The Outlook for Puerto Rico’s Housing Market

Puerto Rico Mortgage Bankers Association

The Outlook for Puerto Rico's Housing Market

In this interview with the Mortgage Bankers Association of Puerto Rico (MBA), Adam Greenfader, Chairman of AG&T, shares his perspective on the economic trends that were beginning to reshape Puerto Rico’s real estate market and why the island was entering a new cycle of investment and development.

 

As Puerto Rico emerged from one of the most challenging periods in its modern history, leaders from the island’s housing and financial sectors gathered to discuss the outlook for residential development, mortgage lending, and economic growth.

 

While the conversation originally focused on the twelve-month outlook, many of the themes discussed remain highly relevant today.

A Market Entering a New Cycle

Several powerful forces were converging to support Puerto Rico’s economy.

Historic levels of federal reconstruction funding were beginning to flow into infrastructure, housing, and public works. Private investment was increasing as entrepreneurs, manufacturers, hospitality companies, and technology firms expanded their presence on the island. At the same time, Puerto Rico’s competitive tax incentives and strategic position as a U.S. jurisdiction continued to attract new residents and businesses.

Together, these factors created renewed confidence in both the residential and commercial real estate markets.

Housing as an Economic Multiplier

One of the central themes of the discussion was the importance of housing.

A healthy housing market extends far beyond homeownership.

Residential development supports employment across construction, architecture, engineering, finance, legal services, manufacturing, retail, and countless local businesses. Every new home generates economic activity while helping strengthen communities and improve quality of life.

As Puerto Rico continues to modernize its infrastructure and attract new investment, the demand for quality housing remains one of the island’s most significant long-term opportunities.

The Role of Responsible Mortgage Lending

The Mortgage Bankers Association of Puerto Rico has long played an important role in promoting responsible lending practices, professional education, and sound mortgage underwriting throughout the island.

By bringing together lenders, financial institutions, regulators, and housing professionals, the Association helps strengthen confidence in Puerto Rico’s housing finance system while encouraging sustainable homeownership and responsible access to credit.

Strong financial institutions are essential to supporting long-term residential growth, particularly as new investment continues to enter the market.

Looking Beyond the Recovery

The discussion also emphasized that Puerto Rico’s future cannot depend solely on federal recovery funding.

While reconstruction dollars have accelerated economic activity, lasting prosperity will ultimately be driven by private investment, entrepreneurship, innovation, manufacturing, tourism, and continued confidence in Puerto Rico’s business environment.

Housing will remain one of the cornerstones of that growth.

As more families, professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors choose Puerto Rico, the need for resilient communities, quality residential development, and well-capitalized lending institutions will continue to expand.

AG&T’s Perspective

For more than three decades, AG&T has worked alongside developers, lenders, investors, and public agencies throughout Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, helping structure residential, hospitality, and mixed-use developments that contribute to long-term economic growth.

Our work has reinforced a simple principle:

Healthy housing markets are built on more than favorable interest rates.

They require confidence in the economy, responsible lending, thoughtful planning, resilient communities, and collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Puerto Rico possesses all of the ingredients necessary to support that long-term vision.

We invite you to watch this conversation with the Mortgage Bankers Association of Puerto Rico as we discuss the forces shaping the island’s housing market and why we believe Puerto Rico remains one of the most compelling real estate opportunities under the U.S. flag.

Returns on Resilience: Why Sustainable Design Has Become One of the Best Investments in Caribbean Hospitality

ULi Speakers

Returns on Resilience: Why Sustainable Design Has Become One of the Best Investments in Caribbean Hospitality

For decades, sustainability was often viewed as an aspirational goal—a desirable feature that enhanced a project’s brand, improved public perception, or satisfied environmental objectives.

Today, that conversation has fundamentally changed.

Across the Caribbean, resilience has evolved from an environmental initiative into one of the most important drivers of long-term financial performance.

Developers, institutional investors, lenders, insurers, hotel operators, and governments increasingly recognize that resilient design is no longer optional. It is becoming a prerequisite for preserving value, attracting capital, reducing operating risk, and ensuring that hospitality assets remain competitive for generations.

At AG&T, we have long believed that the future of Caribbean development lies at the intersection of economics, engineering, hospitality, and environmental stewardship.

That belief inspired one of the Urban Land Institute Caribbean Council’s most forward-looking conversations: Returns on Resilience, bringing together internationally recognized experts from finance, architecture, engineering, and sustainability to examine how resilient design is reshaping real estate investment.

The discussion featured:

  • Jan Raes, Global Sustainability Advisor, ABN AMRO

  • Esteban Biondi, Associate Principal, ATM

  • Koen Olthuis, Co-Founder, Waterstudio.NL

  • Adam Greenfader, Managing Partner, AG&T

Together, the panel explored a fundamental question:

Can resilience create superior investment returns?

The answer was a resounding yes.

Sustainability Has Become a Financial Strategy

Institutional capital has undergone a profound transformation over the past decade.

