A property in the heart of the Town of St George is on the market for $1.65 million.

Realtors Belcario and Natasha Thomas, of Keller Williams Bermuda, saw interest in 32 Water Street almost as soon as they listed it.

Mr Thomas said it was an unusual opportunity because traditionally there was a low turnover rate in the old town.

“Most families and trust groups have held on to properties and not moved them,” he said. “Since Covid-19, we have seen demand go up. St George is no longer penalised for being at the end of Bermuda.”

The two-storey building next door to Wahoo’s Bistro, comes with 0.16 acres of land in the back and 100 feet of dock space.

The property has two residential apartments on the upper level and a commercial space on the lower level, with planning permission in place for an additional residential apartment. There is also public parking directly opposite in Customs Square.

“This is exciting,” Mr Thomas said. “You have commercial and residential revenue streams. With planning permission, there is even potential for a small marina finger and a grassy space that can be rented out.”

The Baby Bean coffee caravan currently rents space behind the building.

Mr Thomas said 32 Water Street was in good condition and basically turnkey.

In the summer, the Corporation of St George launched a social-media campaign to entice new business in advance of redevelopment plans for the town.

The hope is to get tenants for the slew of vacant buildings around the Unesco World Heritage site.

The realtors live and work near the property and already have scheduled viewings.

They took the interest as more evidence of a warming commercial real estate market in Bermuda. In the past 18 months, they said, the number of commercial properties listed on the website Property Skipper had fallen by half.

Mr Thomas said Bermuda real estate was in a buyer’s market after the 2008 real estate market crash.

“We saw the bottom of the market during Covid-19,” he said.

Buyers lost confidence.

“No one wanted to invest,” Mrs Thomas said. “Things under contract during Covid-19 fell apart and people could not get financing.”

Now, they are seeing renewed interest.

“We reopened as a sellers market,” Mr Thomas said.

He explained that there were five types of buyers: market timers, downsizers, investors, first-time buyers and high-net-worth individuals.

“All of those buckets are busy,” he said. “All five types of buyers are increasing quarterly.”

He said investors were loving the return on investment in Bermuda, right now.

“Rents are going up,” he said. “They can handle the maintenance and real estate is such a tangible asset. It is not as shaky as the stock market.”

He said market timers – people who saved their money, waiting for the perfect time to buy property, were also jumping in with both feet.

“Now, they are saying, ‘oh, I could have bought that, I could have bought that’, and it’s gone,” he said. “That is adding a sense of urgency.”

The downside to the increased activity is more pressure on the market and decreasing inventory.

“We are not mass producing a bunch of housing right now,” Mr Thomas said. “However, there appears to be a lot coming down the pipeline including new builds and renovations.”

Mrs Thomas said that residentially, buyers have for a long time been interested in standalone properties, but there is now more interest in condos again.