A Bermuda property attorney and real estate agent are important partners to ensure your sales transaction achieves a good price and concludes efficiently.
A property attorney will ensure that the sale and purchase agreement incorporates the usual seller safeguards and reflects the negotiated terms and conditions agreed between seller and buyer.
Most Bermuda sellers engage a real estate agent for sage advice and support on pricing, listing, photographs, widespread marketing on diverse media, showings, and negotiations. Commission is typically 5 per cent of the sale price, payable at closing.
That combination of legal and market advice can help sellers to negotiate what could otherwise be a challenging process, especially with price negotiations.
Conversely, understanding the mechanics of selling your Bermuda residence can help to achieve an efficient sale.
Bermuda’s residential market is mainly open to Bermudians, British Overseas Territories citizens and Permanent Resident Certificate holders.
A smaller segment is additionally available to international people and companies (typically for housing a senior executive), being homes with an annual rental value of at least $126,000 and condominiums in limited circumstances with an ARV of at least $25,800.
If your likely buyer is an international person, or a company, you can expect an extended closing timeline of about three months for internationals and six months for companies.
That contrasts with a typical timeline of 30 days from signing a sale and purchase agreement for other buyers.
Before engaging an agent:
- Locate your deeds, which may be at the bank (if mortgaged), with your attorney, or in your safety deposit box. Ideally, deeds should not be at home, with potential dangers of loss, theft, fire, flooding and mould. The agent will require a copy of the property schedule and boundary plan for freeholds, and a copy of the headlease (including plans) for a condo
- Consider having your home boundaries surveyed and staked, a process that home buyers typically insist on. Any encroachments and unregulated docks can be identified and regularised, potentially avoiding a delayed closing
- If selling a condo, obtain and review the past three years of accounts. Discuss any anomalies with the managing agent, so that these can be explained to potentially cautious buyers
Encroachments, unregulated docks and accounts irregularities may be less problematic in today’s buoyant, mainly cash buyers’ market, especially if they are immediately declared rather than discovered later — say, just before closing.
Your property attorney will answer questions raised by the buyer side, check the transfer, ensure that any mortgage is paid off, and will receive the calculated sale proceeds.
A seller’s legal fees are typically time-based, and so are lower for an efficient transaction, while a buyer’s fees are calculated according to the Bermuda Bar scale.
Dependent on negotiations between the parties, a seller may contribute to half of buyer fees and stamp duty.
After a buyer is found, a sale and purchase agreement is prepared, agreed and signed. This document outlines:
- The purchase price
- A 10 per cent deposit, which is held by the seller’s agent or attorney, to be released at closing
- An inventory of included items (typically major appliances — so have a list of these ready)
- Any conditions precedent, eg, financing and licence approvals if the buyer is an international person or company
- The closing date
Between the signing of the sale and purchase agreement and closing, the buyer’s attorney receives the deeds, to review the seller’s title and right to sell, and check for any outstanding building permits and judgments, etc.
Before closing, the seller will receive a statement showing apportionments (deductions, or additions as appropriate) for, say, land tax. At this point, the residence should be emptied of contents, except for those items being transferred, such as major appliances.
At closing, proceeds (including the deposit) are released to the seller’s attorney, plus or minus apportionments. Keys are released to the buyer.
Typical proceeds deductions include sales commission, survey costs and the seller’s legal fees along with any contributions to buyer’s fees and stamp duty.
As land tax bills are not updated until Land Title Registry formalities — at the buyer’s application — are completed, land tax bills continue in the name of the previous owner.
As registrations are currently delayed, the buyer’s attorney will typically invite the Tax Commissioner’s land tax department to redirect bills in care of the new owner’s address.
First Published in The Royal Gazette, Legally Speaking column, September 2025
