Questions on buying Mauritian property to obtain Occupation Permit:

Hello. Lots of pertinent questions. All I can say is that your point 3 does not seem to have happened. If this is allowed, house prices will skyrocket and locals will not be able to buy property. Sorry I cannot answer the other questions. Perhaps you could email EDB and find out.

Regards.

house prices will skyrocket and locals will not be able to buy property.
-@Tookays

Is there a website where we can look at historical prices?  I am used to zillow but what would be the equivalent in Mauritius?  Thank you.

@prospectorland Hi, I find it's hard to define a strict baseline for the property price here , specially for high end property market because there are lots of factors define the selling price. But it is definitely slightly increased due to the construction cost increase. In 2019 when I search in market there were still many options of new built 2 to 3 bedroom apartment selling at 2.X Million Rs but you can hardly find any now.

@prospectorland no idea, have not found any such information.

@prospectorland Hi, I find it's hard to define a strict baseline for the property price here , specially for high end property market because there are lots of factors define the selling price. But it is definitely slightly increased due to the construction cost increase. In 2019 when I search in market there were still many options of new built 2 to 3 bedroom apartment selling at 2.X Million Rs but you can hardly find any now.
-@shen wei

@shen wei, thank you for the information.

Since the question is to purchase a USD 375000 home, will this be considered high end property market? Or is the price high only because those houses are in the PDS-like programs? In other words, are there 2 distinct real estate markets in Mauritius - 1 for foreigners and 1 for locals?

Assuming that the locals benefit from lower prices, it may not be wise to spend the whole amount on a single high end property as this may fuel a housing bubble. It may be better to finance / purchase many smaller properties (like you did @shen wei). Once the resident permit has been secured, then those smaller properties can be sold and properties at local prices purchased.

Now to the question of financing, at 9.5% interest rate, this will be a very expensive loan in Mauritius. It may make more sense to take a loan outside the country at a lower rate. This may also be simpler if you intend to buy multiple properties to document the transfer of USD 375000. After receiving the resident permit, the property (ies) can be sold and proceeds used to purchase at local prices and return the loan.

Not sure if I have answered the original question adequately but I attempted.

Hope that this helps.

PS:  I may have confused the resident permit for a citizenship permit...  For the sake of this discussion, I am assuming that getting a resident permit will allow you to purchase at local prices.  If I was wrong, please swap out resident for citizenship.  As I understand, to become a citizen from being a resident, it only takes a few more years...

@prospectorland no idea, have not found any such information.
-@Tookays

Thank you @Tookays.  From the information from @shen wei, it looks like property values move to the right and up.  I would be interested in knowing the Mauritius real estate market boom and bust cycles.  Real estate markets tend to tank during periods of high inflation - but this would affect mainly the local market.  Election years also tend to affect prices.

Lots of homework for me to do to catch up on the economic activity when I go there.

Hi, I'm not an expert in local real estate so I only share my experience.

1. OP/Residence permit holder allows to buy a property above 6M MUR and the property type must be G+2 or under some schemes such as Smart City etc. For this type of property I believe the price has been increased around 25℅ since year 2019.

2. If you want to get a residence permit through property purchase, then the property value should be the minimum figure you mentioned. But once you sell the property you loose your permit. Regarding the price of this type of property, it's hard to evaluate. Living in the complex you will have the club, the pool, the yatch, jacuzzi on the terrance, 5 star hotel as your neighbour... You pay for all these, lol.

In a way I don't think the local real estate is that much for investment potential, but if you want to consume cash and avoid currency depretiation then it's an option.

@prospectorland

indeed that is what I am getting at:

that there are 2 sets of Mauritian property prices:

the artificially elevated above-USD375k expat prices in the PDS/RES/IRS complexes

vs

similar-sized properties available at half the price to all Mauritians outside of the PDS/RES/IRS schemes

However, with the legislation-change that foreigners can now buy ANY property, this is about to change with properties hopefully becoming more affordable for foreigners (or Larger properties available for the same USD 375k, resulting in much better value for money).

According to the rules, unfortunately you cannot buy several properties adding up to USD375k (MUR 17 Million) but only one at that price; hence my question whether it would be allowed for Purchase Price + Renovation / Alteration cost to total USD 375k ?

As for Citizenship, it has been spelled out quite often here on Expat Forum that the Mauritian Passport / Citizenship is not easily given away to Expats, except if you are part of the Mauritian Diaspora returning to the island or can prove Mauritian Descendancy.

Instead we are talking here only of a method to “earn” Residency (the Occupation / Residence permit that has a chance of being extended to a 20 year PRP - “permanent” residence permit after 3 years).

Also note (as @ShenWei said correctly above) that the Occupation Permit for the family is linked to the property that is purchased and is “lost” whenever that property is sold, with the possibility af earning a new occupation permit if another property is bought, also at USD 375k

2. If you want to get a residence permit through property purchase, then the property value should be the minimum figure you mentioned. But once you sell the property you loose your permit. Regarding the price of this type of property, it's hard to evaluate. Living in the complex you will have the club, the pool, the yatch, jacuzzi on the terrance, 5 star hotel as your neighbour... You pay for all these, lol.

-@shen wei

@shen wei, thank you very much for the additional information.  I did not know that the residence permit was tied to the property.  I guess that the property can be sold only after becoming naturalized - which is yet another hoop to jump through.  I did get some villa purchase communication from the One and Only Saint Geran and it sounded more like a timeshare as the management fees are very high (your point exactly).

Given that new piece of information, I guess that the issue of residence permit through property purchase is targeting a specific expat market - i.e. the ultra-rich who should not have any problems making the purchase.

@ceresiet, I guess that customers for high end properties is more a lifestyle choice as the business model is geared towards non-financial expat benefits.  Did I miss anything in the back of the envelope analysis?

@prospectorland
indeed that is what I am getting at:
that there are 2 sets of Mauritian property prices:

the artificially elevated above-USD375k expat prices in the PDS/RES/IRS complexes
vs
similar-sized properties available at half the price to all Mauritians outside of the PDS/RES/IRS schemes

However, with the legislation-change that foreigners can now buy ANY property, this is about to change with properties hopefully becoming more affordable for foreigners (or Larger properties available for the same USD 375k, resulting in much better value for money).

According to the rules, unfortunately you cannot buy several properties adding up to USD375k (MUR 17 Million) but only one at that price; hence my question whether it would be allowed for Purchase Price + Renovation / Alteration cost to total USD 375k ?


As for Citizenship, it has been spelled out quite often here on Expat Forum that the Mauritian Passport / Citizenship is not easily given away to Expats, except if you are part of the Mauritian Diaspora returning to the island or can prove Mauritian Descendancy.

Instead we are talking here only of a method to “earn” Residency (the Occupation / Residence permit that has a chance of being extended to a 20 year PRP - “permanent” residence permit after 3 years).

Also note (as @ShenWei said correctly above) that the Occupation Permit for the family is linked to the property that is purchased and is “lost” whenever that property is sold, with the possibility af earning a new occupation permit if another property is bought, also at USD 375k
-@Ceresiet

@ceresiet, thank you for the education.  I did not know that there were so many hoop to go through.

I guess that your question about purchase + renovation would be best answered by an expert in the real estate field (not me).

Another out of the box wild thought here - since you are planning on doing some work on the house, could you not create a real estate business and run this as a business?