Cost of living
Cayman Islands Rent by District in 2026: What Tenants Pay and What Newcomers Are Asked
The ESO's survey of rents actually paid (median CI$1,300; one-bedroom CI$1,000) beside agents' asking ranges for vacant units (one-bedroom CI$900 in West Bay to CI$4,000 on Seven Mile Beach), district by district, with the ESO rent index and the 2026 market reports.
By Serge S. · Published 2 September 2026 · 7 min read
Rent in Grand Cayman in 2026 depends first on which number is being quoted. The Economics and Statistics Office's survey of rents actually paid gives a median of CI$1,300 a month across all tenancies, CI$1,000 for a one-bedroom and CI$2,100 for a two-bedroom; asking rents for vacant units, as compiled by Cayman Resident in February 2026, run from CI$900 for a one-bedroom in West Bay to CI$5,500 for a two-bedroom on Seven Mile Beach. Both are real. The first describes what tenants across the island pay under leases of every age; the second describes what a newcomer signing a lease this month is asked for. This guide sets the two side by side, district by district, with the ESO's index of rent inflation and the market reports that track it, and says where no figure exists rather than filling the gap. It is a spoke of the Moving to the Cayman Islands guide.
Two kinds of rent figure
The ESO's Labour Force Survey for Fall 2025, published in March 2026, asked tenant households what they pay. Its Table 7.7 reports means and medians by district and by number of bedrooms. Because the sample includes long-standing tenancies, staff housing and units in every condition, the medians sit well below what appears on listing sites.
Asking rents come from agents and listing aggregators. Cayman Resident's renting guide, updated 17 February 2026, publishes ranges by neighbourhood compiled from agents; Daily.ky publishes a rolling 90-day median of eCayTrade and CIREBA listings. These describe the units that are vacant now, which skew towards newer stock and towards the western districts where turnover is highest.
A newcomer's budget is set by the second kind of number. The first kind is useful for one thing: it shows how far a rent can fall once a tenant has been in place for several years, and it is the figure the ESO uses to weight rent in the Consumer Price Index.
What tenants pay: the ESO survey
| District | Mean monthly rent (CI$) | Median monthly rent (CI$) |
|---|---|---|
| George Town | 1,771 | 1,400 |
| West Bay | 1,587 | 1,300 |
| Bodden Town | 1,353 | 1,214 |
| East End | 1,210 | 1,150 |
| North Side | 1,064 | 800 |
| Sister Islands | 728 | 600 |
| All | 1,627 | 1,300 |
| Size | Mean monthly rent (CI$) | Median monthly rent (CI$) |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 810 | 750 |
| One bedroom | 1,187 | 1,000 |
| Two bedrooms | 2,326 | 2,100 |
| Three bedrooms | 3,107 | 3,000 |
| Four bedrooms | 3,445 | 2,750 |
Source: ESO, Labour Force Survey Report Fall 2025, Table 7.7, March 2026. The ESO's districts are the five administrative districts of Grand Cayman plus the Sister Islands; Seven Mile Beach falls within West Bay and George Town and is not broken out. The same table gives a mean mortgage payment of CI$2,748 and a median of CI$2,200 for owner households, highest in George Town at CI$3,211.
What newcomers are asked: asking rents by neighbourhood
Cayman Resident's ranges, CI$ per month, as updated 17 February 2026:
| Neighbourhood | One bedroom | Two bedrooms | Three bedrooms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seven Mile Beach | 2,200 to 4,000 | 3,500 to 5,500 | 6,000 and up |
| Seven Mile Corridor | 2,500 to 3,750 | 3,500 to 5,500 | 5,000 and up |
| South Sound | 1,950 to 2,800 | 2,950 to 3,800 | 4,000 and up |
| George Town | 1,400 to 2,400 | 2,500 to 3,500 | 4,000 and up |
| Prospect and Savannah | 1,300 to 2,200 | 2,200 to 3,750 | 3,000 and up |
| West Bay | 900 to 2,000 | 2,000 to 3,500 | 3,200 to 6,000 |
| Bodden Town | 950 to 1,600 | 1,900 to 2,700 | 2,700 and up |
Daily.ky's listing index, viewed 2 September 2026, is consistent with those ranges: studios CI$950 to 1,400; one-bedrooms CI$1,400 to 2,200 on the Seven Mile Beach corridor and CI$1,100 to 1,600 in George Town, Savannah and Bodden Town; two-bedrooms CI$1,800 to 3,500; three-bedrooms CI$2,500 to 6,000 and above, with Seven Mile Beach and South Sound the most expensive and East End and North Side the least. Neither source publishes Camana Bay, Prospect or Red Bay separately as a statistical series, and no CIREBA or ESO series by named neighbourhood was found.
