Cayman Costs

Cayman Islands stamp duty calculator

Duty on the transfer and on the mortgage, in Cayman Islands dollars, with the Stamp Duty Act Schedule paragraph printed next to each band — including the Caymanian first- and second-property concessions from the 2025 Regulations and the 10% band on CI$2,000,000+ purchases in force since 1 January 2026. Free, no account.

Stamp duty on a Cayman Islands purchase

CI$

The higher of the purchase price and the market value. CI$1 = US$1.20 at the fixed rate.

CI$

Genuine value of movable items (furniture, appliances). Outside the dutiable base.

Concession paragraphs (10)–(11B) apply to Caymanians buying a first or second immovable property.

CI$

0 for a cash purchase. Duty is 1% up to CI$300,000, 1.5% above.

Duty on the transfer

CI$56,250

7.5% — consideration below CI$2,000,000

Stamp Duty Act Schedule, conveyance head para (2)(a), as substituted by SL 63 of 2025

Duty on the mortgage

CI$0

No mortgage entered

Stamp Duty Act (2019 Revision), Schedule — head of duty for mortgages of immovable property

Total stamp duty: CI$56,250 · effective rate on the base 7.50%

Duty is one line of the closing-day cash flow — the full closing-cost calculator adds legal fees, agent commissions, bank charges and the KYD/USD spread.

The rates in force

Stamp duty on Cayman Islands real estate is set by the Schedule to the Stamp Duty Act (2019 Revision) under the head of duty for a conveyance or transfer of immovable property, with the current figures substituted by two sets of regulations made under s.27 of the Act. The Stamp Duty (Rates of Duty) Regulations, 2025 (SL 3 of 2025), gazetted on 12 February 2025, rewrote the Caymanian concession paragraphs and extended them island-wide — the previous carve-outs for Seven Mile Beach and parts of George Town no longer apply. The Stamp Duty (Rates of Duty) (No. 2) Regulations, 2025 (SL 63 of 2025), in force on 1 January 2026 as part of the 2026–2027 Budget, split the general rate in two:

  • 7.5% of the consideration where the consideration is below CI$2,000,000 — paragraph (2)(a);
  • 10% of the consideration where it is CI$2,000,000 or more — paragraph (2)(b). The 10% applies to the whole amount, not the excess: a CI$1,999,000 purchase attracts CI$149,925 and a CI$2,000,000 purchase CI$200,000.

A transitional provision in SL 63 of 2025 keeps the previous rate for any conveyance, transfer or agreement to buy that was executed before 1 January 2026, however long the stamping takes. There is no annual property tax in the Cayman Islands; the duty on the transfer is the tax event, which is why it dominates closing costs.

What the duty is charged on

Duty is charged on the consideration for the immovable property. The Lands & Survey Department assesses and collects it for the Commissioner of Stamp Duty (the Minister of Finance), and values every transfer — in practice duty is paid on the higher of the price and the market value, so a discounted or related-party price does not reduce the charge. Genuine chattels are outside it: free-standing furniture and appliances included in a sale are movable property, and an honest apportionment of the price to them sits outside the dutiable base. The apportionment has to be real — fixtures, built-ins and anything forming part of the land cannot be relabelled. The calculator above deducts the chattels figure entered before testing the bands, the same way the full closing-cost model does.

Caymanian concessions — first property

Paragraph (10) of the Schedule, as substituted by SL 3 of 2025, sets the concession for a Caymanian buying a first immovable property alone:

  • Land with a building: no duty up to CI$550,000; 3.75% on the difference above CI$550,000 only up to CI$650,000; the full 7.5% of the whole consideration above that.
  • Land without a building: no duty up to CI$250,000; 3.75% on the excess up to CI$350,000; 7.5% of the whole consideration above that.

The marginal design matters. A first-time buyer of a CI$650,000 home pays 3.75% of CI$100,000 — CI$3,750 — not 3.75% of the price. One dollar more, and the whole consideration is dutiable at 7.5%: CI$48,750 on CI$650,001. Around the upper thresholds the cliff is steep enough that the split between land and chattels, and the valuation itself, are worth attention before signing.

Where two to ten Caymanians buy together and the property is the first immovable property of each of them, paragraph (11) raises the thresholds: exemption to CI$600,000 and the marginal band to CI$700,000 for land with a building, CI$450,000 and CI$550,000 for raw land.

Caymanian concessions — second property

The 2025 Regulations added a tier that did not exist before: paragraph (11A) charges a Caymanian buying a second immovable property 3.75% of the whole consideration where it is CI$600,000 or less for land with a building, or CI$300,000 or less for land without one — half the standard rate, with no exempt slice. Above the threshold the full 7.5% applies. For two to ten Caymanian co-purchasers, paragraph (11B) lifts the thresholds to CI$700,000 (building) and CI$550,000 (raw land).

Paragraph (12) limits the head to a Caymanian’s first and second purchases in the Islands, with a specific rule for people who owned property here before becoming Caymanian: the first-property exemption is not available for their first purchase as a Caymanian, but the second-property rate is, where the purchase is in fact their second immovable property. Since SL 63 of 2025, every concession paragraph also carries the 10% band — a CI$2,000,000+ purchase pays 10% whatever the buyer’s status.

Duty on the mortgage

A mortgage or charge over Cayman property attracts its own duty under the Schedule: 1% of the sum secured where it is CI$300,000 or less, and 1.5% where it is more — again on the whole amount, not the excess. Financing CI$300,000 costs CI$3,000 in mortgage duty; financing CI$301,000 costs CI$4,515. The duty is customarily paid by the borrower and collected by the bank at drawdown, alongside the commitment and documentation fees the closing-cost calculator itemises. The repayments themselves — daily accrual, rate changes, equity over time — are the mortgage model’s territory.

A worked example

A standard buyer purchases a condo for CI$750,000 with CI$25,000 of the price fairly attributed to furniture, financing CI$500,000. The dutiable base is CI$725,000; below CI$2,000,000, so paragraph (2)(a) applies: CI$54,375 on the transfer. The mortgage exceeds CI$300,000, so 1.5% applies: CI$7,500. Total stamp duty CI$61,875 — before legal fees, agent commissions and bank charges, which the full calculator adds to the same closing-day cash flow. A first-time Caymanian buyer of the same condo, buying alone, would fall outside the CI$650,000 band and pay the same 7.5%; at a CI$600,000 price with the same chattels the base would be CI$575,000 and the duty CI$937 — 3.75% of the CI$25,000 above the exempt CI$550,000.

Where the numbers come from

Every band in the calculator cites the Schedule paragraph it is read from, and the figures on this page are taken from the instruments as published — not from summaries. The rates changed twice in twelve months (February 2025 concessions, January 2026 high-value band), which is why the sources are printed rather than assumed. The property costs guide walks the whole transaction field by field, and the import duty calculator covers the other duty most new arrivals meet.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Stamp Duty Act (2019 Revision), Schedule; Stamp Duty (Rates of Duty) Regulations, 2025 (SL 3 of 2025); Stamp Duty (Rates of Duty) (No. 2) Regulations, 2025 (SL 63 of 2025); gov.ky announcements of 12 February 2025 and the 2026–2027 Budget. Amounts are Cayman Islands dollars (CI$1 = US$1.20). Last reviewed 2026-08-30.