Bahamas Residency by Investment:
What Property Buyers Should Know

Economic Permanent Residency, confirmed

The Bahamas Immigration Department's own website confirms the requirement directly: to qualify for Economic Permanent Residency, an applicant must make a minimum investment of US$1,000,000, either through real estate or by purchasing Zero Coupon Bonds from the Central Bank of The Bahamas. In either case, the qualifying asset must be held for a minimum of ten years. This is the clearest, most authoritative figure available for Bahamas residency by investment, and it should be treated as the reference point over any lower figure circulating in property marketing material.

A Certificate of Permanent Residence, once granted, is a document of legal status issued for the holder's lifetime unless revoked, distinct from the annually-renewed Permit to Reside that covers other, non-investment routes to living in the Bahamas without working.

Work rights: a detail worth confirming for your specific case

Here the picture is less than perfectly clean-cut, and it is worth being upfront about that rather than presenting false certainty. The Immigration Department's general description of Permanent Residence states that the status gives the holder the right to reside and/or work. Several specialist immigration advisory sources, however, describe the standard Economic Permanent Residency granted through the $1 million investment route as typically carrying a condition against working, citing both the Immigration Department and international legal directories. The most sensible reading is that work rights depend on the specific conditions attached to an individual's grant, which is a matter to confirm directly with the Department of Immigration or a Bahamian immigration attorney for any actual application, rather than a fixed, universal rule applying identically to every Economic Permanent Residence holder.

Work rights also affect property tax. Under the Real Property Tax (Amendment) Act, 2026, now reported as in force from 1 July 2026, Bahamians and permanent residents with the right to work keep the existing owner-occupied scale, while other foreign owner-occupiers fall into a new tax class whose rate is reported differently by different sources. Our guide to buying and living costs in the Bahamas sets out the details.

Family inclusion

The Economic Permanent Residency route extends to the main applicant's spouse and dependent children under 18, and the Immigration Department processes these family members as part of the same application rather than requiring separate, independent qualification. For applicants over 60, the immigration process for the annual Home Owner's Resident Card, a distinct and lower-tier status from full Permanent Residence, is described in some guidance as somewhat simplified, though the specific property value threshold for that particular card could not be confirmed against a primary government source in this series and should not be conflated with the now-verified $1,000,000 Economic Permanent Residence figure above.

Processing time and the value of the investment threshold itself

Some specialist sources report that meeting the full $1,000,000 threshold specifically can result in prioritised processing, reducing what might otherwise take up to 18 months down to as little as three to six months. This is a reported industry observation rather than a formally published government guarantee, and applicants should treat any specific processing timeline as an estimate rather than a commitment.

The route to citizenship

Beyond permanent residency itself, citizenship may become available after ten years of residency, subject to physical presence requirements set by the Department of Immigration. This is the standard route rather than an accelerated one, and it runs independently of the underlying real estate or bond investment that secured the original Economic Permanent Residency status; simply holding the qualifying investment does not itself accelerate the citizenship timeline.

What this means for a buyer

The Bahamas' $1,000,000 Economic Permanent Residency threshold is now a properly well-confirmed figure, verified directly against the government's own published position, which was not the case in an earlier pass through this material. What remains worth individual confirmation is the work-rights condition attached to any specific grant, and the exact terms of any lower-threshold, non-permanent residency options a buyer might be considering instead of the full $1,000,000 route. For anyone planning around Bahamas residency as part of a property purchase, working directly with a Bahamian immigration attorney to confirm the current conditions attached to their specific application remains the safest path, instead of assuming either the most optimistic or the most restrictive version of the rules applies automatically.