“If You Walk Around Loulé, Every Second Person Is American”: Investment Migration People in the News This Week

Investment migration people in the news this week included:

• David Lesperance of Lesperance & Associates
• Kerstin Buechner of Quinta Properties
• Ricardo Costa of Luximos
• Stuart Wakeling, Dominic Volek, and Peter Ferrigno of Henley & Partners
• Christos Th. Vardikos of Vardikos & Vardikos
• Varun Singh of XIPHIAS Immigration
• Alexandros Risvas of Risvas & Associates
• Eugene Lim of K-Konsult Taxation

The Telegraph – Top earners and entrepreneurs already fleeing Britain over tax raids

David Lesperance, of Lesperance and Associates, an advisory firm, said Britain’s wealthiest were “getting out while the going is good”.

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He said: “Ever since Rachel Reeves started talking about a ‘fiscal black hole’, my wealthy UK non-dom and domiciled clients have been looking for the other shoe to drop.

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“Sir Keir’s warning about a ‘painful budget’ just reaffirms their concerns that major inheritance tax and capital gains hits will be coming soon. As a result, they are actively preparing their exit from the UK.”

City AM – Are the super-rich running out of road?

And aside from the practical drawbacks of applying a tax domestically, David Lesperance, a founding partner at the wealth advisory Lesperance and Associates, believes any international accord on wealth taxes would also be doomed to fail.

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“The proposal outlined by Gabriel Zucman at the G20 is dead on arrival,” he says. “If one country decides to actually implement this domestically, they will see the same result that Rachel Reeves is seeing closing the remittance basis. Numerous countries will be more than happy to attract the ultra-high-net-worth individuals departing the UK to their shores.

Bloomberg – Wealthy Americans are spiking Portugal’s Algarve housing market

“The top of the property market in the Algarve has historically been predominantly British buyers, but it’s changing,” says Kerstin Buechner, co-owner of Quinta Properties, the Savills affiliate in the region.

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She says Americans went from less than 1 per cent of buyers for high-end homes in the Algarve pre-pandemic to become what she calls a “substantial percentage” today. According to the Portuguese Property Association, 10 per cent of all foreign buyers in the country are American. “If you walk around Loulé, every second person is American now,” she says. “It’s unbelievable.”

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“There’s less on the market than there ever was, and the demand is light years ahead of what we used to have,” she says. Average prime sale prices for Quinta Properties neared 3.5 million euros in 2023, up from under three million euros the previous year.

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Ricardo Costa, chief executive officer of Luximos, the Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate in Portugal, has also seen a rise in foreign demand for homes in the Algarve and cites the country’s digital nomad programme as a key reason. Remote workers from outside the European Union can live in Portugal if they have a monthly income of at least 3,280 euros and savings of at least 9,840 euros.

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“People like the mild weather, the surf conditions, the stable politics and that they can do remote work from here only five hours away from the East Coast” of the US, says Costa. “At the south-western tip of Europe, we like to say the Americans are our neighbours.” And in the housing market, a million euros generally goes much further in Portugal than in other popular tourist areas such as the French Riviera and the Greek islands, or in many big cities in the US, he continues. 

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“The golden visa programme did cause a frenzy in sales,” says Quinta Properties’ Buechner, but she adds that the Algarve hasn’t seen a slowdown in foreign buyers. “It’s not just about the golden visas. Americans are coming into Portugal because they’re fed up with the United States and wanting a different lifestyle,” she says. “The Algarve offers that.” 

The National – Wealthy Britons look to move to Dubai over concern about impending UK tax changes

Henley and Partners, a British firm which specialises in residence and citizenship by investment, told The Times 4,200 millionaires left the UK in the first five months of the year.

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Stuart Wakeling, a director of the company’s London office, told the newspaper: “Lots of people may be happy about the change of government but we have seen a spike of people since the election who want to hedge their bets or have a ‘plan B’.

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“There are always a number of factors driving people to move abroad but tax is one of the big ones this year. Others are concerned with the way the UK is going with crime and terrorism. They want something safer and quieter. Some just want a change in lifestyle or better weather.”

Financial Times – Do the very wealthy relocate because of tax rises alone?

