In a bid to feed the growing appetite for second homes among U.S. residents, a number of major developers are building luxury projects on far-flung Caribbean islands.

Americans have been buying vacation or retirement places for years on well-known Caribbean islands like St. Thomas, Barbados and St. Croix. But the latest wave of building involves real estate that doesn't register on most people's radar -- islands with names like Great Exuma, Roatan and Scrub -- and is geared toward everyone from small-time investors looking for a bargain to wealthy executives seeking a tax haven.

The new waterfront developments include big players like Marriott International Inc.'s Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons Hotels Inc., and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.'s St. Regis Hotels and Resorts. With Swiss/Italian partners, New York developer Donald Trump is building Trump Island Villas on the five-square-mile island of Canouan.

At least 30 resorts with some residential component are planned or under construction throughout the Caribbean, double the number of two years ago, says Scott Berman, a partner specializing in the hospitality industry at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Miami.

Although island chains closest to the United States, like the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, remain popular, Geoffrey Pidduck, an Antigua real-estate broker, has seen home prices as much as quadruple in the past two years on the lesser-known and more-remote Caribbean islands. "It's been a feeding frenzy," he says.

The development boom is part of a broader movement of Americans buying homes overseas in pursuit of a better climate, a cheaper cost of living, tax breaks or other incentives another country may offer. Some are simply looking for lower-cost waterfront housing without having to compromise certain standards. Although no reliable current statistics exist on how many Americans live abroad, or in the 7,000 islands in or bordering the Caribbean Sea, a growing scarcity of prime waterfront property on better-known islands is causing builders to turn to more isolated places.

While a bare-bones condominium in a place like the Dominican Republic can sell for as little as $40,000, prices in the higher-end resorts are much more expensive. Offering everything from nanny service to massages to private chefs, the packed-with-amenities developments can rival the cost of oceanfront resort developments stateside. They range from $325,000 for one-bedroom apartments at NonSuch Bay, an Antiguan resort being built by the Dutch development group La Perla International Living, to $7 million for ultra-contemporary four-bedroom villas at Viceroy Resort and Residences on Anguilla, built by the Los Angeles-based Kor Hotel Group.

To attract the sort of buyers who can afford to pay these prices, but don't want the hassle of importing furniture from the U.S., developers often sweeten the deal by offering furnishings. At February Point on Great Exuma in the Bahamas, turnkey packages heavy on mahogany or wicker cost between $65,000 and $85,000. They also entice buyers by offering an easy way to defray costs, putting the homes into the resort's rental program, though owners typically get only a fraction of the rental revenues.

Not all of the new developments are being done by famous resort chains, though these, of course, tend to be more modest. Windward Development Group Inc., based in St. Georges, Grenada, is building 40 villas ranging from $500,000 to $1 million on Carriacou, a 13-square-mile island that's about five miles south of Canouan. Opening at the end of this year, the project will encompass a small 20-unit hotel with spa services, a restaurant and a mini-putting range. Three of the units have been presold, according to company president Trevor David.

None of these new resorts have yet developed the chic of Mustique, a magnet for jet-setters like fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, rocker Mick Jagger and the late Princess Margaret. In fact, some lack amenities that Americans take for granted, like movie theaters, libraries, supermarkets and golf courses. Scrub Island, a 230-acre island four miles east of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, has only one restaurant and hardly any people.

Nevertheless, developers are hoping the resorts will catch on with buyers who are looking for unspoiled places to vacation or retire. "People want a 'Don't worry, be happy' kind of island," says Sarasota, Fla., real-estate broker Michael Saunders, adding that people are buying second homes in the Caribbean because the islands are "pristine, the way Florida used to be."

Of course, some Caribbean islands are also famous as tax havens, charging permanent residents no or low property, capital-gains, inheritance or income taxes. For some wealthy individuals, that's as much of an incentive to buy as the prospect of a cool drink and a hammock by the sea.

But it's not all margaritas and sugar sand. Hurricanes regularly lash the Caribbean, and some deliver knockout punches. In 2004, for instance, Ivan hit hard, destroying or deroofing 90% of the homes on Grenada, on the southeastern edge of the Caribbean, and three-quarters of the homes on Grand Cayman Island, in the west. The region is also vulnerable to flooding, tsunamis, landslides, earthquakes, droughts and volcanoes. A 1995 volcano in Montserrat, once a luxurious vacation retreat for rockers like Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton, forced two-thirds of the residents to move abroad, and left only 13 square miles of the island inhabitable.

The threat of bad weather makes homeowner's insurance expensive and keeps deductibles high. There are other drawbacks: Financing can be difficult to obtain, and construction tends to take a long time, given the pace of island culture and that materials often have to be shipped in.

Though the cost of living is often low by American standards -- particularly for local products such as fruits, vegetables and seafood -- so are wages. "You feel a little guilty when you know your net worth is 1,000 times that of the average person," says Marc Walch, a civil engineer who bought a $230,000 oceanfront duplex on Roatan, an island 30 miles off the coast of Honduras, three years ago.

But Americans without stateside sources of income can feel a financial pinch, too. A decade ago, Alex Randall, a Boston computer-company owner, decided to sell his business and move to Water Island, a sparsely populated island off the coast of St. Thomas. He bought an old Army waterfront base on three acres.

After spending about $1.4 million, he turned the property into a mini-resort. He and his wife and five children live in one building in the compound, and rent out two others to vacationers. To make ends meet, Mr. Randall not only manages the resort, but also works in St. Thomas, a boat ride away, as a radio announcer and as a part-time computer teacher at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Still, Mr. Randall says simple pleasures, like driving his golf cart to the island's only deli, where he and his neighbors watch films projected on bed sheets strung between palm trees, outweigh any financial concerns. And when he goes back to visit friends in the U.S., he walks around the huge malls looking at all the goods he can't find on his obscure island, thinking, "That's nice, but I don't really need that."