Most popular wealth migration destinations

● While major Western jurisdictions such as the UK, EU and US will continue to attract considerable numbers of the world’s wealthy residents, industry players say a number of new destinations are starting to jostle for position with the usual suspects.

In 2019, Malaysia’s investor visa was bigger than all European schemes combined, according to Knight Frank’s 2023 The Wealth Report. South Korean and Panamanian visa schemes are in high demand too, approving more applications than the EU powerhouses of Portugal and

Greece last year.

Turkey was the biggest post-Covid growth market, with applications reaching nearly 1,000 a month.

Kristin Surak, associate professor at the London School of Economics, says Singapore and Dubai are emerging as the next big wealth hubs.

Dubai has developed a pragmatic approach to attracting wealthy residents, she says. The United Arab Emirates state has also worked hard to correct a perceived area of weakness, namely length of stay.

“Visa options used to be mostly short term and work related, but with the golden visa scheme, longer-term residence becomes possible.”

Similarly, Surak says that Singapore is developing an attractive tax and regulatory framework, which will serve to attract wealthy residents from across the globe.

Meanwhile, research by international real estate and migration firm Astons reveals that Austria’s golden passport programme offers investors the best bang for their buck.

The company compared 13 citizenship by investment programmes in terms of cost of investment vs the number of countries that offer visafree access in return.

Astons found that the Austrian

golden passport offers investors visa-free access to 120 nations, visa on arrival to 46 other countries, and electronic travel authorisation to a further eight.

But with a minimum investment of $3.253m, the cost of global access is the highest of all golden passport programmes.

According to Astons, the best value golden passport programmes are offered by the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia and Dominica, where a minimum investment of $100,000 will secure you a second passport.

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Joan Muller Lyn Hill