In 1990 the Russians brought suitcases of cash benefits to the Cote d’Azur and Monaco to buy real estate, but now it is the British - with conventional banking methods and with it a degree of seriousness - are investing in Europe’s top tax haven.
While the British have been players in the region for nearly two hundred years, with Nice just along the coast is a popular holiday resort in the Making Victorian English - in recent years the British have held a presence in Monaco, but now they are back in numbers not seen , For over a century.
The new wave of British buyers is welcomed by Monte Carlo as representatives of their funds are more rightly deserves, while some of the 90’s Russian cash was often a little suspect.
“Things have changed since the 90’s years, when the Russian mafia were the big players in the city,” says Roger Munns, Managing Director of Monaco property specialists Tribune Properties, and then it was just a few million for cash a property and not questions. In recent years, banks have really tightened up due to government pressure, because the “war on terror ‘and tracking money from illegitimate sources. estate agents in Monaco know that the chances of a British Buyers can show the source of their money as legitimate is very high “.
With quite ordinary one bedroom apartments with nearly one million euros, and a typical apartment with three bedrooms in more than three million Euros, property prices have more than doubled in Monaco in the last ten years.
In the past Monaco property buyers have often retired sixty-somethings, stay away from their home country to avoid the taxes that come with the sale of its business. But today’s Monaco buyer is just as likely that in his mid-thirties or forties years ago, when in their sixties, with the middle age British leading the way.
“A few years ago about one in ten enquiries we received were from the United Kingdom ‘, say Tribune,” but now it is almost four out of ten - a significant shift on the nationality of Monte Carlo property buyers.
The buyers often have their money from one of the three sources. The traditional company owner with a brick and mortar business, sold, but also younger entrepreneurs, some of whom have the money in e-commerce. A significant number of buyers from the United Kingdom have in the financial sector, invariably in the City of London. We see a lot of futures and commodity brokers, are in high million pound and more salaries with annual sales bonues.
Some British buyers continue to trade or their businesses from Monaco. Nice Airport is a ten minute helicopter ride away, and the City of London can only three hours away from their Monaco property with the right connections. With some clever accounting thrown, today’s technology allows people to manage their UK business from Monaco in a tax free environment “.
Monte-Carlo-weather
Henri Boulanger of independent Monaco travel guide YourMonaco.com has also noticed more Brits on the streets of Monte Carlo.
“The British have arrived in Monaco in numbers recently. I have just spoken to have recently sold their business or are on very high salaries with million pound and more annual bonuses. I think they come here for the weather in Monaco, but of course it is for the tax environment we offer - and of course the Monaco Grand Prix. ”
In recent years the British economy has always been one of the strongest in Europe, and with a peak rate of income tax cut a decade ago to forty percent of the rich have become richer - and want to remain so.
“Despite the top rate of taxes come to forty percent,” says Henri, ‘By the time other direct taxes such as National Insurance are taken into account around half of top earners salaries are - as many of the Monaco property buyers from Britain see - lost to Revenue. With the move to Monaco to double their disposable income.
When you run the Hotel de Paris Monte Carlo and see a couple with estate agent details on the table and a map of Monaco with various places highlighted, it is almost a coincidence that they are British. Much more than just a few years ago. They like Monaco, security, tax advantages and proximity to London.