St. Kitts & Nevis Real Estate Investment - ESCROW REQUIERMENT
Tuesday, May 20, 2014 at 11:47AM Basseterre - May 16, 2014
Effective immediately the Citizenship Investment Unit (CIU) has announced that for all CIP applicants whom qualify through real estate investment in the Federation, must place ALL funds in a St. Kitts & Nevis based escrow account, before submitting any application.
Up until now, investors could apply for citizenship, with a simple purchase/sale investment agreement, and a small deposit to the developer. Citizenship would NOT be granted until after a letter of approval of principal was received and the investor transferred the remaining funds to the developer - which would be confirmed by the government.
With this change, the St. Kitts & Nevis government is insuring that the total investment amount is accounted for and paid in a timely fashion.
Fortunately, the CIU memo clarifies that the escrow accounts may be held by a registered trust company, such as NTL. NTL Trust is the oldest trust company in Nevis, and by default the oldest in the St. Kitts & Nevis Federation, as Nevis was the first of the islands to introduce the Trust legislature.
In order to facilitate the investment in authorised real estate for the citizenship programme, NTL is offering the required escrow services for a flat fee of US$2,000. For NTL clients, or immigration agents, who choose to purchase real estate and process through NTL, the fee will be completely waived, with $0 charge to our clients.
Please contact your NTL agent for more information!