NASSAU HOME FROM HOME
With a benign tax regime and colonial ambience, the capital of the Bahamas has much to offer British expats, reports Christopher Nye
NASSAU? The capital city of the Bahamas, Nassau
dominates the small (21 by 8 miles) island of New Providence. Although only a 35-minute fl ight from Miami and fi lled by American businesses and cruise-line passengers, it retains a British colonial ambience (in a good way), with police offi cers in starched white uniforms, a cricket pitch in the city centre and reminders of British infl uence carved into its walls.
THE BRITISH CONNECTION Columbus “discovered” the Bahamas
in 1492 and sold the native, peace-loving Lucayans into slavery, leaving New Providence uninhabited. So we needn’t feel too sorry for the Spanish when, after the British arrived in the mid- 1600s, the island became home to a thousand or more pirates, preying on the Spanish gold ships. Expats then included Blackbeard and Anne Bonny, but by the 1720s law and order arrived and in the 1780s a large infl ux of American loyalists to the
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British crown, along with their slaves. When the British banned the slave trade, the slaves were freed and joined those released from captured slave ships. Today the population is around 85 per cent black, 12 per cent white and 3 per cent creole.
The islands gained independence
from the UK in 1973, but remained in the Commonwealth, with the Queen as head of state. Prince Harry had a rapturous welcome when he visited this year.
BRITISH RESIDENTS In Nassau Cathedral, you can read
moving memorials to British families killed by shipwreck or yellow fever in the early 1800s, and make out graffi ti carved by Royal Marines on the castle walls. Long after the pirates left, there remained a shadiness to some of the Brits in Nassau, enriched by smuggling booze during American prohibition. Then the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, with the duke as governor, were foisted on them during the Second World War. Residents include Sean Connery, who has a house in Lyford Cay.
NASSAU TODAY Nassau has a population of nearly
125,000 and an economy based on tourism (60 per cent of GDP) and banking (30 per cent). The Bahamian dollar (BSD) is pegged to and equivalent to the US dollar. Despite all the commerce and the British/ American infl uence, there is still a relaxed, easygoing Caribbean vibe, known as “island time”. The centre of Nassau is buzzing in the daytime, but has a reputation for being dangerous
after dark. Being so close to the US coast, New Providence is a playground for Americans, with huge developments including Paradise Island, known as “Vegas-by-the-sea” (where Chandler and Monica had their honeymoon in Friends) and Cable Beach. The island has all the tourist facilities you could need, including yacht charter, golf courses, tennis courts and spas, with fi ne sandy beaches and great diving. Cruise ships drop thousands of passengers off each day, fi lling the shops and the tourist haunts including the castles, Sea World, Pirates of Nassau and the Adastra gardens.
TAX ADVANTAGES There is no income tax, capital gains
tax, VAT or sales tax in the Bahamas, though there is national insurance and property taxes including stamp duty of 8 per cent on properties above $100,000 (£62,900), split between buyer and
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