Custom home construction has become a popular approach to creating your island dreams. At Chris Thompson Real Estate and Hope Town Hideaways we have a team of professionals that can help you from the ground up. With over 20 years of real estate development and construction experience, Chris Thompson knows how to get things done in Abaco.

The average building costs for the Loyalist style homes popular in this area range from $250 -$300 per square foot. In the islands, with year round sunshine, home designs often feature indoor / outdoor lifestyle with decks becoming an extension of your living area. Decks greatly increase your square footage of living area and range around $50 a square foot.

Building your dream home in Abaco is easy! Our agency has a dedicated group of professionals experienced in all aspects of construction that we hand select for each project. Traditionally boat builders, many on our construction team are 3rd and 4th generation carpenters, having honed their skills from meticulous boat making to custom cabinetry, etc. Abaco has the advantage of being less than 200 miles from South Florida and boasts weekly containerized shipping. Our local hardware stores are well-stocked but specialty items are easily purchased on-line and shipped. Home construction in the Abaco Islands has advantages then building in other islands because of our close proximity to South Florida offering weekly containerized shipping.

It has become much simpler to build today than it was over 22 years ago when we first started Hope Town Hideaways. Back then if you ran out of nails it could cost you a day and we dug cisterns with picks and shovels. Today we have a variety of heavy equipment decreasing the timeframe of constructing a custom home. In simpler times, one crew did it all from concrete, framing, cabinetry, plumbing, tile laying, to roofing, etc. Now we have smaller core groups supported by specialized tradesman that get in and out efficiently and with expertise. Most of the homes nowadays are built in 3-6 months and new projects are often built on fixed contracted prices.

The Bahamian Government has made many of the materials duty-free, for example all framing lumber and nails. This is to encourage vacation home development which also employs a large portion of our populous. In one way or another, our families are all fed by this type of investment - construction, rentals, property management, maintenance, real estate, and insurance just to name a few. Not to mention the traditional businesses like fishing guide, fish market, masseuses, boat rental agencies, grocery stores, etc. “Trickle-down economics” really works here from the fish speared by a local that ends up grilled on the visitors’ plate….we welcome our second home owners and visitors on the island with open arms…. It is a win/win situation for us all as we all appreciate living in these special islands. We are happy to meet with you anytime for consultation.