GE Go EleutheraThe island, end to end
The carrying cost

The single most expensive line on this page is not the house. It is the six-month rule.

Six months or more in the property and you pay nothing on the first $300,000. A day under, and you pay from the first dollar at more than double the rate above $500,000. Put a price in and watch what the switch does.

Real property tax —

 

… paid in full by 31 March, less 10% —
Electricity, a year —

All-in residential cost per kWh, base tariff plus the fuel charge. The fuel charge alone is 19.48¢ and is a straight pass-through — it moves with world oil, not with anything you control.

Insurance, a year —

Per year, as a share of REBUILD value — not what you paid. A commonly cited example is $5,000–$10,000 a year on a $500,000 property.

Before anything goes wrong —

This gives you a defensible range, not a quote. It does not include what you paid, a mortgage, VAT on the conveyance, or anything specific to one property — a cistern that needs relining, a dock, a generator. Take the number to a licensed Bahamian brokerage and have them price the actual thing.

Before you budget on that power number

It goes off, and not for minutes.

Eleuthera is one of the Family Islands that consistently endures unreliable supply. In June 2026 an island-wide outage left parts of the island dark for more than fourteen hours, and a separate incident ran past twenty. Residents describe near-daily fluctuations that damage appliances — which is its own cost, arriving as dead fridges and fried air-conditioners rather than as a bill.

So: A generator is not a luxury item on this island, it is a line in the budget — the unit, the transfer switch, the fuel, and someone to run it when you are not here. So is whole-house surge protection: the flicker does more cumulative damage than the outage.

And fairly: BPL has committed to having its own generation fully operational on mainland Eleuthera and phasing out rental units, which should reduce load shedding. Worth asking where that actually stands for the settlement you are buying in — it is not the same everywhere on 110 miles.

Tribune242 and Nassau Guardian reporting, June–August 2026; BPL press releases.

The rest of it

Six lines we will not invent a figure for.

Every one of these is real and recurring, and every one of them depends on the specific property. We would rather name them and leave the number blank than hand you a plausible guess you would then budget on.

A generatorNot optional here. The unit, a transfer switch, fuel, servicing, and somebody to start it when you are away. Budget it as infrastructure, not an accessory. Plan for it
Surge protectionWhole-house, not power strips. The near-daily flickers kill compressors and boards, and that bill arrives as a new air-conditioner rather than as a utility charge. One-off, then luck
WaterMost properties outside the settlements are on a cistern and rainwater, sometimes with reverse osmosis. That is a maintenance line, not a utility bill — and a dry season means trucked water. Varies
InternetFibre and fixed wireless reach much of the island now. Not free, and not always fast, but no longer the obstacle it was. Varies
ManagementIf you are not here, somebody has to be. Checking a closed house, running the generator, being there for a delivery. Commonly a monthly retainer plus hours. Ask three
FreightAlmost everything arrives by boat. It sits inside the price of every repair, every appliance and every contractor quote in a way it does not at home. In everything
Men unloading oil drums and freight from the mailboat at Governor's Dock, Dunmore Town
The mailboat unloading at Governor's Dock, Dunmore Town, 1989. Almost everything on this island still arrives by boat, and that fact sits inside the price of every repair and every contractor's quote.Rüdiger Stehn · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
The schedules the calculator uses

Every rate above, in full.

Each band applies only to the slice of value inside it, the way income tax works — which is the thing people get wrong when they multiply the whole price by the top rate and frighten themselves.

You live here six months a year or more

  • Nothing on the first $300,000, nothing at all
  • 0.625% from $300,001 to $500,000
  • 1% above $500,000

Capped at $150,000 a year.

You are here less than six months a year

  • 0.75% on the first $500,000, from the first dollar
  • 2% above $500,000

No cap.

Vacant land, owned by a non-Bahamian

  • $100 flat on the first $7,000
  • 1.5% from $7,001 to $75,000
  • 0.75% from $75,001 to $500,000
  • 2% above $500,000

Land you are holding to build on later is taxed differently again.

The 31 March discount Pay the year in full by 31 March and 10% comes off.
The hurricane deductible Hurricane claims usually carry their own deductible of 2–5% of insured value. On a $500,000 policy at 2%, the first $10,000 of a hurricane claim is yours.
Getting cover at all Underwriters have publicly described the Family Islands as difficult to place. Availability, not just price, is a real question here — get a quote on the specific property before you are committed, not after.

Sources

Checked 2026-09-10. Rates and tariffs change. Confirm with the Department of Inland Revenue, BPL and a licensed broker before you rely on a figure. Nothing here is tax, legal or insurance advice.

Want this run on an actual property? We introduce you to a BREA-licensed Bahamian brokerage who can pull the real tax assessment, get an insurance quote on that roof, and tell you what the power does in that settlement. No fee to you.
The introduction

Tell us what you're doing.

Six questions. It goes straight to the licensed Bahamian brokerages that cover what you're after — the first to pick it up gets in touch with you directly.

Your details are not shown to anybody until a brokerage claims the introduction, and only then to the one that claimed it. We are not your agent and we take no fee from you.