Buying a house on Saba: 5% at purchase, 0.7% without surcharges, and a red roof is mandatory

Yes, as a Dutch citizen you buy on Saba as in the rest of the Caribbean Netherlands: the notary executes the deed and pays the transfer tax of 5%, and the Cadastre BES registers the transfer. The find at the source lies in the years after. The property tax is 17.5% on a notional yield of 4%, effectively 0.7% of the value, and Bonaire adds 30% island surcharges on top; the Tax Administration writes literally that no surcharges are calculated on Saba and Sint Eustatius. The home you live in yourself is exempt on top of that. The trap is not the tax but the building: much land belongs to the Public Entity and is issued in long lease, and every alteration passes through a permit with aesthetic rules.

In your first year you do not buy. You rent, you get to know the island and only then do you decide. Why that order is fixed is in why you do not buy a house in your first year; this article is for the moment you are there.

What does the purchase cost on top of the price?

The transfer tax is 5% of the value, owed by the buyer, and the notary ensures it is paid on return. Added to that are the tariffs of the Cadastre BES, fixed in dollars and per act: registration of the transfer deed costs $ 177.50 up to a principal of $ 75,000 and above that $ 5.85 per extra $ 1,000, with a ceiling of $ 2,300; a mortgage deed the same, with the threshold at $ 100,000. A search of the public registers costs $ 40 per object, and a copy of the certificate of admeasurement, the document every building application asks for, $ 24.70 on Saba and Sint Eustatius. For a new build there is no transfer tax but ABB on the delivery, and that is 6% on Saba instead of Bonaire's 8%. Buying says nothing about your admission; you arrange that separately.

Item	Amount or rate
Transfer tax, existing home	5%, through the notary
ABB on the delivery of a new build	6% on Saba (Bonaire 8%)
Cadastre: registration of the transfer deed	$ 177.50 up to $ 75,000; above that $ 5.85 per $ 1,000, at most $ 2,300
Cadastre: registration of the mortgage deed	$ 177.50 up to $ 100,000; above that $ 5.85 per $ 1,000, at most $ 2,300
Cadastre: search of the public registers	$ 40 per object
Cadastre: copy of the certificate of admeasurement	$ 24.70
Property tax, owner-occupied home	exempt
Property tax, second home or rented out	0.7% of the value above the USD 70,000 threshold; no surcharges on Saba
Building permit at construction costs up to $ 100,000	$ 500
Building permit at construction costs above $ 100,000	$ 1,000
Processing time building permit	up to 16 weeks, extendable to 24
Ground rent on government land for housing	2% of the land value a year, at most 60 years

What do you pay every year after that?

Nothing, as long as you live there yourself: the Tax Act BES exempts the own home that serves as your main residence from property tax. If you keep the house as a second home or rent it out, 4% of the value counts as yield, for a self-contained dwelling only on the part above USD 70,000, and on that 17.5% tax: effectively 0.7%. On Bonaire 30% surcharges are added, up to 0.91%; on Saba not. The Tax Administration sets the value for five years, and for whoever buys land to build there is a separate rule: land on which an own home rises within 24 months of the start of construction counts as vacant and remains exempt.

Why is building on Saba a chapter of its own?

Because the Public Entity keeps control. For a new build, an extension, an extra floor and structural changes you need a building permit from the Infrastructure and Spatial Development department, with drawings, a parking plan, the certificate of admeasurement, a Cadastre search and, if you are not the owner, the long-lease agreement. The fees are $ 500 at construction costs below $ 100,000 and $ 1,000 above, processing takes up to sixteen weeks and can be extended to 24, and an objection can be lodged within six weeks. The aesthetic rules are stated without ceremony: red roofs, white walls, and shutters in green and white, red and white or brown and white; an exterior colour should fit that too. Much land belongs to the Public Entity and is issued in long lease: for housing at a ground rent of 2% of the land value a year, for at most sixty years, by notarial deed, with the obligation to start building within six months of registration. The Tax Administration publishes an indicative land price map per island, including Saba.

What does the rental year teach you first?

On an island with a handful of villages the choice of location is no matter of taste: The Bottom with the government, the IND and the hospital, Windwardside with the bank. How renting on Saba works and what the utilities cost is there; how healthcare and work on the island fit together you read in healthcare on Saba and working and the safety net on Saba. The place of the purchase in the journey is on /saba.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Saba or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.