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Amid High Housing Costs, 40% Of Wealthy Americans Are Buying Second Homes Overseas
Amid High Housing Costs, 40% Of Wealthy Americans Are Buying Second Homes Overseas

Yahoo

time19-07-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Amid High Housing Costs, 40% Of Wealthy Americans Are Buying Second Homes Overseas

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. About 40% of high‑net‑worth Americans plan to purchase a second home abroad within the next year, and two-thirds within the next five years. Skyrocketing housing costs in the U.S. have prompted a growing number of affluent buyers to look overseas, according to a Coldwell Banker Global Luxury survey. The availability of so-called 'golden visas' for high-net-worth investors seeking to purchase real estate overseas amid political and economic uncertainty in the U.S. has been a significant factor in attracting U.S. citizens who can file for residency and even citizenship once they relocate, the report says. Don't Miss: Accredited investors can —with up to 120% bonus shares—before this Uber-style disruption hits the public markets Named a TIME Best Invention and Backed by 5,000+ Users, Kara's Air-to-Water Pod Cuts Plastic and Costs — The Appeal Of Spain Spain has been particularly appealing to U.S. citizens recently, Reuters reports. American buyers paid more per square meter there than any other foreign nationality in 2024—around €3,390 ($4,000)—marking a fourfold increase in purchase volume over the past five years. Spain's housing market itself climbed 11% in price last year, placing it just behind Portugal at the top of EU increases. Generating An Income In Italy Some U.S. expats use their overseas move as an opportunity to generate an income from their new homes. American investor Laurie DeRiu purchased a three-bedroom apartment in Sardinia for €405,000, which she then listed for rent. 'It's a totally different quality of life there ... not at all the hustle and bustle,'she told Business Insider. Another buyer, Melina Manasse, purchased in Lecce for $278,000 and is now earning 'about $3,000 monthly' in rental income, according to the outlet. Trending: Warren Buffett once said, "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." Here's , starting today. The United Arab Emirates and Asia Dubai has always carried an international appeal and experienced a 47% year-on-year jump in residential transactions in 2024, according to U.K. real estate brokerage Savills, which reported that luxury beachfront towers are in high demand. 'Dubai's residential market continues to grow from strength to strength, driven by a steady stream of international investors, end-users, and a strong pipeline of high-quality projects. The emirate has cemented its reputation as a global hub for luxury living and investment opportunities, catering to a wide spectrum of buyer profiles,' according to Andrew Cummings, head of residential Agency at Savills Middle East. There's plenty of appeal for tech's wealthy to buy in Dubai. Property prices have been soaring in recent years, and investors can obtain a 10-year Golden Visa with an investment of approximately $545,000. Tech executives have been particularly bullish on the United Arab Emirates recently, following President Donald Trump's commitment to AI investment in the country. That was followed by investments from a number of Big Tech companies. Turks and Caicos The Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos has been attracting an increasing number of U.S. and Canadian investors recently with direct flights from major East Coast U.S. cities. 'Overall, Turks and Caicos offers a combination of natural beauty, tax advantages, tourism appeal, political stability, and infrastructure development that makes it an attractive option for Americans considering a real estate investment in the Caribbean,' Mauricio Umansky, CEO and founder of global real estate brokerage, The Agency told House Portugal is another country firmly affixed to the expat map. Demand from U.S. citizens has remained high in the country, where a minimum of €500,000 is required to be deposited into eligible funds to obtain a 'golden visa,' which would set them on a path to citizenship after seven to 10 years. 'They're still falling in love with Portugal and buying property in Portugal, which makes the prices in Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve significantly higher, and the expat community keeps on increasing,' Mohr-Elzek, managing director and head of private clients at Henley & Partners, a firm specializing in residence and citizenship by investment, told Central America The Central American nations of Panama and Costa Rica have been attracting U.S. citizens in droves. According to U.S. Department of State figures, approximately 120,000 private U.S. citizens, including many retirees, reside in Costa Rica, which welcomes around 1.5 million U.S. tourists each year. Costa Rica is projected to attract 350 millionaires with a cumulative wealth of $2.8 billion by the end of this year, according to Henley & Partners' latest wealth migration report. Meanwhile, Panama has been on a tear. Residency permit applications from U.S. citizens in Q1 2025 rose by 78.9% compared to the 2024 quarterly average and by 114% over the 2023–2024 quarterly trend, according to Panama's National Migration Service, cited by Panama Sovereign Realty. 'Living in Panama has been absolutely worth it... the lifestyle I have here would've been completely out of reach for me in the U.S. I feel like I'm living a dream,' Kimberly Kelley, a retired hypnotherapist, told Business Insider. Read Next: With Point, you can Image: Shutterstock This article Amid High Housing Costs, 40% Of Wealthy Americans Are Buying Second Homes Overseas originally appeared on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Shrewsbury artist outraged by second home tax bill on only house
Shrewsbury artist outraged by second home tax bill on only house