Reading the two tables together
The gap is largest at the top and smallest at the bottom. A one-bedroom in Bodden Town is asked at CI$950 to 1,600 against a district median paid of CI$1,214; the two figures overlap. A one-bedroom on Seven Mile Beach is asked at CI$2,200 to 4,000 against a West Bay median paid of CI$1,300, because the beach is a small, high-turnover slice of a district that also contains older inland housing. For a newcomer this means three things:
- The ESO medians are a floor that a newly signed lease in the western districts rarely reaches; the asking ranges are the budget.
- District averages hide the coastal premium. "West Bay" in the ESO table and "Seven Mile Beach" in the agent table are partly the same land.
- The eastern districts are the only places where the two tables agree, which is another way of saying that the eastern districts have the least churn and the least new stock.
The direction of travel
The ESO's Consumer Price Index carries an "actual rentals paid by tenants" series, weighted at 85.7 of 1,000 in the basket. In the fourth quarter of 2025 it rose 8.9% year on year and 7.2% on the previous quarter, the largest movement in the housing division; the wider housing, water, electricity and fuels division rose 2.0%. In the third quarter of 2025 the rent series had risen only 2.5% year on year, so the acceleration came late in the year. The ESO began its 2026 survey of housing rentals on 24 February 2026, and the first quarter 2026 report, as summarised by Cayman News Service, put housing and utilities up 3.6% year on year within a headline inflation rate of 2.8%.
Market reports point the same way with different timing. Provenance Properties' first-quarter 2026 report put rents "roughly 1% higher than the same period last year" and attributed the slowing to moderation in work permits and population growth; its second-quarter report put rents 9% higher than the second quarter of 2025 and 4.5% higher year to date, with condominium gross yields steady at 5.5%. ERA Cayman's October 2025 yield survey gave average gross yields of about 5.3%, 6% to 7% on Seven Mile Beach and in George Town (with one-bedroom beach condominiums often above 7%), 5% to 6% in Bodden Town and East End and 4% to 5% for luxury homes; yields are the landlord's side of the rent.
Behind the numbers is population: 90,577 in December 2025, up 2.0% on the year, with work permits steady at around 37,000 to 37,500 through 2025 and early 2026 after peaking at 37,909 in December 2024 (ESO; WORC via Cayman News Service). Rent growth in 2024 and 2025 tracked permit growth, and Provenance gave the plateau in permits as the reason the first-quarter 2026 reading was soft.
What a lease involves
The conventions are consistent across sources. The security deposit is one month's rent. Pet deposits run to CI$600 an animal. Utility deposits are paid to the utilities, not the landlord: roughly CI$100 for water, CI$250 to 600 for electricity depending on the provider and the property, and about CI$180 for internet (Cayman Resident, 17 February 2026). There is no rent control and no statutory cap on increases at renewal. Leases are commonly twelve months; strata by-laws may restrict short-term letting, which is why a furnished unit in a beach strata is often only available on a long lease.
Whether utilities are included varies by unit and matters at these prices. An average household used 1,158 kWh of electricity a month in 2025, and the rate changes of 1 June 2026 added about CI$50 a month to that bill (Radio Cayman; Cayman News Service). Water from the Water Authority is CI$4.47 per cubic metre for the first 12 cubic metres a month and CI$5.74 above, from 1 July 2026 (Cayman Compass, 4 July 2026, secondary); Seven Mile Beach and West Bay are served by Cayman Water at its own tariff. The cost-of-living guide builds these into a monthly budget.
