenants remain in rented accommodation before transitioning to ownership.

In high-demand areas such as George Town and West Bay, where employment is concentrated, this effect is more pronounced. The result is a gradual shift in housing access: more households remain renters longer, while ownership becomes concentrated among those with early entry or greater financial flexibility.

The RPPI’s long-term trajectory makes these trends measurable. By showing that appreciation has persisted for nearly a decade, it underscores how entry barriers have grown for first-time buyers. Policymakers can use this evidence to assess where affordability programs or financing support may be most needed.

Service Providers: Sustained Demand and Rising Standards

For Cayman’s cleaning, maintenance, and property service sector, steady appreciation creates both opportunity and responsibility. Higher property values raise the importance of regular upkeep and professional maintenance, as owners and investors seek to protect their assets and preserve resale potential.

In areas dominated by foreign-financed condominiums, such as Seven Mile Beach, demand for premium property care remains strong. These units must meet international presentation standards for vacation rentals, investment holdings, and resale listings. Professional cleaning, maintenance, and inspection services are integral to protecting value in these markets.

In locally financed districts like George Town and West Bay, the demand pattern is different but equally consistent. Here, households focus on essential maintenance and cleaning that sustain long-term habitability and compliance with lending requirements. Even when discretionary spending tightens, the need to maintain property condition remains constant.

For businesses such as Complete Clean, this environment underscores the critical role of reliability, professionalism, and value protection. Rising property values increase owner expectations and heighten the importance of routine upkeep. As the RPPI confirms a steady upward trend in residential value, it simultaneously validates the need for ongoing, quality service delivery that preserves those assets.

A Shifting Balance Between Value and Access

The RPPI’s record of steady growth highlights a broader tension between asset strength and affordability. For owners, appreciation builds wealth and security. For renters, it extends the path to ownership. For service providers, it sustains long-term demand for maintenance but may shift spending priorities toward essential care rather than upgrades.

By separating observed price trends from economic effects, the RPPI helps explain how appreciation shapes everyday realities, from mortgage decisions to service budgets. It reinforces that price movement is not an abstract measure, but a tangible influence on household choices and business planning.

In this way, the RPPI connects market evidence to lived experience. It shows that while property ownership remains a key driver of financial security, the cost of entering and maintaining that position continues to rise, requiring careful planning and informed support across every segment of Cayman’s housing system.

Why the RPPI Matters for Future Policy and Planning

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) is more than a statistical product; it is a foundational policy tool. For the first time, the Cayman Islands have a consistent, verifiable record of how residential property values change across time and geography.

This data allows government agencies, financial institutions, and researchers to evaluate market performance, regional pressure points, and long-term affordability with evidence instead of perception. It transforms housing analysis from fragmented observation into a structured national reference. The RPPI gives agencies a shared evidence base for decisions that shape the Cayman Islands real estate market, from land use to lending.

A Reliable Evidence Base for Decision-Making

Before the RPPI, no unified dataset tracked price change across districts. Appraisals, listing prices, and private market reports varied widely in scope and accuracy. The absence of consistent data made it difficult to judge whether property appreciation reflected real demand, limited supply, or temporary conditions.

The RPPI resolves this uncertainty by producing a standardized measure of real, completed sales. It tracks verified transactions filed through stamp duty returns, applies constant-quality adjustments, and reports quarterly results that show genuine market evolution. This gives policymakers a stable baseline to assess housing trends, investment activity, and district-level differences with confidence.

The government’s direct stake in property market transparency is substantial: Stamp duty on land transfers totalled CI$78.5 million in 2023 and CI$88.7 million in 2024. For 2025, officials indicated collections would be around CI$90 million. Accurate price data supports fair valuation for tax purposes and informs broader economic planning. The RPPI provides this accuracy by using verified stamp duty transactions rather than estimates.

By aligning method with open reporting, the RPPI strengthens confidence across the Cayman Islands real estate market.

Having a verified price index also improves coordination between agencies. The Lands and Survey Department, Economics and Statistics Office (ESO), Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, and Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) can now align their work using a shared dataset. This integration helps ensure that housing, finance, and infrastructure strategies are based on the same factual foundation.

