Kerry Haggard
12 October 2007
column
Johannesburg — IF YOU're looking for an alternative lifestyle and have crossed Australia, New Zealand and Canada off the list, consider Mauritius. With the bulk of its economy focused around the services industry, the island is welcoming foreign nationals seeking to settle there and to open businesses.
According to Reuters, the island is "swapping its sugar fields for luxury property, and for the first time the market is open to foreigners". This is thanks to a 2004 law that allowed foreigners to buy freehold, with the aim of attracting foreign investment.
Properties come at a premium, however, with the average price in the L'Adamante area coming in at $850000. This excludes a government registration duty of $70000, and any furnishing.
The property developers seem to be moving in -- and they are being welcomed by the locals as job creators. One of the biggest developments in the pipeline is Anahita, a $460m development on the island's east coast. It is being planned to include a waterfront, a championship golf course and 325 luxury properties.
If you flip through the Mauritius section of the Pam Golding Properties website (under the Southern Africa section in the international property section ) you will find a plethora of new residential and commercial developments. They are ready for those with a few hundred thousand pounds or dollars lying around.
If you're one to stick with brands you know, Seeff also has a strong presence in the Mauritian market. The company has vacant stands entering the market at about R300000 and going as high as R30m, whereas at the top of the house price list, a seven-bedroom mansion requires R10m.
So if escaping the South African rat race to go and live the island life on a piece of land 60km by 50km is what you dream of, how do you go about making yourself legal?
One of the routes is to apply for a residence permit for a retired non-citizen. This application takes a couple of days to process and comes after presentation of paperwork and various medical tests in a Mauritian state hospital. You need to commit to bringing $40000 a year (for the three years of the permit) into the country. Earlier legislation required an initial investment of $500000.
The retired non-citizen permit does not forbid you from working, and there are routes to be followed in consultation with the government should you wish to buy property. After three years you can apply for a 10-year permanent residence permit, should you wish to stay.
For those wanting to start a new business, the government's website, www.investmauritius.com, promises a maximum of three days from submission of application to opening your doors for trading.
The website says: "As Mauritius opens to the world, transforming itself into a competitive global business platform, the [Mauritius] Board of Investment has put at the service of the international business community a personalised range of services, free of charge, to attract international investment and talents to the country."
Although Mauritius is still very much an island, it boasts a state-of-the-art physical infrastructure, comfortable foreign exchange reserves and a highly educated and productive workforce with a literacy rate of 86%.
English and French are the dominant languages; the government is stable, and is increasingly open to foreign investment. And there are only 1,2-million people.
However, e conomic opportunities aside, once you've been to the beach a few times, there's not that much to do in your leisure time. And being the free holiday home of choice for all your friends and relations is going to be a bit of a challenge. Perhaps there is no place like home after all.
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