Major pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, banks, and private equity firms increasingly evaluate climate resilience alongside traditional underwriting metrics such as location, occupancy, and projected cash flow.

Today’s investors ask very different questions:

  • Can this property withstand stronger hurricanes?

  • How will sea level rise affect long-term value?

  • What is the projected cost of insurance over the next twenty years?

  • How resilient are the building systems?

  • Can the project maintain operations following a major storm?

  • Does the development reduce long-term environmental risk?

Increasingly, these answers influence financing decisions, insurance pricing, investment returns, and exit valuations.

Resilience has become a core component of fiduciary responsibility.

The Economics of Resilience

The discussion emphasized that resilient development should not be viewed simply as an added construction expense.

It should be viewed as an investment.

Resilient projects often benefit from:

  • Lower long-term operating costs

  • Reduced insurance premiums

  • Improved access to financing

  • Stronger lender confidence

  • Higher institutional investor interest

  • Faster post-storm recovery

  • Greater asset liquidity

  • Improved guest confidence

  • Longer building life cycles

  • Enhanced long-term property values

For hospitality assets in particular, every day a hotel remains operational after a major storm protects revenue, employees, guest relationships, and brand reputation.

The financial value of remaining open can far exceed the incremental cost of building resiliently from the beginning.

Beyond Green Building

The conversation also challenged a common misconception.

Sustainability is not simply about achieving certifications or incorporating environmentally friendly materials.

True resilience requires a comprehensive approach that integrates architecture, engineering, infrastructure, energy systems, coastal protection, water management, emergency planning, and long-term operational strategy.

Developments must be designed not only to survive future climate events—but to continue operating through them.

That shift represents a new philosophy for Caribbean development.

Rather than designing for average conditions, projects must increasingly be designed for future conditions.

Learning from the Dutch

Perhaps one of the most fascinating discussions centered on aquatic architecture and the remarkable experience of the Netherlands.

For more than a thousand years, the Dutch have lived with water rather than attempting to conquer it.

Long before climate resilience became a global priority, Dutch engineers, planners, and architects developed sophisticated strategies for flood management, floating communities, adaptive infrastructure, and integrated water systems.

Companies such as Waterstudio.NL have transformed centuries of accumulated knowledge into innovative approaches that are now being implemented around the world.

For island nations throughout the Caribbean, these lessons are becoming increasingly relevant.

As sea levels rise and coastal environments evolve, the question is no longer whether architecture should respond to water.

It is how quickly we are prepared to embrace that reality.

Aquatic architecture is not science fiction.

It represents an evolution in urban planning that includes floating homes, floating hotels, adaptive marinas, amphibious structures, floating public spaces, and waterfront communities designed to work in harmony with changing environmental conditions.

For the Caribbean, where coastlines define both our identity and our economy, these ideas deserve serious consideration.

Hospitality’s Next Competitive Advantage

Hospitality has always depended upon extraordinary locations.

Many of the world’s finest resorts occupy beaches, bays, lagoons, and waterfronts that also happen to be among the most environmentally vulnerable landscapes on earth.

Protecting these destinations requires more than stronger buildings.

It requires integrated planning that combines resilient architecture, renewable energy, advanced water management, nature-based coastal defenses, intelligent infrastructure, and thoughtful master planning.

The most successful hospitality destinations of the future will likely be those that embrace resilience not as a regulatory requirement, but as a defining competitive advantage.

Guests increasingly value destinations that demonstrate environmental leadership.

Investors increasingly reward projects that reduce long-term climate risk.

Lenders increasingly recognize resilience as an indicator of stronger underwriting.

Insurance providers increasingly differentiate projects based upon mitigation strategies.

The market is beginning to place a measurable premium on resilience.

AG&T’s Vision for the Caribbean

At AG&T, resilience has never been viewed as a niche topic.

It is central to how we think about Caribbean development.

Throughout our work across Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, and the wider Caribbean, we continue to advocate for development strategies that combine world-class hospitality with resilient infrastructure, renewable energy, regenerative design, and innovative coastal planning.

Our collaboration with global experts—from Dutch aquatic architects and sustainability advisors to institutional investors and hospitality leaders—reflects our belief that the Caribbean has an opportunity not simply to adapt to climate change, but to become a global laboratory for resilient tourism and coastal development.

The islands have always been defined by their relationship with the sea.

The next generation of Caribbean hospitality will be defined by how intelligently we choose to live with it.

Designing sustainably is no longer about branding.

It is about building stronger businesses, protecting communities, preserving irreplaceable destinations, and creating hospitality assets capable of thriving for generations to come.

For the Caribbean, resilience is no longer simply good environmental policy.

It is good economics.

Investing Through Uncertainty: Institutional Capital’s View of Caribbean Hospitality During COVID-19

Investing Through Uncertainty: Institutional Capital's View of Caribbean Hospitality During COVID-19

 

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty gripped the global hospitality industry.