Mr. Patrick Bodden, Acting CEO of CIMA, emphasized the index’s importance for financial stability:

“The launch of the RPPI marks a significant step in enhancing Cayman’s macro-financial surveillance framework. This index gives us the ability to track residential property prices with precision, identify emerging risks, and safeguard financial stability.”

Source: Government press release, RPPI launch, 30 September 2025.

Public Access and Data Transparency

The RPPI data is freely accessible to the public through the Lands and Survey Department website at caymanlandinfo.ky/Services/VEO/RPPI. This commitment to open access ensures that all market participants, residents, investors, lenders, researchers, and policymakers, can reference the same verified information.

By making the index publicly available at no cost, the government removes barriers to informed decision-making. Homeowners can track how values in their district have evolved. Prospective buyers can assess market trends before making purchase decisions. Researchers can analyze affordability patterns. Financial institutions can benchmark their property exposure against official data.

This transparency represents a significant shift from relying on fragmented private reports or anecdotal market intelligence. It democratizes access to housing market information and supports more informed public discourse about affordability and development.

Applications for Public Policy and Market Oversight

The RPPI supports multiple layers of decision-making:

• Housing policy: It identifies districts where appreciation has been strongest, helping government target affordability programs and supply incentives to areas under pressure.
• Infrastructure planning: It highlights growth corridors where population and property values are expanding fastest, guiding investment in roads, utilities, and community facilities.
• Financial regulation: It enables CIMA and domestic lenders to monitor property exposure, ensuring mortgage lending aligns with sustainable value growth.
• Economic forecasting: It provides a concrete measure of residential wealth, allowing analysts to examine how price trends influence household spending, borrowing capacity, and consumer confidence.

For example, consistent growth in George Town and West Bay may signal continued concentration of demand in urban centers, while gradual gains in Bodden Town or East End could indicate new residential corridors. Understanding these shifts helps align land-use policy and infrastructure development with real-world market behavior.

Improving Transparency and Public Confidence

Transparent data builds trust. By publishing regular, methodologically sound updates, the RPPI enhances public understanding of how Cayman’s housing market evolves. Residents, businesses, and investors can now reference official statistics rather than anecdotal claims.

This visibility supports confidence in the market. It allows buyers to make better-informed decisions, developers to plan responsibly, and policymakers to justify actions based on verifiable evidence. Over time, it also encourages more constructive dialogue about affordability, helping distinguish perceived inequality from documented trends.

For homeowners and renters, transparency makes housing discussions more accessible and credible. For institutions, it provides a benchmark that aligns financial modeling, tax policy, and long-term planning with measurable reality.

Integrating the RPPI with Broader Analysis

While the RPPI focuses on price, it complements other indicators to give a fuller picture of housing dynamics. When linked with income data, rental statistics, and construction cost indexes, it helps policymakers study the relationship between wages and ownership access. When combined with population data, it clarifies where growth may outpace available housing.

Over time, these linkages can help answer complex questions such as:

• How has appreciation affected first-time ownership?
• Are certain districts experiencing faster growth than their infrastructure can support?
• How resilient is Cayman’s housing market to regional or global shocks?

The RPPI’s credibility lies in its simplicity; it records verified transaction prices. But when combined with other datasets, it becomes a cornerstone for cross-sector analysis, connecting housing trends to economic, social, and environmental policy.

Supporting Long-Term Planning and Stability

In a small island economy, reliable housing data are critical for managing land use, economic risk, and social inclusion. The RPPI gives Cayman the tools to plan proactively, ensuring that housing remains sustainable, transparent, and responsive to local needs.

Each new quarterly release expands the historical record, improving accuracy and strengthening predictive value. As this dataset grows, it will support long-term evaluation of policy outcomes, market interventions, and infrastructure decisions.

By turning verified sales into a national trendline, the RPPI bridges the gap between individual transactions and collective planning. It allows Cayman to move from reactive adjustments to evidence-based management of its housing system, an essential foundation for balancing growth, access, and affordability.

