Francisco Diaz Fournier, founding partner of Luxury Collection Real Estate, said it’s now common to see properties sell for more than $20 million.
“Right now we are selling a home in Dorado Beach for $27 million, and another one is going for $29 million,” he said.
In Bahia, prices per square foot have almost doubled, according to Blanca Lopez, founder of Gramercy Real Estate Group and daughter-in-law of Governor Pierluisi.
“We are seeing prices north of $3,000 per square foot,” she said, while high-end home values in Condado are around $1,400 to $1,500 per square foot, a roughly 35% increase from a year ago.
And there isn’t enough inventory to satiate demand, as buyers are flocking to the island faster than high-end homes can be built.
“We don’t have room, at least not in Dorado, Bahia or Condado,” said Diaz Fournier. “The market is spreading out, so we're seeing spillovers in areas of San Juan where people wouldn't look before.”
As wealthier people gain ground elsewhere, it hurts housing and job prospects for islanders, said Raul Santiago-Bartolomei, an assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico’s graduate school of planning.
“It’s making these places more unattainable for a workforce and low-income households that actually need to be living near these high opportunity areas,” he said.
There are several new residential towers rising in Condado, but that won’t be enough to keep pace. Diaz Fournier said there’s even a labor shortage, so Puerto Rico is working with the U.S. Department of State to secure visas to bring “people from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Haiti and South America because we don't have the people to build.”
For him, the newcomers are welcome, after more than 500,000 residents left the island over the last two decades.
“This is really exciting,” he said. “These are the best years of Puerto Rico.”
‘One Puerto Rico’
So far, the incentives appear to be creating jobs.
From 2015 to 2019, the Individual Investors Act added around 4,400 jobs and the Export Services Act added 36,222, according to a study by Puerto Rican consulting firm Estudios Tecnicos. Call centers accounted for most of the jobs, followed by consulting services, advertising, public relations and tax and accounting services.
As long as the jobs are coming, the “doors are open” for the crypto community, said Carlos Fontan, director of incentives at the Department of Economic Development and Commerce.