Bilanz Homes, Switzerland’s real estate magazine just published a very interesting article on some of the world’s most interesting tax havens worth to by a property. Switzerland itself is one of the investment friendliest countries in the world so Swiss citizens more likely looking for a place to escape the cold and wet winter weather, but where they still enjoy financial advantages.

Countries on that list who are offering a very mild and warm climate, white sandy beaches with palm trees and a relaxing lifestyle are St. Kitts, Bahamas , Croatia and Malta just to name a few. St. Kitts for example features a very tax friendly climate for foreigners. The 168 square miles big island, part of the British Commonwealth, is a independent country located in the northern group of the Antilles and only approx. 2000km south-east of Miami, Florida. Besides its stunning beaches and crystal blue water it also offers no income tax, no capital gain tax and no inheritance tax. When purchasing a property, there is a 6% stamp duty of the sales price and further 0.2% to be paid into a state insurance fond. The annual property tax is 0.2% of the market value. A nice side effect when buying in St. Kitts is that you will be able to become resident when buying real estate worth more than $400’000. So without a doubt, this is really of interest if you are living in a country where it’s of great advantage to be able to hold dual citizenship so traveling for example will become easier.

One of the rising stars in Europe as being a tax haven is Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea south-west of Italy. The small country with a population of round about 400’000 and with one of the lowest GDP’s in Europe joint the EU in 2004 and the Euro zone in January 2008. Furthermore its part of the Schengen Country. Malta has a unique tax infrastructure featuring very interesting fiscal incentives not only for individuals but also for organizations. Malta has no value added tax and no sales tax. A 5% transfer duty has to be paid when purchasing real estate on the island. There are also no regularly recurring taxes or fees on properties. Officially, you don’t generate income with real estate so there is also no income tax to be paid. A foreign individual who takes tax residence in Malta, is taxed at 15% on the income brought into Malta, whilst organizations that set up a real office in Malta, although still attract a corporate tax of 35%, the foreign shareholders are refunded 30% of the tax within 20 days. Malta is also named “little Hollywood” because its ideal for filming and many box office movies have been shot on the island. The country offers a variety of incentives for aviation and vessel industry. Wetag is offering one of the most sought-after luxury properties on Malta. The townhouse like villa or palazzo is located in Rabat and features stunning interior design by Schembri Design Studio, boasting all luxurious amenities of these days. High end finishing’s and a great setting with the possibility to have also your own office in house make this property a rare find on the island. With all these above mentioned advantages combined with 300 days of sunshine all year round, Malta has seen a huge influx of high net worth individuals, organizations and foreign investment.

Posted By: Peter Rabitz

Ueli Schnorf, CEO of Wetag Consulting, the exclusive affiliate of Christies Great Estates for southern Switzerland, attended the annual conference in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. More than 100 of the leading real estate brokerages from around the globe, all active in the high end luxury real estate market, came together to discuss market situations, important current updates in luxury real estate, and kept a strong focus on networking news. The summit was held at The Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston which provided an elegant old-world-charm background for the attendees. The conference, with its slogan “Meeting the Challenges of Today’s Market”, was a cutting-edge luxury real estate forum specially targeted to principals and senior management to discover new ideas to strengthen their business. Wealth and mortgage experts presented opportunities. Panel discussions featuring the network’s trend-spotters were focusing on the latest innovative marketing, social networking, and recruiting strategies. Ueli Schnorf said: “As a panellist of the “Risk Management in the Age of Social Networking” session, I explained about Wetag Consulting’s engagements in Blogging, Facebook, Twitter and Co and what Wetag’s experiences are”. After two days of successful meetings and seminars, I was invited by Melanie Delman, our Christies affiliate of luxury real estate firm Lila Delman Real Estate, to spend the weekend at the Carnegie Abbey Club where I stayed in the Royal Dornach Cottage. Together with friends and business partners José Ribes Bas of Rimontgo in Spain, and Philip Sherry of Sherry Fitz Gerald, Ireland, we were taken care of in the most generous way by Melanie Delman and Catherine Gazder of Lila Delman. We all hope that the Delman crew who spent a night with us at famous Boom Boom Room, don’t see their image and name damaged too much by their wild European ‘cousins’…..

I toured some of the greatest properties on Rhode Island currently on the market. We have seen the gorgeous penthouse at the Carnegie Abbey Club which is on the market for $14.5mio and the Puesta del Sol property, also located on the grounds of the Carnegie Abbey Club. Afterwards we toured two of the most prestigious mansions on Rhode Island. The first was Gray Graig which is owned by famous actor Nicholas Cage. Gray Craig is an estate of unparalleled refinement. The setting for this remarkable home is stunning, 27+acres of lush landscape, dramatically extending to Nelson Pond with outstanding views of the Atlantic Ocean beyond. All I can say is: Very very beautiful property indeed. No less impressive than Gray Graig was Oakwood, the next important property we visited and where we had cocktails. Oakwood is revered as one of the finest historic properties of coastal New England. Its traditional setting and interior design is stunning and perfect into the last detail. It was amazing to see what great properties are currently on the market and they are almost a steal compare to other listings in the world.”