Key Limitations and Next Steps for the RPPI

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) represents a major advance in Cayman’s housing data. Yet, like all statistical measures, its accuracy depends on scope, design, and interpretation. Understanding what the index measures, and what it does not, ensures it is used correctly in policy, research, and public discussion.

Scope and Current Coverage

The RPPI currently focuses on condominium transactions, which form the largest pool of comparable residential sales in the Cayman Islands. These transactions are verified through stamp duty returns filed with the Lands and Survey Department. Each record reflects a completed, arm’s-length sale between buyer and seller, ensuring that the index captures real market outcomes rather than estimates or listings.

Other property types, such as standalone houses, undeveloped land, and family transfers, are excluded at this stage. Their sale volumes remain too low or inconsistent to meet the statistical reliability required for index modeling. Including them prematurely could distort results and weaken confidence in early findings.

For standalone houses specifically, expansion awaits the compilation of additional property characteristics, primarily the floor area or footprint of buildings. Without this data, the hedonic regression model cannot adequately adjust for quality differences between house sales, making reliable index construction impossible at present.

This focus on condominiums allows the RPPI to produce a stable and transparent baseline while the database expands. As additional verified transactions accumulate, the scope will widen to include houses and other residential categories.

Model Calibration vs. Published Index

The RPPI’s statistical model was calibrated using verified transaction data spanning from 1998 to 2024. This 26-year dataset ensures the hedonic regression model accurately captures long-term market relationships and property characteristics.

However, the published index series begins in 2015. This decision reflects when the data met official publication standards for consistency and completeness. The year 2015 also serves as an appropriate reference point, as it marked the end of a period where property prices remained relatively stable following the post-2008 recovery.

While the model uses historical data back to 1998 for calibration, all index values are expressed relative to the 2015 baseline (2015 = 100). This allows the RPPI to benefit from long-term data quality while providing a recent, meaningful reference point for current market analysis.

What the RPPI Measures, and What It Does Not

The RPPI measures pure market price change; how the value of comparable residential units moves over time. It does not track construction costs, renovations, or non-market transfers. Each transaction represents a moment in which ownership changes under market conditions.

Because it isolates the effect of price alone, the RPPI does not reflect:

• Increases in value from home improvements;
• Shifts caused by property mix (e.g., more luxury units in one quarter); or
• Broader changes in ownership or income.

For example, if a homeowner upgrades a kitchen or adds new amenities, the improvement may raise that property’s market value, but such individual enhancements are not captured. The RPPI’s design ensures that observed price movement reflects overall market direction, not variations in features or condition.

This approach allows analysts to separate structural appreciation, the kind recorded across comparable sales, from individual asset growth, which depends on unique circumstances.

Sample Size and Update Frequency

Because Cayman’s residential market is small, transaction volumes fluctuate. The RPPI uses a rolling quarterly approach for George Town and an annual approach for other districts, publishing updates when sufficient sales are recorded to maintain accuracy.

This schedule ensures that results remain statistically sound, though some quarters may show fewer transactions. Over time, as more historical data are added, the RPPI will become more granular and stable, allowing deeper analysis at district and property-type levels.

Users should interpret short-term movements cautiously. Quarterly shifts can reflect changes in the composition of sales or temporary variations in activity. The long-term trendline, however, provides a reliable view of sustained market direction.

Publication Timing and Data Finality

The legal deadline for submitting a stamp duty return is within 45 days from the date of execution. RPPI results are published with a three-month lag and are typically considered final, not revised. Quarterly releases for George Town are in July, October, and January. Annual results are in April for the preceding year.

Causality and Interpretation

The RPPI is descriptive, not diagnostic. It shows what has changed, but not why. It does not include variables such as income, mortgage rates, or construction supply.

To understand the forces behind price movement, analysts must combine RPPI results with complementary datasets from agencies like the:

• Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) for income and population data,
• Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) for lending and credit information, and
• Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure for land-use and housing policy.

