St Lucia is one of the most dramatically beautiful of all the Caribbean islands, but its beauty is not the best known.
Known for its steep hills and breathtaking valleys, both covered in lush green vegetation, St Lucia is somewhat undiscovered in comparison to the likes of Barbados.
None the less, it offers some of the finest white sandy beaches, and most secluded coastal alcoves that you'll find anywhere in the world.
Its near-virgin nature means that property on the island is not as expensive as some of the Caribbean's better known hot-spots.
In fact there are currently properties for sale throughout the region from as little as £125,000.
2008 was the year when the undiscovered became the desirable in terms of overseas property and holiday destinations.
As a result the popularity of the property on the island, and the island's tourism sector both grew rapidly during 2008.
The growth was so phenomenal that even the international downturn couldn't put the genie back in the bottle, let alone put the lid on the growth potential of tourism to or property in St Lucia.
The fact that tourism is still very much a growth sector was made evident earlier this year, when several airlines announced the addition of new routes to the island, all of which will now be in operation.
At a time when the reports of an international tourism industry in contraction -- when more flights were being removed than added -- any announcement of new international flights came as a massive testament to an area's growth.
In September the report said: British Airways are increasing their direct flights from Gatwick to St Lucia from three to five times per week from October 2009.
There is also a new weekly service from Frankfurt, operated by Condor starting from 1st November 2009 and in the US Jet Blue has announced a new service from New York with three flights per week from October 26th 2009.
Virgin already flies three times per week from Gatwick.
The other good thing buying St Lucia property now -- at this early stage in its development cycle -- is that the recent downturn has shown the damage overdevelopment can do, with Spain the shining example.
So governments around the world are determined to avoid their property market's facing a similar plight.
Of course the final benefit of buying property in St Lucia is the friendly tax regime, which offers VAT free property transactions, as well as no capital gains or inheritance tax.