Rent against income
The ESO's Fall 2025 survey gives median monthly earnings of CI$3,599.50 for all employed and CI$2,799.50 for non-Caymanians. Against those medians, the median one-bedroom rent paid (CI$1,000) is 28% of the all-employed median and 36% of the non-Caymanian median; a one-bedroom asked at CI$1,800 in George Town is 50% and 64%. For a professional on a salary well above the median the ratios are different, but the arithmetic is why shared housing and the eastern districts absorb a large share of the permit workforce, and why the dependant-income threshold for a work-permit holder was raised on 1 May 2026 to CI$5,000 a month plus CI$1,000 for each further dependant (Ministry Guidebook, 29 April 2026).
From renting to owning
Owner households in the ESO survey paid a median mortgage of CI$2,200 a month, which sits between the median two-bedroom and three-bedroom rents paid. The purchase itself carries stamp duty of 7.5% (10% at CI$2,000,000 or more) and the closing costs the closing-costs calculator lays out; the buying-process guide walks the steps and the mortgage guide compares the banks. For a work-permit holder, buying also feeds Factor 3 of the permanent-residence points system, which the PR points guide explains.
How long can I stay?
Every lease in the Islands is signed against an immigration clock. A work-permit holder reaches the eight-year threshold for a permanent-residence application under section 37(1) of the Immigration (Transition) Act and the nine-year term limit under section 66(1) a year later; both dates come from the day the permit started, and neither moved on 1 May 2026. The roll-over calculator returns both from a single date, and the term-limit guide explains what happens in the year between them.
Sources
ESO, Labour Force Survey Report Fall 2025, March 2026, Table 7.7 and Tables 3.47 to 3.49; ESO, Consumer Price Index Report Q4 2025, March 2026, and Q3 2025; Cayman Resident, Renting Property in the Cayman Islands, 17 February 2026; Daily.ky, Average Rent in Grand Cayman by District, viewed 2 September 2026; Provenance Properties, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 market reports; ERA Cayman, Rental Yield Trends, 17 October 2025; Cayman News Service on WORC permit counts and the Q1 2026 CPI; Radio Cayman, 3 July 2026. Agent and aggregator figures are labelled as such and describe asking prices; the ESO figures describe rents paid. Nothing on this page is legal or financial advice; a Cayman Islands attorney reviews a lease, and a licensed Cayman Islands immigration attorney answers the residence question.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the average rent in Grand Cayman?
- The ESO's Fall 2025 survey gives a mean rent paid of CI$1,627 and a median of CI$1,300 across all tenancies; by size, medians are CI$750 for a studio, CI$1,000 for a one-bedroom, CI$2,100 for a two-bedroom and CI$3,000 for a three-bedroom. Asking rents for vacant units are higher.
- Which district has the lowest rents?
- In the ESO survey of rents paid, North Side (median CI$800) and East End (CI$1,150) are the lowest on Grand Cayman, and the Sister Islands lower still at CI$600. In agents' asking ranges, Bodden Town and West Bay have the lowest one-bedroom starting points at CI$950 and CI$900.
- How much is rent on Seven Mile Beach?
- Cayman Resident's February 2026 ranges give CI$2,200 to 4,000 for a one-bedroom, CI$3,500 to 5,500 for a two-bedroom and CI$6,000 and up for a three-bedroom on Seven Mile Beach. The ESO does not break Seven Mile Beach out from West Bay and George Town.
- What deposits does a Cayman lease involve?
- One month's rent as security, pet deposits of up to CI$600 an animal, and utility deposits paid to the utilities of roughly CI$100 for water, CI$250 to 600 for electricity and CI$180 for internet (Cayman Resident, 17 February 2026). There is no rent control.
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Every figure above cites its source and the date it was last reviewed. Nothing here is legal advice; a licensed Cayman Islands immigration attorney can be reached through the contact page.