Sea Feather Estate · St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean
Thirty-six dive sites, a protected marine park, and a villa above it all.
A whole villa from USD 1,750,000, or a one-eighth share from USD 240,000.
Sea Feather Estate · St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean
A whole villa from USD 1,750,000, or a one-eighth share from USD 240,000.
In August 2022, National Geographic published a piece on St. Eustatius under the headline This tiny island is the best place to dive in the Caribbean
. Thirty-six sites sit inside one of the largest marine sanctuaries in the region, most of them a five- to twenty-minute boat ride from the harbor, at depths between roughly 30 and 100 feet. There are no cruise ships here, and no dive-boat traffic to speak of, which is a large part of why the reefs are in the condition they are in.
What is new is that you can now own a villa above all of it. Sea Feather Estate sits on the grounds of Golden Rock Resort, a five-star property on the slope of the Quill, between the volcano and the Atlantic, with two professional dive centers on site. Each villa is a single story with a private pool and an ocean view, and measures about 3,800 square feet of interior and covered outdoor space combined. You can buy the whole villa, or a one-eighth share. The whole villa is freehold in your name; an eighth is a one-eighth shareholding in the company that owns the villa, delivered by a Dutch notary, and the company holds the freehold in the Dutch land registry.
How this usually starts
An American couple from the Washington, D.C. area. Both dive. They came for the diving and logged eleven dives in six days.
The half day they spent above water was enough to see the rest of it: the marine park, the resort, and the villas going up on its grounds. They decided to buy before they flew home. They come back through the build to see how far it has come, and dive again while they are on the island. They describe the villa as two things at once: the place they want to keep returning to, and a good long-term investment they intend to leave to their children.
One buyer is not a pattern, and we will not pretend otherwise. But it is the shortest way to describe what tends to happen here. People come for a week under water, surface on the last day, look up at the slope of the Quill, and start thinking in years instead of nights. Three villas have sold so far.
The diving
St. Eustatius was once one of the busiest trading harbors in the Atlantic. Hundreds of ships went down on the roadstead in the colonial era, and only a handful have been found. What is charted is already enough to fill a week; what is not is the reason people keep coming back.
A decommissioned AT&T cable ship that laid the first transatlantic cable, deliberately sunk as a dive site. Roughly 100 meters long, sitting at about 100 feet, with a long swim-through along her length. National Geographic called her one of the largest underwater ruins in the Caribbean.
Eighteenth-century anchors, ballast stones, and cannon lie in shallow water on the leeward side, alongside reef sites between 30 and 100 feet. The island has more protected historical sites per square mile, above and below water, than anywhere else in the Caribbean.
Four species of sea turtle, reef sharks, eagle rays, Caribbean lobster, and queen conch. Dolphins and, in season, whales. For anyone who dives with a macro lens: nudibranchs, cleaner shrimp, and frogfish on the wrecks.
Statia Divers and Scubaqua, both PADI, both professional operations you can walk to from your villa. Specialty courses run here as a matter of course: Deep Diver, Wreck Diver, and Enriched Air Nitrox. Nitrox is available for certified divers.
This tiny island is the best place to dive in the Caribbean
National Geographic, August 15, 2022 · by Julia Eskins · read the article
Above the water
Golden Rock Resort runs on solar power with battery storage, makes its own drinking water from seawater by reverse osmosis, and reuses greywater for irrigation. More than 140,000 plants have gone into the grounds. For most buyers that is a matter of principle. For a diver it is more practical than that: what does not go into the ground here does not end up on the reef you are diving tomorrow morning.
The rest of the resort is what you would expect of a five-star property and nothing more theatrical than that. Restaurants, a beach club on the Caribbean Sea, and the quiet that comes with an island of roughly 3,000 people and no cruise terminal. You will not be queuing for a boat.
Almost entirely off-grid: 2,240 solar panels with battery storage, reverse osmosis that turns seawater into drinking water, greywater reused for irrigation, a greenhouse growing produce for the restaurants, and more than 140,000 trees, plants, and shrubs planted. Your villa runs on the same systems.
The villas
Every villa is single-story, with indoor and covered outdoor living space of about 3,800 square feet, a private pool, and a landscaped garden. Set against the Quill, with views across the Atlantic toward St. Barth, St. Kitts, and Sint Maarten.
A whole villa starts at USD 1,750,000. That is the house and the land it stands on, freehold in your name, yours whenever you want it and turn-key if you wish. If you would rather not own a house outright for the weeks you actually use it, you can take a one-eighth share instead, from USD 240,000: one-eighth of the shares in the company that owns the villa, six weeks a year, all-in, and your share is yours to sell. Two of the villas are offered that way.
One-eighth share
USD 240,000
USD 650 a month, maintenance reserve included
One-eighth share
USD 320,000
USD 700 a month, maintenance reserve included
A one-eighth share is one-eighth of the shares in the company that owns the villa, delivered by a Dutch notary; the company holds the freehold in the Dutch land registry. St. Eustatius is a special municipality of the Netherlands, so you are buying under Dutch law, not under a foreign title system, and not on a leasehold.
Come and see it
We would rather you saw this than read about it. Come to St. Eustatius, stay three nights at Golden Rock Resort at a reduced rate, and dive with Statia Divers or Scubaqua while you are here. We will walk you through the site and the villas when it suits you, with no presentation and no pressure.
Who you are dealing with
I sell these villas directly for the developer. That means you are not speaking to a brokerage with a hundred listings, but to someone who knows the island and the project from the inside, including the parts that are still under construction.
Martin de Reus · Sea Feather Estate
Behind the Mountain #21, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean
martin@seafeatherestate.com
+1 (315) 544-4310
Sent by email straight away. We will also send the details of the three-night visit.
Questions we get
Through St. Maarten or St. Kitts, and then one short flight. Both islands are served by direct flights from the larger cities in the United States and Canada, so the long leg is a normal transatlantic or Caribbean route rather than an expedition. From St. Maarten, Winair flies to Statia in about twenty minutes; from St. Kitts, FlyDCI flies the same short hop. The resort driver meets you at the airport on this end.
Americans and Dutch nationals may spend up to 180 days a year on St. Eustatius without a permit, which is what makes a long winter here practical. For Canadians and for Europeans other than the Dutch, the rule is 90 days within any 180-day period. If you want to be on the island longer than that, there is a route for it; ask me and I will walk you through what it involves.
Yes, and it is entirely optional. The resort runs a rental program with full service management, and net income is split 50/50. Many owners rent out the weeks they are not on the island, and use the villa themselves the rest of the year.
No. A timeshare gives you a right to use something. A one-eighth share is one-eighth of the shares in the company that owns the villa, delivered by a Dutch notary. The company holds the freehold in the Dutch land registry. You can sell your shares, leave them to your heirs, or borrow against them.
Yes, and beyond what the code requires. The mandatory standard here is category 5; Sea Feather Estate is built above it. Walls and roof are solid concrete, five centimeters (about two inches) thicker than the norm, and the rest of the villa is engineered in the same spirit rather than to the minimum. It is one of the quieter arguments for building new on Statia rather than buying something older.