Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

for the Cayman Islands Public and Affordable Housing Policy & 10-Year Strategic Plan

  • A national policy outlines the government’s big-picture vision, priorities, and direction on an issue that is important to its people. A national policy helps ensure that government decisions are coordinated, consistent, evidence-based, fiscally responsible and focused on long-term public interest.
  • In response to a national shortage of housing that is affordable for average Caymanian residents, The Cayman Islands has developed its first Public and Affordable Housing Policy, and accompanying 10-Year Strategic Plan.
  • A national policy does not provide detailed operational instructions, rules, or precise schedules. Instead, it establishes a strategic framework for long-term action. It provides both guiding principles and specific recommendations to help public agencies, private stakeholders, and the wider community work together toward shared goals.
  • There is a severe undersupply of housing in the Cayman Islands, and new construction is not on track to meet the shortfall, let alone keep up with continuing demand growth.
  •  This hurts the ability of ordinary Caymanians to afford decent housing and could harm the long-term stability of the Caymanian economy and society if unaddressed.
  • The average 2-bedroom apartment home in the Cayman Islands now costs over CI$740,000, a price out of reach for the average Caymanian, whose median earnings is around CI$50,000.
  • At projected population growth rates, we will need to more than triple the current rate of housing construction just to maintain the supply at current affordability levels.
  • Without intervention, the situation is likely to worsen.
  • Vision: To provide affordable and attainable housing to all Caymanians and Cayman residents, enabling individuals, families, and communities to grow, thrive and prosper.
  • Mission: To resolve the housing challenges of our most vulnerable residents, and close the growing gap in Caymanians’ ability to attain and maintain affordable housing – through innovative and proven best practices in housing that also preserve Cayman’s unique culture and treasured environment.
  • Housing affordability looks at housing prices in relation to people's incomes and overall cost of living, in other words, their ability to afford it.
  • Factors that increase the cost of housing relative to residents’ income include: rapid population growth, inflation, limited land/housing supply, outdated land-use patterns and over-reliance on single-family housing, and the need for expanded infrastructure to support new housing.
  • The Caymanian economy faces other challenges that impact housing affordability, including high costs of borrowing, insurance, imported building supplies, and energy.
  • The Policy sets the overarching vision and principles for housing, while the 10-Year Strategic Plan outlines phased, practical actions to reduce barriers to housing development, lower housing costs, strengthen government coordination, and promote sustainable, well-planned communities. 
  • It provides both guiding principles and specific recommendations to help public agencies, private stakeholders, and the wider community work together toward shared housing goals, in support of social stability, economic resilience, and long-term national development. 
  • The Policy and its accompanying 10-Year Strategic Plan intend to improve access to housing and support affordability and homeownership through 98 specific recommendations across 10 broad issue areas, which include immediate, medium- and long-term actions. 
  • “Public housing” is housing that is government-owned and usually government-financed. Public housing can house low- to middle-income families and individuals, or it can provide basic housing for individuals unable to obtain or afford any market-rate housing – including the elderly, disabled, people experiencing mental health or substance issues, and families dislocated due to domestic violence.
  • “Social Housing,” or publicly-subsidised housing, is privately owned and operated by an entity who receives government funding in exchange for reserving some or all of the units at below-market rates for low- to middle-income families. “Supportive” housing is a Social Housing that serves special needs populations, and may include social and health services at or near the housing development.
  • “Affordable Housing,” means lower-cost housing that is attainable by low- to middle-income families and individuals, and may be provided by the private or public sector. Affordable housing may include "income-restricted housing," where it is available only to individuals and families with income below a certain threshold.
  • Provide adequate and affordable housing in Cayman’s communities.
  • Increase Caymanians’ access to capital and land.
  • Reduce housing costs and increase affordability and accessibility.
  • Promote strategies that encourage and preserve Caymanian homeownership.
  • Reduce long-term operating and maintenance costs to homeowners, including through resilience measures.
  • Address the housing needs of the most vulnerable and indigent, including transient workers.
  • Preserve and rehabilitate existing affordable housing stock, preventing the loss of affordable units due to deterioration or gentrification.
  • Prevent displacement and promote housing stability for residents.
  • Prevent and address homelessness, including through supportive housing programmes and services for homeless individuals and families.
  • Pursue economic development planning in a manner respectful of the Cayman Islands’ natural history and heritage.
  • Protect Cayman’s unique culture, values, aesthetics, and environment.
  • Encourage partnerships with community members, the public sector, housing developers, non-profit organisations, financial institutions, and other stakeholders to leverage resources and expertise.
  • Improve the well-being of our people and
  • Immediate Term (1-2 Years): Increase supply by building more houses.
  • Increase supply by making it quicker, easier, and cheaper to build more housing to address the unavailability and unaffordability of housing.
  • Medium Term (3-5 Years): Address underlying supply and demand challenges and strengthen housing planning and coordination across different sectors.
  • Address the underlying supply, demand, and regulatory issues that make less available and affordable.
  • Improve planning and coordination between different policy areas that impact housing: development planning, infrastructure, resiliency, transportation, and social services areas.
  • Long Term (6-10 Years): Diversify the economy.
  • Pursue new economic paths to create more high-paying jobs in growth industries for more Caymanians and Cayman residents.
  • Diversify (not abandon) the current, successful Cayman economic model.