By integrating these sources, researchers can examine how price trends interact with wages, financing, and supply. This combined approach ensures that the RPPI remains a neutral foundation, while other indicators add context to its findings.

A Measure of Price, Not Total Asset Value

It is important to distinguish price change from total appreciation. The RPPI isolates the market’s collective movement for comparable properties, not the gain on any single unit.

An individual home’s total value may rise faster than the index if it benefits from upgrades, location changes, or unique features. The RPPI deliberately filters out these effects to measure underlying market behavior. It is therefore best interpreted as a trend indicator, not a valuation tool.

In other words, the RPPI tracks the price trajectory of the market, not the full return on investment for individual owners. This clarity protects against overuse of the index in contexts such as lending appraisals or asset valuation.

Next Steps and Future Development

As the RPPI evolves, several planned enhancements will improve its coverage and usefulness:

• Expansion to include standalone houses once sufficient verified sales data exist and additional property characteristics (primarily building footprint and floor area) can be reliably compiled;
• Introduction of district-level weighting refinements for greater spatial accuracy;
• Potential integration with complementary indexes for rental or construction costs; and
• Continued capacity building within the Lands and Survey Department to sustain regular updates.

The development process has been guided by three technical assistance missions from CARTAC and the IMF Statistics Department conducted between 2023 and 2024. The most recent mission took place November 11–22, 2024, finalizing the compilation methodology and dissemination framework documented in the CARTAC Final TA Report on RPPI Mission (November 11–22, 2024).

Each improvement will strengthen the RPPI’s role as a core economic indicator, helping policymakers and analysts monitor housing conditions more effectively. Over time, it will provide a clearer, longer, and more comprehensive record of how Cayman’s housing market behaves.

Why Understanding Limits Matters

Recognizing the RPPI’s scope protects its credibility. By interpreting it as a measure of price movement, users can draw sound conclusions without overstating its reach. When paired with complementary data, the index becomes part of a broader system that connects housing, income, and planning policy.

The RPPI is therefore both a technical achievement and a public good, a transparent, replicable measure that allows Cayman to track one of its most important markets with confidence. As it expands, its precision and policy relevance will only increase.

Building Transparency in Cayman’s Housing Market

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) marks a turning point in how the Cayman Islands understand their housing market. By converting verified sales data into a structured, continuous index, it provides a transparent and factual record of how residential property values change over time. The RPPI measures how verified sale prices change over time. The initial index covers condominiums, and it will expand to houses when the data support reliable estimates.

This transformation, from fragmented information to standardized evidence, strengthens public trust, supports sound policymaking, and aligns housing discussions with verifiable data rather than assumption.

A Reliable Foundation for Market Understanding

Before the RPPI, no comprehensive measure existed to track real price changes across districts. Appraisals, listings, and informal reports offered only partial views. The new index replaces these with a consistent, methodologically sound dataset based on actual transactions filed through the Lands and Survey Department.

For the first time, residents, lenders, and policymakers share a common benchmark for understanding Cayman’s housing trends. This shared reference helps ensure that planning, lending, and policy decisions are made from the same factual base, an essential step toward coordinated housing management.

The RPPI also brings continuity to market observation. By tracking price movement from 2015 onward, it allows the country to monitor long-term trajectories and assess how structural conditions, such as land scarcity, demand, and financing access, influence value growth.

Why Transparency Matters

Transparent housing data benefit every participant in the market.

• For homeowners, it clarifies how their property’s value has evolved relative to national trends.
• For buyers and renters, it supports realistic expectations about costs and timing.
• For lenders and developers, it informs investment decisions based on measurable patterns rather than sentiment.
• For government, it offers evidence to guide affordability and land-use planning.

By publishing regular updates, the RPPI enhances accountability in how the housing market is described. It enables open discussion grounded in data, helping identify challenges, such as access barriers or regional imbalances, before they become systemic.

In a small, high-demand economy, this kind of transparency helps maintain confidence. When residents and investors can see the same verified trends, trust in both the market and its governance improves.

