Business / Leisure trip October 2013

Hi Shalamer,

If you have already arranged for a meeting with the BOI, then you most probably know about the conditions for investing/doing business in Mauritius.

You cannot buy land or property in Mauritius if you do not have citizenship. The Non-Citizen Property Restriction Act prevents this.
Foreigners can only buy into luxury estates called IRS or RES if they want to settle in Mauritius. This will grant you a residence permit as long as you own the unit.

Coming back to your business, a minimum investment of $100,000 is required for any project.

Hi!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, we've done quite a bit of research already and know quite a bit about the various options but we're of course still learning and researching.

Our query is more around making some useful contacts before we get there who might be able to show us potential business's for sale or real estate agents that might have suitable properties or parcels of land we could view with a view to converting / renovating them to start our business on.

We will have the investment cash required and plenty of initial working capital it's more around help with finding a suitable location to develop on or property we could convert or refurbish before opening. I guess it's local knowledge and local recommendations of reputable agents that would be a good place to start or anyone looking to sell a business of this type we could renovate or redevelop.

Simon

Again, you can buy businesses but not land or properties (besides IRS/RES/IHS) irrespective of the real estate agent. This is prevented by law and all agents and real estate agencies are tied to it.

And for eco-tourism projects, these are monitored by the Ministry of Environment and other local bodies like the National Parks and Conservation Services. If outside help is needed, the government issues contracts to foreign organisations.

Ok , thanks for this. I think more will become clear to us when we see the BOI team in October but the thing that confuses me is I keep hearing different answers.

Our 'business' will be a 'property' and thus we will 'own' the property which is the business of the guest house / retreat.

Sometimes I'm told we cannot own a property as we're foreign and other times I'm told we can as the property is in fact the business itself.

Hopefully you can see why we're getting a bit confused. Thanks for your help so far though.

Simon

When you come under the investor scheme, the money you are investing are tied to the property being used for the business purpose like for a building being used to generate the turnover that will guarantee your Occupation permit remains viable.

A non-citizen can acquire an immovable property only if he is authorized by the Prime Minister's Office.

You can have a better outlook through this link.

https://pams.investmauritius.com/docs/G … t%2007.pdf