SANTO DOMINGO – The Dominican Republic enters 2026 with sustained economic growth, a dynamic construction sector, and a real estate market that continues to expand in urban and tourist areas. However, this dynamism coexists with structural tensions that are beginning to influence the decision-making of investors and developers.
KPMG's 2026 Regional and Business Outlook study identifies two factors as crucial for the country's immediate future: the ability to manage public finances effectively and the difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified talent. Far from being abstract, these two variables directly impact the viability of real estate projects, infrastructure works, and new productive investments.
A KPMG report reveals that 60% of senior management in Central America and the Dominican Republic believe that attracting domestic and foreign investment will be the main challenge in 2026. In the Dominican Republic, this objective is further complicated by pressure on public finances and increasing regional competition for skilled labor. Published and based on surveys conducted between October and November 2025, the study warns that these factors directly impact the execution of real estate projects, infrastructure development, and the country's capacity to sustain new flows of private investment.
Current overview
The KPMG study analyzes business priorities for 2026 based on responses from more than 290 senior executives in the region and places the Dominican Republic among the most dynamic economies, driven primarily by tourism, remittances, and foreign direct investment (FDI). These drivers have allowed the country to maintain above-average regional growth rates over the past decade, with economic expansion exceeding 5% in 2024, according to figures from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.
However, the report introduces a key warning: growth alone does not guarantee sustainability. KPMG points out that in the Dominican Republic, “the management of public finances could represent a critical challenge,” given that tax revenues may face limitations in keeping pace with economic expansion. This observation is particularly relevant to the Dominican real estate market, where the realization of large projects depends on macroeconomic stability, regulations, and the State's capacity to support private investment with infrastructure, services, and efficient administrative processes.
The piece of data that raises the alarm
The study's findings are compelling. Sixty percent of the executives surveyed identified attracting domestic and foreign investment as the main challenge for 2026, while 42% pointed to the sustainability of public finances as a significant risk to the business environment. KPMG emphasizes that realizing investment will depend on three key factors: regulatory stability, bureaucratic simplification, and attracting talent—a combination that defines the true investment climate beyond economic incentives.
“For KPMG, attracting investment requires not only incentives, but also fiscal discipline, clear rules, and a skilled workforce prepared to sustain long-term projects,” the study states.
From macroeconomics to concrete
The KPMG study is explicit on a point that, for the Dominican Republic, is not merely circumstantial but structural: the country's economic growth rests on dynamic engines, but these are vulnerable if not sustained with fiscal discipline. The report identifies tourism, remittances, and foreign direct investment (FDI) as the main pillars of recent growth—three sources that have allowed the country to maintain macroeconomic dynamism but which depend heavily on external factors and the international financial environment.
From there, KPMG introduces a key warning: managing public finances could become a critical challenge, as tax revenues may not grow at the same rate as the investment needs in infrastructure, public services, and productive incentives.
The report emphasizes that the problem lies not in generating economic activity, but in the State's capacity to support that growth with sufficient, predictable, and sustainable revenue. In this context, the Dominican Republic will be forced to prioritize strategic investments and strengthen public-private partnerships to maintain dynamism without compromising fiscal stability—a condition that directly impacts real estate development, tourism infrastructure, and large urban projects, where financial sustainability becomes as crucial a requirement as private profitability.
The human factor as a bottleneck
The KPMG study warns that attracting talent is as crucial as fiscal stability for investment to materialize. In the survey, 49% of companies identified training and development as the main differentiator for attracting and retaining staff, followed by a competitive salary (47%) and training in artificial intelligence (39%). This data reflects that competition for talent in the region has intensified and that companies are seeking candidates capable of operating in increasingly digitalized and complex environments.
For the real estate and construction sector in the Dominican Republic, this reality has direct implications. The shortage of engineers, architects, project managers, specialized technicians, and financial professionals increases operating costs and limits the ability to efficiently execute large-scale developments.
When an economy fails to develop and retain talent, investment loses productivity and becomes more dependent on external resources, which increases costs and reduces competitiveness compared to other markets. KPMG points out that, without robust talent development and acquisition programs, even technological investment risks being inefficient, a scenario that directly affects capital-intensive sectors such as construction and real estate development.
Outlook for the year
KPMG's outlook for 2026 sends a clear message to the Dominican Republic: economic growth alone is not enough to guarantee sustained investment. Without balanced fiscal management, real progress in streamlining administrative processes, and a clear strategy for developing and retaining talent, attracting capital will continue to face structural limitations. For the construction and urban development sector, the challenge is significant: the future of projects will depend on both their private profitability and the country's institutional capacity to provide fiscal stability and a competitive workforce.
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