Open Access to Housing Data

The RPPI embodies the principle that public data should serve the public interest. All index results, methodological documentation, and supporting materials are freely accessible through the Lands and Survey Department website at caymanlandinfo.ky/Services/VEO/RPPI.

This open access policy ensures that housing market information is not restricted to industry insiders or those who can afford proprietary reports. Students, researchers, journalists, community advocates, and individual residents can all reference the same official data that government agencies and financial institutions use.

Each quarterly and annual release includes summary graphs, district-level indexes, and technical notes explaining how the data were compiled. This combination of accessibility and transparency allows users to not only see the results but understand the methodology behind them, building confidence in the index’s reliability and independence.

Linking Evidence to Action

The RPPI does not explain why prices rise, but it reveals how they move. This clarity provides the factual basis for further analysis. When combined with complementary data, such as income statistics, mortgage information, and population growth, it enables a full picture of housing dynamics.

Agencies like the Economics and Statistics Office (ESO), Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), and the Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure can use RPPI results to:

• Assess the relationship between price growth and income levels,
• Identify districts experiencing affordability pressure, and
• Evaluate policy outcomes over time.

This integrated approach helps ensure that housing policy is responsive to evidence, not anecdote. It connects daily market realities to national strategy, ensuring that planning keeps pace with demographic and economic change.

Supporting a More Informed Housing Conversation

The RPPI gives Cayman a shared language for discussing housing. It translates individual transactions into collective understanding, showing how values shift across districts and years.

With every quarterly release, the dataset grows stronger. It captures the long-term arc of Cayman’s residential market, an arc defined by stability, demand, and limited supply. This evidence allows stakeholders to debate solutions to affordability and access using facts everyone can verify.

For a market that directly affects households, lenders, and the broader economy, such clarity is invaluable. It helps distinguish between market performance and public perception, ensuring that conversations about housing policy remain grounded in reality.

From Measurement to Meaning

The RPPI demonstrates how data can inform better choices. It shows that the Cayman Islands now have the tools to measure what once was anecdotal.

As the index expands, eventually covering houses, spatial trends, and longer time series, it will continue to refine understanding of how prices evolve. But even in its current form, the RPPI has already changed the foundation of housing analysis: from informal observation to verified national record.

By aligning transparency with technical precision, the RPPI strengthens market integrity and policy accountability. It gives every participant, homeowners, renters, investors, and policymakers, the same starting point for understanding change. By aligning method with open reporting, the RPPI strengthens confidence across the Cayman Islands real estate market.

In doing so, it turns data into dialogue, and dialogue into informed action, a lasting step toward a housing market that is measurable and understood.

Frequently Asked Questions: Cayman Islands Residential Property Price Index (RPPI)

This FAQ answers common questions about the Cayman Islands Residential Property Price Index, including how it works, the data it uses, district coverage, update schedule, and what the results mean for affordability, homeowners, renters, investors, and policymakers.

Glossary: Understanding RPPI and Housing Market Terms

This glossary defines key terms used in the Cayman Islands Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) article. It explains how each concept fits into the Cayman housing market, the RPPI’s methodology, or its broader policy relevance.

Affordability

The relationship between household income, property prices, and financing options. In the Cayman Islands, affordability measures how easily residents can purchase or maintain a home relative to their income and borrowing power.

Aggregation

The process of combining individual property transactions into a single index value. Aggregation allows the RPPI to represent overall market movement across districts.

Base Year

The reference year used to measure price change over time. The RPPI uses 2015 as its base year, meaning all subsequent values are compared to that year’s index level (2015 = 100).

Benchmarking

The practice of comparing current RPPI results against historical data or international standards. Benchmarking ensures the index stays aligned with IMF-recommended methods and global property price frameworks.

Calibration

Adjusting a statistical model using historical sales data to ensure it accurately reflects market behavior. The RPPI’s model was calibrated using verified 1998–2024 transactions for reliability.

CARTAC

The Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre, a program supported by the IMF. CARTAC provided technical guidance to help the Cayman Islands develop the RPPI according to international standards.

