Chinese Account for Half of Antigua CIP Applicants – Program Interest up 27% on Year

In the first half of 2017, Antigua & Barbuda’s Citizenship by Investment Programme received 27% more applications – 187 compared to 147 – than in the first half of 2016, shows the Citizenship by Investment Unit’s 6-month report, published today.

The set of figures released covers the period preceding last year’s dreadful hurricane season which, beyond wreaking havoc and costing lives, became the pretext for a series of price cuts among Caribbean CIPs. In October last year, Antigua & Barbuda lowered its NDF contribution requirement from US$ 200,000 to US$ 100,000, citing a collapse in interest in its program due to discounts among its competitors. 

Read: Antigua Cuts Citizenship Price in Half Following Collapse in Market Share

Between January 1st and June 31st, 2017, Chinese nationals were, by far, the greatest investor group, accounting for 51% of all applicants in H1 2017, and about 43% of the total since the program opened. Bangladeshi applicants, the runners-up, made up 7% of CIP participants, followed closely by Syrians (4.28%), Indians (3.74%), and Saudis (3.74%).

38% of applicants – 71 out of 187 – chose the NDF contribution option, a figure drastically lower than the 114 seen during the same period a year before.

The number of applicants choosing real estate investment, meanwhile, rose from 20 during H1 2016 to 38 in H1 2017, making up a fifth of the total.

Remarkably, business investment, ordinarily the least popular of the program’s three investment options, rose by 600%, from 13 in H1 2016 to 78 in the first half of last year, thus becoming the most popular option.