Democracy puts Fiji back on international real estate map

Property cycles don't switch into overdrive overnight. But, according to reports, Fiji's smooth return to a democratic government has slipped an idling market into forward gear.

Much hope was pinned on a real estate revival following the Pacific nation's September general election, the first in almost a decade due to a military coup. In the event, incoming Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama won by a comfortable majority and, as noted by Australia's Peter Reith, a former government senior minister who was in Fiji to monitor the election, the transition from military rule to democracy could not have been much smoother.

It was news many in the industry had been waiting for. One Australian agent selling property in Fiji reported that "the mood is very positive there. We've got stability back; people are smiling".

Prices had been down for several years following what realtor Philip Toogood calls "a global financial crisis-related correction", but the wheels of investor interest had already begun turning, he believes.

Toogood, managing director and partner at Bayleys Fiji and South Pacific, has a sense of "pent-up buyer energy" evident in an uptick in sales activity by local buyers, and a stirring of interest from overseas.

He has "no doubt" that the political situation since the 2006 coup put potential offshore investors off the Fiji market, but says the improving global economy put "nice-to-have" real estate assets back on their agenda. "With the newly elected government now in place and the formal opening of parliament in October, old friendships are re-engaging and new friendships are strengthening," he says.