COVID, Ultimately, Benefited Investment Migration Industry, 2021 IM Executive Survey Responses Show
COVID’s impact: Expectations vs. reality
In April 2020, at the height of the first European wave of COVID, matters looked very bleak for the investment migration business. In our COVID-19 Market Impact Survey© at the time, we asked respondents to tell us how the pandemic had impacted their inquiry volume, as well as what effect they expected the pandemic would have on demand once the emergency had subsided.
While in April 2020, 55% of firms conceded that inquiry volumes had dropped following the onset of the pandemic, they simultaneously made bullish predictions as to the plague’s long-term influence on demand for residence and citizenship by investment.
As we now can see with the benefit of hindsight, that prognosis turned out to be almost precisely correct. While the public health situation remains arguably as disastrous as in April 2020 (albeit with considerable regional differences), IM firms’ fortunes have taken a remarkable turn for the better.
Inquiry volumes have recovered from the early disruption, which now appears to have been short-term in nature. 71% of service providers said the number of inquiries they receive is not only far higher today than at the height of the first European and Amerian waves, but also greater than before the onset of COVID-19 altogether. Only 2% of respondents said inquiries had fallen.
The observations serve to demonstrate, once more, as we have previously argued on IMI, that investment migration is in the enviable position of being an anti-fragile industry.
The initial shock of the first truly international health crisis in over a century, combined with heavy-handed and comprehensive government intervention, paralyzed the investment migration market in the spring of 2020. As soon HNWIs had had a chance to assess the impact on their portfolios, however, and learned that neither the stock market nor housing prices had collapsed, interest in investment migration returned with redoubled vigor.
In the Investment Migration After COVID report, you can see the complete results of the 2021 Investment Migration Executive Survey, get an overview of which programs have been the relative winners and losers of the pandemic year, and learn how dozens of the leading executives in the investment migration market believe the market has, and will, change as a consequence of COVID.
The report attempts to identify the most consequential transformations that have taken place in the investment migration market over the last year, to prognosticate as to which marks 2020 will leave on the market in the long run, and to outline how industry professionals can prosper in the new investment migration market.
Investment Migration After COVID – Trends and Outlook 2021
Investment Migration After COVID tells the story of what we expected to happen after the pandemic, compares that to what happened, and highlights what dozens of leading investment migration executives anticipate will change in the years ahead.
- Findings of the April 2021 Investment Migration Executive Survey©
- How pandemic-related government restrictions have affected the service deliverability;
- How the pandemic has affected demand;
- Which source markets are growing the fastest;
- How client’s preferences have changed as a consequence of the pandemic,
- In which regions IM companies are planning to open new offices;
- Which programs have risen and fallen the most in popularity over the last year;
- Which programs were the best-sellers in the last year, and which are expected to be the best-sellers in the next year; and
- Which application processing units were the most efficient in 2020.
- How companies have adapted to new work habits necessitated by the pandemic, such as working remotely, reducing travel and in-person event attendance, and the degree to which such changes are likely to persist in the long term.
- A review of the April 2020 COVID Market Impact Survey©
- How IM executives expected the pandemic to impact demand compared to what actually happened;
- How demand has changed between April 2020 and April 2021; and
- What IM executives expected to happen with border restrictions compared to what actually happened.
- An interview with Nestor Alfred of the Saint Lucia CIU
- How did the Unit change its policies to go from being a laggard to being the most efficient CIU, according to IM executives?
- The mega-trends driving the transformation of the IM market after COVID
- The West wakes up to investment migration;
- Crypto-millionaires: The new new rich;
- The race to digitize and remote-enable program processing;
- Beyond visa-free travel;
- How major investment migration programs performed in 2020
- The winners and losers of the pandemic.
- The biggest differences between the IM market before and after COVID, according to industry leaders
- Stefan Kraus, COO of Henley & Partners;
- Jean-François Harvey, Global Managing Director of Harvey Law Group;
- Eric G. Major, CEO of Latitude;
- Mohammed Asaria, Founder of Range Developments;
- Micha-Rose Emmett, CEO of CS Global Partners;
- Nicholas Stevens, Managing Director of NTL Trust;
- David Lesperance, Managing Partner of Lesperance & Associates;
- Paul Williams, CEO of La Vida Europe; and
- Sam Bayat, Founder of Bayat Legal Services.
IMI Club Pro Members:
FREE
IMI Club Members:
FREE
Christian Henrik Nesheim is the founder and editor of Investment Migration Insider, the #1 magazine – online or offline – for residency and citizenship by investment. He is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, documentary producer, and writer on the subject of investment migration, whose work is cited in the Economist, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, and Business Insider. Norwegian by birth, Christian has spent the last 16 years in the United States, China, Spain, and Portugal.