Hotels throughout the Caribbean stood nearly empty. International travel had come to an unprecedented halt. Lenders were reassessing risk, investment activity had slowed dramatically, and developers around the world were asking the same question:

What does the future of hospitality look like?

To help answer that question, AG&T and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Caribbean Roundtable hosted a timely conversation with Nicholas Hecker, Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Sculptor Real Estate, moderated by Adam Greenfader, Chairman of AG&T and former Chair of the ULI Caribbean Council.

The discussion provided a rare institutional perspective during one of the most uncertain periods the hospitality industry had ever experienced.

Looking Beyond the Crisis

While much of the industry focused on immediate operational challenges, the conversation explored a much broader question:

How do long-term institutional investors evaluate hospitality during periods of extreme uncertainty?

Nicholas Hecker shared insights into how sophisticated investment managers distinguish between short-term market disruption and long-term value creation. Rather than reacting solely to the immediate crisis, institutional investors continued to evaluate demographic trends, destination quality, replacement costs, barriers to entry, and the long-term fundamentals supporting hospitality investment.

The message was clear.

The pandemic represented an extraordinary disruption—but not the end of the hospitality industry.

Confidence in Caribbean Hospitality

The Caribbean entered the pandemic with some of the strongest tourism fundamentals in the world.

Exceptional natural assets, limited beachfront supply, growing global demand for experiential travel, and proximity to North American markets continued to make the region attractive from a long-term investment perspective.

The discussion emphasized that while transaction activity had slowed, high-quality destinations would likely recover first as travelers increasingly sought open-air environments, wellness experiences, and lower-density resort communities.

Many of those observations proved remarkably accurate.

In the years that followed, the Caribbean experienced record tourism recovery, rising average daily room rates, increased luxury development, and renewed institutional investment.

Institutional Capital Today

Since that conversation, Sculptor Real Estate has continued to expand one of the world’s leading alternative real estate investment platforms.

Today, the firm has raised approximately $14.5 billion in capital across opportunistic equity, credit, and long-term investment strategies, with investments representing more than $30 billion in enterprise value across hospitality, resorts, gaming, marinas, specialty real estate, infrastructure, and other alternative asset classes.

The firm’s continued focus on experiential real estate reflects growing institutional confidence in sectors closely aligned with the Caribbean’s long-term strengths.

AG&T’s Commitment to Industry Leadership

One of AG&T’s objectives throughout the pandemic was to ensure that Caribbean developers, investors, lenders, and hospitality professionals remained connected to the world’s leading thinkers.

Rather than allowing uncertainty to halt the conversation, AG&T organized a series of virtual discussions featuring executives from global investment firms, hotel brands, multilateral development banks, tourism organizations, lenders, and government agencies.

These conversations helped industry participants better understand how global capital was responding to unprecedented market conditions while providing valuable insights into the recovery that would eventually follow.

Looking Back

Viewed today, this discussion serves as an important historical snapshot. It captured institutional thinking at one of the most uncertain moments in modern hospitality history.

More importantly, it demonstrated that experienced investors were already looking beyond the immediate crisis and focusing on the long-term fundamentals that continue to drive Caribbean tourism today.

For AG&T, the conversation reinforced a principle that has guided our work for more than three decades:  Markets experience cycles. Hospitality evolves. Capital adapts.

But exceptional destinations supported by thoughtful planning, resilient infrastructure, and long-term vision continue to attract investment.

The Caribbean’s recovery over the past several years has validated that perspective—and positioned the region for a new generation of hospitality investment.

Caribbean Banking Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Isabel de Caires

Caribbean Banking Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic

 

During the unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Caribbean financial institutions faced one of the most significant challenges in their history. With tourism at a standstill, hospitality assets under pressure, and uncertainty across virtually every sector of the regional economy, banks were required to move beyond traditional lending practices and work collaboratively with borrowers to preserve long-term value.

In this exclusive interview, Isabel de Caires of FirstCaribbean International Bank shares how regional lenders responded during the crisis, implementing payment deferrals, restructuring loans, reducing costs, and working alongside clients to help businesses navigate an extraordinary period of uncertainty.

One of the most important lessons from the pandemic was the willingness of Caribbean banks to cooperate—not only with borrowers, but with one another and with governments—to maintain financial stability across the region. That collaborative approach helped many projects survive a period that few could have anticipated.

For AG&T, these conversations reinforced the importance of maintaining strong relationships throughout the Caribbean banking community. Over more than three decades, we have worked closely with regional and international financial institutions, giving our clients valuable insight into evolving lending practices, capital markets, and financing strategies across multiple jurisdictions.

Whether structuring development financing, introducing lending partners, or advising on capital formation, AG&T’s longstanding relationships with Caribbean financial institutions provide clients with access to market intelligence that extends well beyond individual transactions.

Watch the interview with Isabel de Caires to learn how Caribbean banks responded during one of the region’s most challenging periods and how those lessons continue to influence lending and development today.