The Policy’s 98 recommendations are organized into the following 10 sections. Some examples of recommendations are provided for each issue area below:
1. Making It Quicker, Easier and Cheaper to Build More Housing (Immediate-Term)

  • Streamline the permitting process.
  • Establish a Homeowner Assistance Centre.
  • Promote the development of pre-approved housing plans.
  • Fast-track the approval process for affordable housing developments.
  • Reduce construction costs by encouraging the use of innovative building materials and techniques.
  • Reduce or waive import duties on construction materials for affordable housing projects.
  • Update and enact a National Development Plan and amend the Development and Planning Regulations.
  • Increase allowable housing density in certain areas.
  • Provide bonuses to developments that include affordable housing.
  • Avoid creating new single-family-only zoning districts.
  • Encourage mixed-use and transit-oriented development.

2. Subsidising the Production, Rental and Purchase of Affordable Housing (Medium-Term)

  • Create a new public housing authority to expand government efforts to provide affordable housing and social housing, including both rental and homeownership opportunities.
  • Expand the use of social housing beyond the current single-family home type model.

3. Promoting Affordable Home Ownership (Medium-Term)

  • Reform the Stamp Duty on the purchase of a home to ease the financial burden on homebuyers.
  • Develop an enhanced government guaranteed mortgage programme to help more qualified Caymanians afford their first home.
  • Create homeownership opportunities through lease-to-own, and similar programmes.

4. Subsidising the Cost of Maintaining and Operating Housing (Medium-Term)

  • Commit to an annual appropriation for home repair programmes.
  • Develop a non-profit community development fund and plan to support community development organisations.
  • Continue to support energy-efficiency retrofits through the Cayman Home Energy Retrofit Programme (CHEER).
  • Offer loans to assist homeowners with the cost of installing rooftop solar power and other renewable generation technologies.
  • Ensure that insurance companies financially incentivise homeowners to invest in hurricane-mitigation features.

5. Curbing the Impact of Real Estate Speculation on the Residential Housing Market (Medium-Term)

  • Enacting a new fee on vacant, residential-zoned land held undeveloped by a foreign national or entity.
  • Limit foreign corporate ownership of short-term rental properties.
  • Reform the Permanent Residency system to encourage investment in job-creation and affordable housing.
  • Explore the potential of limiting the numbers of properties that can be purchased by foreign nationals with less than five years of Cayman residency.

6. Enhancing Resiliency and Sustainability (Medium-Term)

  • Update the Building Code to make buildings more resilient.
  • Integrate environmental conservation into better development and land use planning.
  • Increase the efficiency of energy and water infrastructure and the housing stock, including through green building incentives, community solar and micro-power generation, net metering, and grid modernisation.

7. Making Needed Investments in Infrastructure (Medium-Term)

  • Improve transportation networks and public transport through improvements to the service and operations of the public bus system, especially for lower-income, senior, disabled and mobility-limited residents.
  • Incentivise transit-oriented development and increase density near transit routes.
  • Promote alternative modes of transportation – pedestrian, bicycle, moped and micro-mobility options.
  • Build out public water and sewage systems, enhancing sewage treatment and disposal.
  • Require new developments to include or pay for needed infrastructure investments.

