Montserrat

The Soufrière Hills eruptions from 1995 onward buried Plymouth and displaced most of the population. What remains is a small, steep, forested north with a few hundred households, a new port at Little Bay, and a community that chose to stay or came back. It is not a resort island and does not present itself as one.

Who buys here

Returning Montserratians, a handful of retirees, and people who have visited and found the emptiness appealing rather than alarming. Property is inexpensive by the standards of the eastern Caribbean, which reflects both the risk and the small number of people who want to live here.

The trade-off

An active volcano is monitored continuously and the exclusion zone boundary is set by that monitoring; it can move. There is no jet airport — access is a light aircraft or ferry from Antigua, on a schedule that weather interrupts. Shops, services and trades are limited, and a contractor may have to come from off-island. The market is tiny: a handful of properties, long periods with nothing new, and buyers who have generally already made up their minds before they arrive.