If Trump Wins “I’ll Have The Business Year Of My Career.”: Investment Migration People In The News This Week

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Investment migration people in the news this week included:

• Eric Major of Latitude
• Kristin Surak
• Dominic Volek of Henley & Partners
• David Lesperance of Lesperance & Associates
• Savills 
• Alex Vaughan of Lucas Fox
• Graham Hunt of Valencia Property
• Dion Gavriilidis of Elxis 
• Ricardo Severini of Elounda Hills
• Miette Lauwers of Your Home in Crete
• Sarah Hordle of Island Homes
• Charles Roberts of Fine & Country
• Jacinto Soler Matutes

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Boston Globe – Thinking of leaving the country if Trump wins? There’s a market for that.

Eric Major is having a good year. A good decade, really. And it may be about to get much, much better.

[…]

Major is the founder and executive chairman of the London-and-Dubai-based firm Latitude, which helps clients obtain residencies and citizenships from around the world. Right now, Americans are his top clients, and they’re looking to acquire long-term access to places like the Caribbean, Greece, and Portugal.

[…]

Nearly a decade ago, when Kristin Surak first started studying the worldwide market for citizenships and residencies — which she chronicles in her recent book “The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires” — she encountered few Americans seeking an escape hatch abroad.

[…] 

“Gradually, with the hyper-politicization of American elections,” notes Surak, people were worried about “what would happen if “a ‘communist’ like Biden got elected or a ‘fascist’ like Trump got elected. And they were looking for exit options.”

[…]

If Trump wins in November, I asked Major, what does he think will happen? Simple, he answered. “I’ll have the business year of my career.”

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Newsweek – Rich Americans Are Preparing to Flee the US

The firm, Henley & Partners, told CNBC that many of their high-net-worth clients are looking to build “passport portfolios” in case they feel the need to leave their home country. According to Dominic Volek, executive and group head of private clients at Henley, the motivation behind seeking second citizenship is to “hedge against levels of volatility and uncertainty.”

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“The U.S. is still a great country, it’s still an amazing passport,” Volek told CNBC in a report published Wednesday morning. “But if I’m wealthy, I would like to hedge against levels of volatility and uncertainty.”

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“The idea of diversification is well understood by wealthy individuals around what they invest,” he added. “It makes no sense to have one country of citizenship and residence when I have the ability to actually diversify that aspect of my life as well.”

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MSN – The rich are getting second passports, citing risk of instability

“The U.S. is still a great country, it’s still an amazing passport,” said Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners. “But if I’m wealthy, I would like to hedge against levels of volatility and uncertainty. The idea of diversification is well understood by wealthy individuals around what they invest. It makes no sense to have one country of citizenship and residence when I have the ability to actually diversify that aspect of my life as well.”

[…]

“With Malta you become a European citizen, with complete settlement rights across Europe,” he said. “So you can live in Germany, your kids can go and study in France and you have the right to live, work and study throughout Europe.”

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“We all live in uncertain times, not just in the U.S., but in all nations globally,” Volek said. “Who knows what’s going to happen next. It’s really about having not only a Plan B but Plan C and D in place as well.”

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Business Insider – Rich Americans who want a backup plan are getting second passports. These are the countries they’re choosing.

Portugal is one of the top destinations for Americans seeking a second passport, executives from the citizenship brokerage firm Henley & Partners previously told Business Insider.

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While few of Henley & Partners’s clients actually move abroad, they said they find comfort in having the option available to them, the firm’s Dominic Volek previously told BI.

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Business Insider – Spain is about to make it much harder for wealthy foreigners to buy their way into residency

Investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners said in 2023 that it saw more Americans inquire about residence and citizenship by investment than in any other year.

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Financial Times – ‘Non-doms’ rush for advice on Labour’s tax reform plans

“It has been crazy since Monday,” said David Lesperance, founder and principal of international tax advice firm Lesperance & Associates. “Jeremy Hunt’s [Budget] announcement gave some people false hope about the future. The hopes of the hesitant died pretty quickly this week.”

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The Telegraph – Britons in the firing line as Europe scraps golden visa rules

According to Savills in Malaga, rather than golden visa sales – of which they’ve had hardly any – it is the lack of properties for sale (for a surging population) is the main problem – like Barcelona.  

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Although golden visa scheme holders only need to be in Spain for one day a year to renew their visa, most typically stay for up to six months a year (they are allowed to work and bring their families), says Alex Vaughan of estate agent Lucas Fox.

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“One of the factors leading to house price growth [and outpricing locals] is the impact of government regulation that 30pc of new developments in Barcelona are to be social housing,” adds Vaughn. “This has stalled construction, leading to a shortage of properties.”

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Both Stucklin and Graham Hunt of agent Valencia Property see American buyers being hit the most, having seen an uptick in demand for golden visas since Covid. 

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Dion Gavriilidis, of Elxis – At Home in Greece, an estate agent, adds: “The popularity of Airbnb investments and the fact that urban apartments are often being sold at inflated prices solely to meet visa requirements has resulted in locals competing with foreign investors in mainland cities but also Chania, Heraklion [on Crete], Corfu Town.”

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Gavriilidis adds: “Most of our buyers seek rural homes priced higher than the threshold. Owners contribute to the local economy by shopping locally, supporting tavernas and restaurants, especially out of season.”  

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In Crete, the most popular Greek island for foreign buyers, there is a mixed picture. At the high-end new marina development, Elounda Hills where properties start from €749,000, 35pc of buyers have applied for a golden visa, mostly from Asian countries, according to Ricardo Severini, the sales director.

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“The golden visa stimulates and injects much-needed capital into the local economy, which creates jobs, and spurs development.”

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Yet rising prices have priced out Cretans, says Miette Lauwers of agency Your Home in Crete. “There has also been a lot of abuse. We have clients who want to buy a house but never live in it or even visit it, just to get a foot in Europe.”

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However, don’t call it a “golden visa”, says Sarah Hordle of Island Homes, an agent. You are not allowed to work on the fast-track residency scheme and it’s not automatic citizenship, but a route to permanent residency.

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“Developers will build houses in the villages behind the coast, like Frenaros and Avgorou priced at €300,000 targeting locals and overseas buyers,” she says. “But the Cypriot government now gives locals grants of up to €50,000 towards buying a home [to counter the effect of foreign buyers] so that levels the playing field a little.”

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But Charles Roberts of agent Fine & Country says: “The scheme created a big injection into the construction industry and helped revive Lisbon’s Chiado where locals were never keen to live, and it was only a ‘ripple’ in the whole property market. Now non-EU buyers – especially Americans – are investing €500,000 into a capital fund instead to get their visa.”

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Cinco Dias – From golden visas to papers for everyone

Jacinto Soler Matutes pens an article in Spanish dissecting the government’s decision to scrap the Golden Visa. (Translated from Spanish to English via Google).

In a delicate and decisive electoral year, the issue of migration has crept into the political debate, as some experts and analysts already anticipated. In a few days, the media has focused its attention on two extremes of the Spanish immigration panorama.

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A few hundred golden visas a year can hardly affect a real estate market with almost a million transactions a year throughout Spain. In this sense, the most recent regulations on digital nomads, purchases by European investors (who do not require a residence permit) and investments by large funds and insurance companies surely have much more local impact. However, it is evident that an upcoming reform of Law 14/2013 should direct foreign investment towards other assets with a greater impact on our economy and employment.

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In the United States, the EB-5 residency regime for foreign investors has spurred the creation and growth of businesses across the country, from bars and farms in Minnesota to technology companies in California. Even the nationalist and very American Trump did not suspend this program during his term.