8. Serving the Needs of Vulnerable Populations (Medium-Term)

  • Enact protections against housing discrimination, including source-of-income discrimination.
  • Improving the services provided by the Department of Financial Assistance both to beneficiaries and landlords, and consolidating those functions under a proposed new housing authority.
  • Enacting new landlord and tenant protections, including clarifying standards of habitability, creating a standard lease agreement, and providing legal assistance for low-income tenants as well as landlords facing tenant-related issues.
  • Strengthen and enforce immigration laws to require an adequate provision of housing for the approval of work permits.
  • Develop a strategic plan to address homelessness.
  • Prioritise supportive housing for seniors and those with disabilities.

 

9. Addressing the Special Needs of the Sister Islands (Medium-Term)

  • Plan for the future by acquiring and setting aside land for affordable housing construction.
  • Develop plans for the types of affordable housing to be made available on the acquired land.
  • Provide grants and/or low-cost loans to individuals interested in learning and becoming licensed in a skilled trade, especially carpentry, plumbing, and electrical; incentivise residential housing development.
  • Build on-island planning capacity; and continue to build out the affordable communities currently allocated to Cayman Brac.

10. Creating More High-Paying Jobs for More Caymanians (Long-Term)

  • Expand economic opportunity for all Caymanians by diversifying the economy into more sectors that could employ more Caymanians and current residents in higher-wage jobs;
  • Enhance the country’s ability to attract and fill such jobs by strengthening the education system from early childhood to primary, secondary, and tertiary education and on through lifelong learning.
The Plan proposes a government-owned corporation responsible for delivering, managing, and coordinating all public and affordable housing programmes in the Cayman Islands. The housing authority would operate under clearly defined statutory powers and governance structures.
The Plan advances new loan programmes, strengthened mortgage guarantees, down-payment assistance, shared equity models, and expanded lease-to-own opportunities to assist first-time Caymanian homebuyers. 
The Policy recommends measures such as fees on long-held undeveloped residential land owned by foreign investors and limits on short-term rental ownership by foreign entities. Additionally, it recommends further study to better understand the relationship between foreign real estate transactions and the residential housing market.
Yes. It encourages more flexible zoning, mixed-use communities, and the reduced use of single-family-only development patterns to preserve land as new development continues. It also protects the integrity of culturally and historically significant sites.
The Policy takes seniors and vulnerable residents into consideration through methods such as supportive housing, home-modification programmes, and expanded emergency and transitional housing options. It prioritises supportive housing for low-income families with at least one senior member, to help families continue to care for their elders at home.
Yes. Actions include the adoption of a national homelessness strategy, annual point-in-time (PIT) counts to better understand need, improved shelters, and coordinated data collection.
Acknowledgement of climate risk and long-term housing sustainability are central to the Plan, which calls for reinforcing housing and infrastructure including through the continued updating of building codes, coastal setback revisions, and multi-hazard risk mapping.
Regulatory, legislative and/or policy changes will likely be needed to enact some of the recommendations in the Policy. Some recommendations can be implemented with existing resources while others will require government funding or a mix of government and private investment. Additional changes or legislative authority may be required to implement certain recommendations.
Addressing the housing crisis requires collective action. Therefore, the government will need the partnership and support of developers, financial institutions, community organisations, and each person who calls the Cayman Islands their home to deliver on the vision set forth in this Plan.
Over 1,000 residents and 120 organisations were engaged in the development of the Policy and 10-Year Strategic Plan, through interviews, surveys, and public outreach channels. The Policy directly addresses the key issues that Caymanians said matter most to them.
  • To address the housing crisis, the Policy and Plan will be implemented through a coordinated, whole-of-Government approach, supported by strong partnerships with key stakeholders.
  • Implementation will begin with immediate measures to address urgent housing needs, while laying the foundation for medium- and long-term system improvements.
  • This work cannot be achieved by the government alone but will depend on close collaboration with developers, financial institutions, community organisations, non-profits, private sector partners, and the wider public.
  • By working together, sharing expertise, and coordinating efforts, the Cayman Islands will be better positioned to deliver more affordable homes, create resilient communities, and ensure that safe, affordable housing is available for current and future generations.
  • Each policy recommendation in the Policy has been assigned to specific government ministries, departments, statutory authorities, and implementation partners responsible for leading or supporting delivery.
  • The Ministry responsible for Housing will monitor the overall implementation of the Policy and Plan.