BBC News

time26-06-2025

  • Business
  • BBC News

Shrewsbury artist outraged by second home tax bill on only house

A woman unable to move into her new home during repairs received a bill for £3,000 in extra council tax because the local authority deemed her a second home Rose from Shrewsbury received a bill totalling £6,603.20 - Band F tax plus a 100% second home premium - despite only owning one property. "The whole thing felt like a little bit of a stitch-up, and quite malicious", she said.A spokesperson for Shropshire Council, which has since removed most of the extra charge, said the second home premium was "charged for any period that the property is not occupied as a main residence". Miss Rose picked up the keys to her new home in the Greenfields area in April - but she could not move in as it had no hot water or lived with her parents in Wolverhampton for a few weeks while works were completed, during which time the bill April, second home owners in Shropshire have had to pay double the usual council tax. Miss Rose said she had let the authority know that she would not be moving in fully until the hot water and heating were fixed."At no point, in any emails or when I filled in online forms, did I say I was a second home owner," she said, adding that she had "just tried to be open and honest about what my living situation was.""It just opened the floodgates."Miss Rose said she felt like "it's up to me to prove to them I don't have a second home." Miss Rose, a former journalist, is now a self-employed artist who specialises in lino-cut income is not stable, fluctuating between £6,000 and £24,000 each year - which she said made the second home premium on her council tax unaffordable."If I'm very lucky, I'll sell a painting here and there - I'm just not the right person to go after," she said."I don't have a string of lovely cottages in Wales or anything like that." Shropshire Council has reduced the bill now the repairs are it has told her an extra payment of £118.57 remains due in for a two-week period in council stated the house was furnished during this time, meaning it qualified for the second home tax - something Miss Rose said was "totally irrelevant.""You could have one chair, you could have four chairs - I really don't know at what point a house becomes 'furnished'," she said. "I found it quite offensive to be put in this second home owner bracket and quizzed on how many sticks of furniture I've got." A spokesperson for Shropshire Council said "the classification of a second residence is a furnished property that is not a person's place of residence."While there is an exception for property in need of or undergoing major repair to make it habitable, this exception does not apply to substantially furnished dwellings." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

How inheriting a second home became the ultimate embarrassment for millennials
How inheriting a second home became the ultimate embarrassment for millennials

