The researchers estimated that although around 1,000 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) came into the UK during the year, this was more than cancelled out by the 5,000 who left, resulting in a net outflow of around 4,000 for the year.
NWW highlights possible reasons for the UK’s poor performance in 2017:
- New taxes on non-doms and foreigners with homes in the UK made it more expensive and more complicated for migrating HNWIs to buy homes in the UK.
- The UK’s traditionally high inheritance taxes made the likes of Australia and the US more appealing to migrating HNWIs (post Brexit). Notably, Australia has no inheritance taxes, while in the US the inheritance tax threshold is much higher than in the UK.
- Note: the US is now talking about scrapping inheritance taxes all together, which would make the UK even more unappealing to HNWIs.
- Several European HNWIs living in the UK moved back to their home countries in 2017, possibly due to Brexit. Furthermore, relatively few new HNWIs came into the country during the year when compared to previous years.
Concerns for London
London has been a hotspot for migrating HNWIs for many years. However, this trend appears to have changed over the past couple years they now seem to prefer moving to safer English speaking cities; such as Sydney, Melbourne, New York and San Francisco.
In last year’s report, NWW highlighted the fact that many wealthy Londoners were moving out of the city to small affluent towns such as Bray, Taplow and Marlow.
The researchers estimate this trend is gaining momentum, while a large number of wealthy Londoners are also leaving the UK altogether – many of these individuals are going to the US and Australia.
