IM Yearbook 2020/21

Economic Impact
Economically, Seixas continues, real estate projects linked to
investment migration can have an enormous impact. “These
programmes often bring in important financial aid required
to rehabilitate communities and entire city centres. Then
there is the job-creation aspect. Here we need to look at both
the job creation as part of the construction and development
of a project, but when it comes to bigger projects, such as
hotels, we also need to take into consideration the jobs that
are created once these projects are up and running.”
Trisokkas agrees saying that “these programmes can possibly
provide a series of significant liquidity injections into an
economy and create paths for strategic investments that assist
with the modernisation and diversification of smaller nations’
economies, creating a better life for their citizens”. Gaye
Hechme highlights that real estate projects are also a source
of government revenue creating income in the form of taxes,
duties and fees related to the operations of the project.
Unbalanced Growth
Critics of real estate-linked investment migration options
often argue that they can lead to one-sided economic
growth and negatively affect the property market by
pushing up prices so that housing becomes unaffordable
for the local population with modest and middle-income
levels. “This can happen,” says Seixas. “That’s why it’s
very important that local authorities are very attentive
in legislating appropriate bills in order to minimise this
effect, although a higher demand will always impact
the pricing of real estate no matter whether it’s related
or unrelated to the investment migration,” he says.
“If the country does not structure the real estate route
correctly, then it might have a negative impact,” Trisokkas’
admits. “There is definitely a greater need to structure
long-term strategies for the real estate route so that local
communities enjoy the benefits of these foreign direct
investment inflows.” He believes countries should structure
their programmes “in a way that motivates applicants to
invest in less developed areas, for example away from the
city centres or prime locations, so that these areas see a fresh
injection of capital”. Moreover, he says, investment migration
programmes have a vast potential and could further assist
with the creation of a new branded touristic product and,
at the same time, upgrade the existing infrastructure.
For Cameron Fraser Antigua and Barbuda demonstrates
that this strategy can work. “Antigua required from the
start that all CBI real estate projects need to be within
clearly defined development zones that have primarily
been set aside for the development of hotel room stock.
This policy has been successful and has seen a significant
increase in the number of hotel beds in Antigua funded
by CBI real estate investments. If this policy is maintained,
we believe that some of the issues that have become
apparent in other markets will be avoided,” he points out.
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Investment Migration Yearbook 2O2O/2O21