Buying a house on Sint Maarten: freely for sale, but look under the ground first

First the order that is fixed on this site: in your first year you don't buy — you rent, you get to know the island and its neighbourhoods, and only then do you decide. On Sint Maarten there is an extra reason to hold to that: the difference between summer and the hurricane season is not a weather detail there but a living experience. This article is for the moment you are that far.

You may buy, and there is no small print

On the Dutch side of Sint Maarten there are no restrictions on foreign ownership. No permit, no residence or nationality requirement, no prior approval: you buy with the same rights as a resident. That is worth mentioning on this site, because at many warm destinations it is precisely the other way round.

One misunderstanding to clear up straight away: buying a house gives no right of residence. The Declaration by Operation of Law is entirely separate from it. The other way round it does work: suitable housing is one of the conditions for that declaration, so your deed of purchase or tenancy agreement is in fact a building block for your admission.

The process: the notary does the work

Sint Maarten follows the Dutch notarial system. Only a notary established on the island can transfer ownership: they do the title search, check for mortgages, attachments and easements, draw up the deed of transfer, settle the tax and register with the Kadaster on Backstreet in Philipsburg.

The usual course: an offer via a letter of intent or conditional purchase agreement, then the investigation (title, cadastral boundaries, building permits, outstanding utility bills and — for a flat — the finances of the owners' association), then completion. On signing the purchase agreement a 10% deposit usually goes into escrow with the notary. Count on four to eight weeks for an ordinary cash purchase; with financing or a buyer who has to supply their papers from abroad it becomes two to four months.

Prices are almost always in US dollars, even though the Caribbean guilder is the official currency. For you that means currency risk over the full purchase price: between your offer and completion there can easily be two months of exchange-rate movement. Agree with your bank when you convert, instead of letting chance decide.

What it costs: 4% plus notary — and then that 5%

The transfer tax is 4% of the value, and the law explicitly places it with the acquirer: the buyer pays. The basis is the purchase price, unless the registered value is higher — then that counts. On top comes the notary, in the market 1 to 2%. Together that is the rule of thumb you hear everywhere: 5 to 6% buyer's costs. Better reserve 6 to 8% if you count in valuation, structural survey, land survey and legal review.

And then the item that almost every budget misses. On the services of the notary and the estate agent comes 5% turnover tax. The law does have an exemption for notarial services, but it applies only to services to certain companies — not to a private buyer. The "1 to 2% notary" you hear quoted is usually exclusive of that surcharge, so always ask for your quote inclusive of ToT.

The estate agent's commission is paid by the seller. The percentage is not published by any party on the island and is negotiable — so have it recorded in writing who pays what before you make an offer.

For comparison, because this is a two-country island: on the French Saint-Martin the purchase costs run up to 10 to 13%. So the border across the middle of the island is a tax border too.

The long-lease check — this is where you earn your homework back

This is the sharpest point of this article, and it appears on virtually no Dutch-language site. Part of the housing stock stands on long-lease land of the Country (erfpacht), and the national ordinance on it is strict:

• the issue is for at most sixty years;
• the ground rent is 8% a year of the land value set by the minister.

Eight per cent is a lot. On an assessed land value of USD 100,000 that is USD 8,000 ground rent a year — a burden that, next to your buildings insurance, dominates your annual costs, and that is set anew on revision.

Just as important is what happens at the end. You have no automatic right of renewal: on expiry the parties get three months to agree on renewal or on compensation for the buildings. If that fails, the minister can auction the right publicly. In practice long lease on the island proves solid as long as you pay the ground rent — but the remaining term is what determines your resale and your financing.

Ask the notary for four things before your offer: the deed of issue in long lease, the commencement date and the remaining term, the current ground rent with the date of the next revision, and whether it is government or private long lease. Below roughly twenty-five years of remaining term, financing and resale become difficult.

Timeshare is a category apart here

Sint Maarten has one of the largest timeshare markets in the region, and a correspondingly large problem file. Three things you need to know before a sales talk convinces you.

What you buy is often not ownership but a right of use for a certain period, which simply ends at the end and is not in the registers. The maintenance fee is an ongoing obligation that also continues when you don't use the week, and that can be raised with special assessments. And there are two major precedents on this island where owners lost their right when a resort changed hands.

The core: parliament passed a protection law in 2016 with a supervisor and bankruptcy protection, but that law was never ratified. As of August 2026 no timeshare legislation can be found in the national regulations, and the European timeshare directive does not apply here. So you buy without the safety net you are used to in the Netherlands.

Hurricane: the insurance is part of the purchase price

Irma flattened a large part of the island in 2017, and since then insurability is a purchase risk. For a fully covered home — buildings, hurricane and flood together — count on roughly 0.6 to 1.2% of the rebuild value a year. On a rebuild value of USD 500,000 that is USD 3,000 to 6,000 a year, every year again.

So take that premium into your monthly costs and not your one-off costs, ask for an indication for the specific address before the offer, and look at the construction: concrete structures with hurricane shutters insure more cheaply than timber build. A lender demands the cover anyway.

Financing: the order is worth money

Borrowing locally is possible, but the difference between resident and non-resident is large: banks ask a non-resident for 40 to 50% own contribution, a resident around 10%. Whoever first arranges their Declaration by Operation of Law and their registration at the Census Office and then buys, changes their financing terms drastically with that. That is the strongest practical reason to keep to the order of the process.

A Dutch mortgage is not an option: Dutch banks don't finance collateral outside the Netherlands, and the interest isn't deductible because the home isn't your Dutch owner-occupied home.

And afterwards: the annual costs

Here lies a curious contradiction you have to resolve yourself. The Land Tax Ordinance has a levy on the taxable value per period of five years, while a large part of the estate-agent market advertises "no property tax" and there are political plans to abolish the levy. So budget for it anyway, and ask your notary for the current position for your property — it is cheaper to get a windfall than an assessment.

Then the ordinary island items: electricity is expensive, water often produced from the sea, and with a flat the owners' association contributions come on top. For the broader tax picture of living on the island, including the penshonado scheme, read tax and penshonado on Sint Maarten; you arrange your healthcare via healthcare on Sint Maarten.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the process: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole process to Sint Maarten.