TURKS & CAICOS: An Introduction

The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) are a British Overseas Territory and situated to the south of the Bahamas, approximately 500 miles southeast of Miami, Florida.

TCI has demonstrated significant corporate and financial law stability over many decades and continues to do so. This is partially due to TCI having a stable and strong government, benefited by TCI law being based upon English common law. This sits alongside a significant number of locally enacted TCI-specific statutes.  

The currency of the TCI is the US dollar and there are no capital controls.

Current Economic Conditions and Market Developments

Luxury tourism is a major component of TCI’s economy, making up over 70% of TCI’s GDP. TCI continues to experience record numbers of tourists and directly correlated to this, interest from international real estate investors has never been better, it being reported, in 2024, that there was over USD3.8 billion in projects in the pipeline for the TCI. Foreign direct investment is focused primarily in five-star hotels, condominium resorts and managed luxury villa communities. The high demand for low density upscale managed villa developments continues to grow exponentially; however, condominium developments are the main focus for 2025 with USD240 million in pending (under contract) transactions, which is a reversal to previous year trends.

The TCI real estate market had another outstanding year in 2024, with the Turks and Caicos Real Estate Association recording nearly USD700 million in closed real estate transactions, as reported by local brokerage, The Agency and Turks and Caicos Sotheby’s. The bulk of this activity was in TCI’s main commercial and tourist centre, the island of Providenciales, and the main source of interest and activity was from US and Canadian high net worth individuals in the area of luxury villas, which accounted for over USD340.8 million. This level of activity is anticipated to continue into 2025 with nearly USD 1 billion in pending and conditional transactions.  

Investment on the developer side is continuing with several major mixed-used resorts on Providenciales having broken ground or slated to do so imminently, these being: St Regis; Hyatt Andaz; The Loren; the Point at Grace Bay, ARC Sky Villas at South Bank and Kempinski Grace Bay. In the meantime, gated villa developments continue to be announced across Providenciales. Demand coupled with lack of luxury inventory on Providenciales has resulted in driving prices up with the average sales price being USD1.57 million, a growth of 75% over a four-year period. A welcome consequence has been the commencement of significant foreign investment in North Caicos, ten miles to the north and previously largely undeveloped for tourism purposes.

The zero direct tax climate in TCI and the ease of obtaining residency status continues to make investment desirable despite increasing land prices and relatively high construction costs. In the absence of any unforeseen economic or natural factors adversely affecting TCI, we anticipate a continued period of growth for the real estate sector.

Legislation

The TCI government is continuing to make strides in diversifying the economy by seeking to grow the financial services sector. As part of this continued diversification, the TCI regulatory framework has been overhauled to make TCI competitive in the Caribbean marketplace. This has seen amendments to the companies, trusts and insolvency legislation, all of which have been wholly revamped, modernised and largely follow the internationally successful BVI models. Promotion of TCI’s financial services industry has hitherto largely been handled by the private sector: however, the TCI government has now established and funded a new body, TCI Finance, for that purpose, and so a higher international profile for the local finance sector is imminent.

Taxation

TCI has no direct taxes: no income capital gains, gift, inheritance, estate or corporation taxes. There are a number of indirect taxes that fund government revenue. These include hotel, restaurant and tourism tax, customs import duties, stamp duty on land transactions and departure tax. Revenues from financial services are also a significant contributor to government income.

Regulation

In terms of financial services, TCI has an extensive regulatory scheme which governs most aspects of the TCI financial industry including banks, insurance companies, brokers, agents, company administration managers, trust companies, investment dealers, mutual funds administrators and money transmitters.

The TCI Financial Services Commission (FSC) is independent of the TCI government and its functions incorporate the supervision and regulation of licensees under TCI’s financial services regulatory statutes and the monitoring of financial services business.

TCI’s anti-money laundering regime is to international best practices. Anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing are a priority of both the TCI government and the FSC, and all local service providers are obliged to comply with the regulations and are subject to FSC compliance audits.

Consequently, any individual or corporation seeking to register a legal entity or obtain TCI licensing needs to comply with the relevant regulations. The TCI anti-money laundering regulations have continued to be upgraded in line with international and FATF standards.

Dispute Resolution

In light of the continued commercial economic growth in TCI, it is necessary to have a strong foundation in the dispute resolution arena to assist in the likely increase in litigation which derives from such increased economic activity. The TCI judiciary is well placed to deal with this.

In addition to conventional court-room litigation, TCI offers resolution through alternative dispute resolution with both arbitration and mediation available.

Chief Justice Agyemang recently stated that mediation including specialised family mediation has “taken off” with the judiciary recording steady successes in this forum. In 2024, 42 cases were referred to mediation from the courts and of these 11 were settled, nine were not settled and 20 were pending.

The availability of these alternative dispute resolution mechanisms means that TCI is competitive within the region. They also make TCI more attractive for investors who are reassured that there are speedier, less expensive and more commercial avenues available to resolve disputes that may arise.

In terms of conventional litigation, the primary court of first instance for serious matters is the Supreme Court, which is similar to the High Court in England and is presided over by a single judge.

There is an appeal process from the Supreme Court to the TCI Court of Appeal. Appeals can be made from the TCI Court of Appeal to the Privy Council, which sits in England. The Privy Council is the final appellate court.

In response to the needs of a rapidly changing society, 2024 saw many judicial initiatives coming to fruition. These included the Coroner’s Court which, in 2024, saw 165 matters listed of which 143 were disposed of, and the introduction of new sentencing guidelines and Civil Procedure Rules. 2025 sees ambitious plans to enhance access to justice, the integration of AI and the revamp of the adjunct services of court-connected mediation and restorative justice. These initiatives revolutionise the service delivery, efficiency and accessibility of the court system in TCI.