What motivates international homebuyers? Investor to lifestyle ‘migrants’ in a tourist city

ABSTRACT

In the aftermath of the economic crisis, Lisbon has ascended on to the urban tourism and international property market with a velocity that is transforming the city. Investor immigration programmes and fiscal policy have met their objective of attracting wealthy third country and intra-EU migrants to invest in housing in the city. To date, there is a dearth of empirical and theoretical analyses that explicate the motivations and aspirations of international overseas residential investors. Situated at the intersection of the literature on investment and lifestyle migration, and based on 20 in-depth interviews with experts in the intermediary elite economy, our objective is to understand buyer motivations and the current attraction of the city. We present our results in the form of a typology of new transnational urban homeowners revealing complex forms of mobility that intersect in the city. Our results reveal the continued importance, both directly and indirectly, of lifestyle motivations related with quality of life, culture, amenities and climate. Yet, economic motivations are the most significant, even if diverse, among the residential investor typologies with some seeking a safe haven and others geoarbritage or income optimization. Moreover, our results suggest that the success of government incentives (immigrant investor programmes or tax exemptions) to attract foreign second home buyers are dependent on prospects of city economic growth, rent legislation and the perceived attractiveness of the city/region for tourists making them difficult to replicate across contexts.

摘要

在经济危机的余波中, 里斯本以一种正在改变城市的速度, 提升了城市旅游和国际房地产市场。投资者移民计划和财政政策已经达到了吸引富裕的第三国和欧盟内部移民投资城市住房的目标。到目前为止, 缺乏实证和理论分析, 以解释国际海外住宅投资者的动机和愿望。我们研究结合投资和生活方式移民的相关文献, 基于对中介精英理财专家的20次深入访谈, 目标是了解买家的动机和城市现有的吸引力。我们以一种新型跨国城市房主的分类来呈现我们的结果, 揭示了该城市错综复杂的流动形式。我们的研究结果表明, 与生活质量、文化、生活设施和气候有关的生活方式动机, 不管从直接还是间接方面一直占有重要地位。在住宅投资者的分类中, 有些人寻求安全的避风港, 而另一些人则是寻求地理区位上的套利或收入优化。即使有各种各样的购房动机, 但是经济方面的动机总是最重要的。此外, 我们的研究结果表明, 政府激励措施 (移民投资者计划或免税) 吸引外国第二购房者的成功, 取决于城市经济增长的前景、租金立法以及游客感受到的城市/地区的吸引力, 使它们很难在不同的背景下进行复制。

KEYWORDS:

• Second homes
• investment migration
• lifestyle migration
• homebuyer motivations
• Lisbon
• real estate
• urban tourism
• real estate tourism
• globalization
• citizenship

关键词:

• 第二住宅
• 投资移民
• 生活方式移民
• 购房者动机
• 里斯本
• 房地产
• 城市旅游
• 房地产旅游
• 全球化
• 市民

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the interviewees for sharing their experiences and to the anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Officially termed as the Residence Authorization for Investment Activity (ARI) necessitates a 500,000 Euro property purchase or 350,000 Euro investments in property for rehabilitation.

2. Tavares, R. (24 February 2017). Os pensionistas suecos (e não só) estão a procurar Portugal. Porquê? Accessed 20 June 2017. http://observador.pt/2017/02/24/os-pensionistas-suecos-e-nao-so-estao-a-procurar-portugal-porque/

3. This ranged from a minimum of 56% to a maximum of 90% in the answers provided by the intermediaries.

4. Ranging from a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 50% in the answers provided by the interviewees.

5. Interviewees identified a minimum of 10% and a maximum of 60%.

6. Accessed 8 June 2017. https://internationalliving.com/the-best-places-to-retire/

7. Accessed 8 June 2017. https://monocle.com/workspace/uploads/file/25-25/25-25_lisbon_online- 54f58038d01ed.pdf

8. Accessed 21 June 2017. http://veja.abril.com.br/mundo/como-brasileiro-morar-portugal-aposentado-estudante-classe-media/

9. As Crime Wave Hits Brazil, Daily Death Toll Tops Syria, Forbes, OCT 28, 2016 Kenneth Raposa. Accessed 24 May 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/10/28/as-crime-wave-hits-brazil-daily-death-toll-tops-syria/#3651f4a31b7f

Additional information

Funding

H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014 [grant number 645471].

Notes on contributors

Joaquim Montezuma

Joaquim Montezuma is an Assistant Professor in ISEG - The Lisbon School of Economics & Management at the Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal and a managing partner in ImoEconometrics, an independent market research company. He holds a PhD in Urban Studies from the University of Glasgow, UK. His expertise lies in the area of real estate finance and housing market dynamics.

Jennifer McGarrigle

Jennifer McGarrigle is a researcher in the Centre of Geographical Studies (CEG) and an Assistant Professor of Human Geography in the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning (IGOT) at the Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. Her research interests cover international migration and urban change.