Constant-Quality Index

A price index that controls for differences in property characteristics. The RPPI’s constant-quality approach isolates true price movement, avoiding distortion from changes in the mix of properties sold.

Data Validation

The process of reviewing and confirming each sale record for accuracy and completeness. RPPI validation ensures only market-based transactions are included, excluding family transfers or custom builds.

District-Level Index

Separate indexes showing condo price trends within defined areas: Seven Mile Beach, George Town, West Bay, and Other Cayman Islands, which include Bodden Town, East End, North Side, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.

Foreign-Financed Transactions

Sales funded by non-resident buyers or foreign institutions. High-value areas such as Seven Mile Beach see a concentration of these purchases, influencing national averages.

Granularity

The level of detail within the dataset. A granular index, like the RPPI, includes detailed property attributes, such as location, floor area, and building height, allowing precise analysis.

Hedonic Regression Model

A statistical method that estimates how property features (such as size, view, or district) contribute to overall price. The RPPI uses this model to adjust for variations between properties.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

A global organization that sets technical standards for economic and financial statistics. The RPPI was developed in line with IMF’s Residential Property Price Index guidelines.

Index Weighting

Assigning proportional influence to different property types or districts. For example, George Town carries greater weight in the RPPI because it accounts for more transactions than smaller districts.

Lands and Survey Department

The Cayman Islands Government department responsible for land registration, valuation, and survey data. It collects and verifies the transaction data used in the RPPI.

Local Financing

Property purchases funded by domestic lenders or Cayman-based buyers. These transactions are often compared to foreign-financed sales to assess affordability pressures.

Market Distortion

A price pattern influenced by factors unrelated to supply or demand, such as subsidies or policy interventions. The RPPI removes distortions by excluding non-arm’s-length transactions.

Model Validation

Testing a model’s predictions against actual observed data to confirm accuracy. RPPI validation ensures results match real-world trends.

National Index

The overall RPPI combining all district results into a single national measure of residential property price movement.

Outlier

A sale significantly above or below typical market value. Outliers are filtered out of the RPPI to maintain consistent, credible results.

Price Index

A numerical indicator that shows how the average price of a specific asset, such as housing, changes over time. The RPPI is a residential property price index.

Published Index

The RPPI data released to the public. Although the model uses transactions back to 1998, the published RPPI begins in 2015, when the data met official publication standards.

Quarterly Update

A scheduled release of new RPPI data every three months for George Town. Quarterly updates allow policymakers and analysts to track short-term trends in the capital’s residential market and adjust policy if needed.

Residential Property Price Index (RPPI)

An official measure of how residential property prices change over time. The RPPI for the Cayman Islands is built from verified sales data and follows IMF-approved methodology.

Seven Mile Beach Market

A high-value segment of the Cayman housing market dominated by foreign-financed condominium sales. These transactions heavily influence national price averages and are tracked through a separate analytical district index.

Stamp Duty Record

The legal document filed during every property sale, detailing the transaction value, location, and buyer. These records form the RPPI’s primary data source.

Statistical Reliability

A measure of how consistently an index reflects actual market behavior. The RPPI ensures reliability through rigorous data cleaning, validation, and modeling.

Structural Market Factors

Underlying forces that shape long-term housing prices. In Cayman, these include limited land availability, population growth, and foreign investment demand.

Transaction Volume

The number of property sales during a specific period. Higher volumes improve index stability and allow for district-level breakdowns.

Weighting Structure

The formula determining each district’s or property type’s influence on the overall index. The RPPI’s weighting structure ensures balanced national results.

Last updated: October 11, 2025

Sources and Official Resources

• RPPI Methodological Note (PDF)
• CARTAC Technical Assistance Report on RPPI (PDF) (November 2024)
• National RPPI charts (PDF)
• George Town RPPI charts (PDF)
• West Bay RPPI charts (PDF)
• Other Cayman Islands RPPI charts (PDF)
• Official RPPI Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
• Cayman Islands RPPI – Indexes Weights Rates (CSV)

All government resources listed above are embedded within this article for reference.

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