How Macron stole Britain’s millionaires

The Telegraph features an article on how the UK’s super-rich are dwindling in number as they make their way across the channel. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

Walks along the Seine, standing in the shadow of Notre Dame or dining in style in one of its many Michelin-starred restaurants: there’s no doubt that Paris is a city with a lot to offer.

For many millionaires, the lure of the French capital has proven too potent to ignore, especially as tax breaks for the rich make it a more attractive proposition.

While the number of dollar millionaires in Britain and Germany plummeted last year, France’s numbers were stable, at 2.82 million, figures from the Swiss bank UBS show. In 2000, France was home to just 400,000 millionaires.

France now ranks third in the global table with 4.7pc of the world’s 1pc, behind only China (6.2 million) and the US (22.7 million).

The number of millionaires declined by 3.5 million globally between 2021 and 2022 as a result of a tough economic climate and inflation, the report said.

President Macron has been under fire from Leftist political parties for offering the ultra-rich tax breaks after he scrapped a long-running wealth tax in 2017.

The world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, who has an estimated net worth of $221bn (£176bn), resides in France, as do 3,890 other “ultra-high net worth individuals”, with wealth surpassing €50bn (£43bn).

Paris has boomed since the Brexit vote, as those who can look to escape the consequences of the referendum, while remaining within striking distance of London.

Adviser Andrew Amoils, of New World Wealth, described the city as the “top choice” for people leaving the UK.

The number of individuals worth $100m (£81,717,500) or more – so-called centi-millionaires – living in the capital has dropped 4pc since 2022, according to research by wealth advisers Henley & Partners.

London dropped to fourth place in a table ranking the cities with the highest number of super rich, with Los Angeles claiming third, behind New York and San Francisco.

Paris was ranked at tenth, with 280 resident “centi-millionaires”, despite not having made the top 10 last year.

More than 7,100 new jobs were created in Paris as a result of Brexit, the French government estimates – with 1,000 more expected by 2025. Many are in the well-paid financial sector, giving employees moving more bargaining power in the housing market.

Other attractions include the 2024 Paris Olympics and a host of new infrastructure projects, including the Grand Paris project, which will improve public transport links with 77 new stations.

Businesses are spreading out from their traditional base in La Défense, as Goldman Sachs invests in an £86m office in the eighth arrondissement in central Paris. In the so-called “Super Prime” sector, which regularly sees sales above $10m, a lack of available stock in Paris has led to a slowdown over the past three years, but record deals of more than €50,000 per square metre are not uncommon.

In the second quarter of 2023, Paris was one of just four major cities globally to see an increase in “Super Prime” sales, up 17pc from the same time in 2022, data from Knight Frank show.

While London’s most expensive properties remain in high demand, the city has seen a slowdown since 2021 and experts predict that a lack of high-end development will exacerbate the supply problem further.

Those emigrating from London search for greenery, parks and houses, rather than the traditional Parisian flat, Guillaume de Blay, head of Barnes estate agents in the upmarket 16th arrondissement, told Le Figaro.

Parisian estate agents say they are dealing with ‘lots of Londoners’ coming to the French capital CREDIT: Knight Frank
Richard Bellanger, of Haussmann Prestige Paris, said the agency was dealing with “lots of Londoners” coming to the French capital.

Britons buying in Paris can spend up to six months a year in their second homes but face an increase in residence tax, which is now only imposed on those with second homes.

Last year the tax averaged out at €772 for a house and €941 for a flat and it is set to rise further.

Alison Ashby, director of Junot Fine Properties, said it was not just bankers making a beeline for the French capital.

She said: “We see the fruits of record earnings in the luxury goods sectors with clients coming from the haute-couture industry looking for an upgrade in Paris.

“Most are looking for iconic but discreet addresses like Rue du Cirque in the 8th or Rue de Grenelle in the 7th, within minutes of the Golden Triangle but tucked away from the hustle and bustle of central Paris.”

While American buyers make up most of those buying prime property in Paris, spending an average of €5.5m, Ms Ashby said the city was expanding its global appeal.

She said: “Paris is also piquing the interest of ultra-high-net-worth Middle East and Taiwanese buyers, who have returned to the capital since January and have their sights set on turnkey properties with a Seine view or close proximity to the Golden Triangle.”

But some London-based agents are less convinced about the size of the exodus.

Grant Bates, head of the private office at Hamptons, said much of the shift could be blamed on tax changes, including additional stamp duty and the strengthening of non-domicile status rules.

He said: “Certainly clients are looking to have residences in both cities. The strength of the euro and the weakness of the pound was a big factor in that as well.

“It’s not solely linked to the financials, it’s also potentially a bit of lifestyle choice. I spoke to a lot of clients post-Brexit and sadly I think there’s quite a lot of Europeans that don’t really feel welcome, or not as welcome as they did, prior to the results of that referendum.”

But he added that: “It’s not like everyone is jumping on the Eurostar.”

Thea Carroll, an estate agent and television presenter, said political efforts in France to improve its attractiveness to the wealthy were clearly effective but that London had exceeded expectations.

She said: “London and Paris are disparate cities – marking a flood to one from the other based on one factor alone would be foolish.

“Macron’s efforts to attract wealth with regressive tax bands have surely increased its appeal, however, London’s display of resilience has also reaffirmed while it still has the pull on a global stage.”