Telegraph

time23-06-2025

  • Business
  • Telegraph

How inheriting a second home became the ultimate embarrassment for millennials

Are you planning to leave a second home to your children? Email: money@ For generations, Britons have aspired to buy their own piece of the countryside – a second home to provide the backdrop for family holidays year in year out. But the dream of owning a second home is slowly dying. Data from Hamptons shows the percentage of sales to a second home buyer has fallen from 2pc in 2016 to 0.8pc in 2025 – the lowest figure on record. Buying a second home has never been less of an inviting prospect, not least because successive tax raids have made buying and maintaining one increasingly unaffordable. For millennials, who are buying later, and 'maxing themselves out more than previous generations', buying a second home is all but impossible, says Aneisha Beveridge, of Hamptons. 'This limits their ability to withdraw money from their main residence to purchase a second home, or indeed save up enough money on the side,' she says. 'Likely, money which was enjoyed or invested by previous generations at the same point will be tied up for longer by millennials' and Gen Z's mortgage bills.' According to lawyers and wealth managers, it seems no one particularly wants to inherit a second home either. 'We do see an increased resistance to inheriting real estate and a preference for cash gifts,' says Natasha Southam, of law firm Seddons GSC. 'Owning numerous properties can be seen as burdensome and prohibitive to a mobile lifestyle, which is often a priority.' Younger generations are also embarrassed at the idea of owning a holiday home, says Mark Wood, of Everest Funeral Concierge and former chief executive of Prudential, who is accustomed to helping families with end-of-life planning. Many fear they may be accused of hollowing out communities by hoovering up housing stock and inflating house prices. 'I remember the local antagonism in Wales years ago when people would vandalise properties. There is a similar anxiety among younger generations,' Mr Wood adds. 'Do they really want to be the ones turning up in their estate car and unloading stuff from a central London branch of Waitrose?' The millennials who stand to inherit such homes often grew up in the age of low cost airlines and a social media-driven desire to see as much of the world as possible. 'If you can go to Lisbon for £15, why would you want to spend four hours driving to Devon?' adds Mr Wood. The twilight years of baby boomers will mark one of the biggest wealth transfers between generations in centuries, Ms Southam says. Baby boomers account for £2.89 trillion in housing wealth alone, Savills data shows, and the lion's share of that wealth will likely be passed to their descendants. But consensus among experts is that inheriting a second home is more hassle than it's worth. 'A lot of people underestimate the admin burden of inheriting a second home,' says Sam Grice, of Octopus Legacy, a succession planning firm. 'You've got the general upkeep of the property, and they might have to continue paying a mortgage.' Anyone inheriting a second home will also have to navigate a potentially eye-watering inheritance tax bill and, following changes brought in this year, pay twice the rate of council tax. Inheriting a second home also comes with a sting in the tail for would-be first-time buyers, who have been kept on the rental market by surging house prices. Indeed, the average age of a first-time buyer has crept up from 30 to 34 since 1980, according to Hamptons data. Chancellor Rachel Reeves raised the stamp duty surcharge from 3pc to 5pc for second home purchases, a move seemingly aimed at giving first-time buyers an edge on landlords. 'But let's say you're renting in London, and you inherit a third of a Cornish home. If you then go and buy your own property, you'll have to pay an extra 5pc in stamp duty,' says James Ward, of law firm Kingsley Napley. 'I often suggest that people don't give property to children until they've bought their own home.' In addition, arguments can erupt between siblings – where there is a disagreement as to how to share a holiday home, or even if any of them want it in the first place. 'We tend to draft ownership agreements between families, but it's a liquid asset. What happens if someone wants to take the money out?' says Mr Ward. Mr Wood, of Everest Funeral Concierge, adds: 'Unless siblings are close and have a lot of money, it leads to disputes – what weeks you take, who is allowed to use it and who pays for repairs. It's a constant battlefield.' Sometimes it is the parents who are pushing for children to inherit properties they are, at best, agnostic about. 'They become the backdrop for family holidays and memories,' says Mr Wood. 'People want these places passed down because they represent childhood, and they want their grandchildren to have the same experiences.' There is also some evidence that Labour's war on second home owners is working as intended. Jennie Hancock, of West Sussex buying agency Property Acquisitions, says second homes forced on to the market by tax changes are indeed being snapped up by downsizers. 'The lack of suitable properties to move to has been a major deterrent for downsizers in recent years, but as second home owners sell up, downsizers are finally seeing the opportunity to make their move,' she says. In any case, boomers whose pensions will soon be subject to inheritance tax following Ms Reeves's maiden Budget are increasingly seeing second homes as blows to be softened. 'We are seeing more people with second homes taking out equity releases as part of their inheritance tax planning,' says Adam Canavan, of Bowmore Wealth Group. 'The same rules apply to second homes in Europe, but rather than just releasing equity, we are also seeing people sell those properties altogether. In both cases, the goal is the same – to reduce the value of the taxable estate and ultimately pass more wealth on to their family.'

A Contemporary House Soars in Rural Rhode Island
A Contemporary House Soars in Rural Rhode Island

New York Times

time23-06-2025

  • Business
  • New York Times

A Contemporary House Soars in Rural Rhode Island

For years, Amale Andraos and Dan Wood didn't need much when they escaped to their ramshackle second home in rural Rhode Island. Simply having a few days off was all they needed. Ms. Andraos and Mr. Wood are the founding partners of WORKac, a New York-based architecture firm with an international mix of projects. Ms. Andraos was the dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation until 2021 (and is now dean emeritus) where Mr. Wood also taught. In addition, they are the parents of two children, Ayah, now 15, and Kamil, 12, so leisure time has always been in short supply. Nevertheless, when they were visiting Mr. Wood's parents near Hope Valley, R.I., in 2008, they happened to learn that one of the neighbors was selling a prime 22-acre parcel of land. The private property was nestled against a river and surrounded by undeveloped forest and state-protected land. It came with a house, but not one they liked. 'The house was a mess,' said Ms. Andraos, 52. 'It was a hunter's log cabin from the 1950s that they added onto in the 1970s and 1980s,' said Mr. Wood, 57, noting that the whole structure was in a state of decay. When they visited the site, however, it was so idyllic they couldn't pass it up — they purchased it for $500,000. 'We bought it for the land,' Ms. Andraos said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

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