And it is not just Britain’s wealthy that are said to be reacting to tax rises. Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, says 2024 is “shaping up to be a watershed moment in the global migration of wealth”.

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He says: “An unprecedented 128,000 millionaires are expected to relocate worldwide this year, eclipsing the previous record of 120,000 set in 2023. As the world grapples with a perfect storm of geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty and social upheaval, millionaires are voting with their feet in record numbers.”

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Henley & Partners’ director of tax services, Peter Ferrigno, tries to qualify this. He says a move is never just about a change in tax, but that often the tax change is a trigger that starts the discussion “or is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back”.

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Ferrigno references the mood in Canada. He says there is an appetite among the rich to leave because of proposed rises in capital gains taxes, but that relocations are also heavily influenced by a dislike for prime minister Justin Trudeau. “People are in a hurry to get out before [the tax rises] cut in,” he says. “But there’s usually a fair few anti-Trudeau comments that come with this, so it seems it’s not only a tax issue but a perception that they don’t like the way the country is changing.”

Investment News – Crypto millionaires have doubled over the past year: Henley & Partners

Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, said Bitcoin’s rise to a new price peak was only one of several factors pushing up the fortunes of the crypto elite.

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“Bitcoin’s rise to over $73,000 in March set a new all-time high, while the long-awaited approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in the US unleashed a torrent of institutional capital,” he said.

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“The crypto millionaires of 2024 are not content with digital riches alone; they seek the freedom of global mobility to match their borderless assets,” Volek said. “As nations compete to attract this new wave of digital wealth, we can expect investment migration programs to evolve, catering to the unique needs of the crypto elite.”

Business Standard – Greek Golden Visa: Invest Rs 2.3 cr in startups for coveted EU residency

Christos Th. Vardikos from the international law firm Vardikos & Vardikos told IMI, an investment migration newspaper, that the €250,000 investment route could “open doors for tech-savvy investors looking to engage with Greece’s growing startup ecosystem.”

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“The increase in the minimum investment for Greece’s Golden Visa programme may reduce the number of applicants from middle-income families who previously found the €250,000 threshold more accessible. However, it may attract wealthier investors who seek a secure European base and are willing to invest more for enhanced lifestyle benefits,” Varun Singh, MD of XIPHIAS Immigration, an immigration consultancy, told Business Standard.

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“The change could also impact the real estate market, pushing demand toward less popular areas still qualifying for the lower investment amount, while driving up prices in high-demand regions requiring €800,000,” he added.

The Economic Times – Greece raises the Bar: Golden Visa investment threshold hits €800,000

Varun Singh of XIPHIAS immigration writes an article exploring the government’s decision to raise the Greek Golden Visa’s minimum investment amount.

The recent decision to hike the investment threshold from €250,000 to €800,000 is a strategic move by the Greek government to address several emerging challenges. While the low threshold successfully attracted foreign capital and stimulated the real estate market, it also contributed to a sharp rise in property prices, especially in high-demand areas like Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, and Santorini. This surge has made it increasingly difficult for local residents to afford housing, exacerbating the housing crisis in these regions.

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To counterbalance this issue, the Greek government has opted to raise the threshold, aiming to temper the rapid price increases and promote more equitable development. By doing so, they hope to direct investment towards less saturated areas, encouraging a more balanced distribution of economic growth across the country.

Ekathimerini – Transitional period in Golden Visa after changes come into effect

“The vast majority of our customers preferred cheap properties, mainly in areas such as Piraeus and the western suburbs – e.g. Peristeri, Aigaleo etc,” Alexandros Risvas, of the Risvas & Associates law firm, tells Kathimerini. Based on this, it appears that in the year to end-July at least €1.2 billion has flowed in from abroad, with the aim of buying real estate to secure a residence permit.

South China Morning Post – Malaysia sees spike in Chinese interest in long-term visas after requirements simplified

There has been a deluge of inquiries from prospective Chinese participants keen on moving to Malaysia, said Eugene Lim of K-Konsult Taxation, which consults on the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) visa scheme. The programme now offers foreigners a five-year visa for a minimum buy-in of around US$300,000.

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“Based on our own data that we collected, we have had over 1,000 inquiries just through TikTok and Douyin,” Lim said, referring to two hugely popular micro-video social media platforms owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.