Posted By: Ueli F. Schnorf

Como, especially Lake Como is well-known world wide not only because of its dream like setting, but more likely because of its very famous resident, George Clooney, who is living part-time in his beautiful period time villa in Cernobbio, a village right on the western shore of Lake Como and opposite the city of Como. However, the region of Lake Como is also known for its large period style mansions either direct on the lake or nestled on the hills surrounding the lake with beautiful panoramic views.

Just recently, I came across a fascinating remodeling of a former monastery located in the outskirts of the city of Como which has been converted into a residential complex where the young architecture firm JM Architecture connected two adjacent units into a stunning duplex apartment.

The shape of the original units is clearly enhanced by the different pitched ceiling direction as well as by their different heights. The architect and owner of JM Architecture, Jacopo Mascheroni, thought to keep the shell intact, maintaining the entire length of the unit open and invading the space minimally. In a result to that, he placed an enclosed box on one side containing a small bedroom and two bathrooms. The rest of the unit is dominated by a huge open space featuring all the main functions of the home. When entering the home through the main entry, the very small foyer creates a sense of compression before entering the main gallery where the spacious open living space features a grandiose living area, open kitchen and dining, all separated from the master bedroom by a lacquered block. A great gimmick is a video projector who is screening pictures on the wall above the kitchen. To allow the maximum projection surface, the upper kitchen cabinets are hidden behind the wall and slide down with a motorized system. An almost sculptural element of the home is the staircase, which is an assembled steel beam with open treads made by a cantilever steel plate covered in wood. Jacopo Mascheroni explains further characteristics and details of its work: “Canadian maple has been carefully selected for the hardwood floors, and since maple wood isn’t stable with radiant floor heating, the floor planks were custom built with 2.5mm Canadian maple top and back layers on a particle board. The 20cm width of the floor planks modulate the position of all the elements, from the walls to the millwork. The floor planks also run up the master suite wall, which is lit by an upper light cove.

All perimeter walls and ceilings hide an additional layer of thermal insulation and the bathrooms are equipped with radiant panels in the ceiling. The walls adjacent to other units have been covered with a led layer to give additional acoustical insulation. Glacier white Corian is used for counter tops and sinks in the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms, for the bath-tub, showers and parts of the bathroom walls. The house is fully automated and is managed by a server located in the studio on the second level. Everything has been custom designed, including the entire kitchen, bathroom sinks, beds, dining table, desks and bath-tub.”

Without a doubt, this duplex is a great example of Italian design and architecture skills and is fascinating by its minimalistic style and ingenuity.

Posted By: Peter Rabitz

Marrakech is still a destination of interest and with the sale of Yves Saint Laurent former house in Tangier, the country is once again the focus point of many of the city slickers from around the globe. The country features a variety of country sides and fairytale like city living what makes it one of the most sought after it-destinations on the African continent. Besides Marrakech, the red city with its oriental style souks and colourful life throughout the whole city, with its medina and beautiful riads is only one attraction to many of us, but there is much more to explore and one of Morocco’s latest destinations is upcountry, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. This part of Morocco is quite different to the bustling life of Marrakech’s ancient city, but still attracts foreigners who are fascinated by valleys, which are not dissimilar to rural Mallorca or Andalusia and which are only an hour’s drive out of the city. But, despite the increasing interest in locations outside Marrakech’s such as Ouirgane, Marrakech itself still leads the pole position for people demanding living like in the Thousand and One Nights. Although the proliferation of riads may be abating, but the city is still top of the wish list of many individuals such as iconic celebrities as well as many luxury hotel groups like Roco Forte, Gordon Campell Gray, Four Seasons, Banyan Tree and Park Hyatt who all have designs on the city.

I define two major areas within Marrakech where people looking for their dream oriental style hideaway. The Palmeraie, a 10-minute jaunt northeast from the city by air-conditioned 4WD, has been Marrakesh’s most salubrious and expensive area, with beautiful and huge sized villas. A bit more sought-after, but very rare to find are beautiful renovated riads within the Medina of Marrakech. The supply of top-end luxury riads within the Medina and right next to Marrakech’s famous souks and the Djemaa el Fna, the so called “meeting point of Africa”, is rather limited and mostly quiet marketed. Please click here to see two outstanding examples of fabulous Moroccan riads.

Posted By: Peter Rabitz

Condé Nast Traveller is a magazine dedicated to travelling all over the world. The fifth annual Gold List is a selection of hotels around the world that spoils their guests with the best rooms, service, food, location, ambience and design as well leisure facilities. Parameter of this ranking is explained by Condé Nast Traveller as the following: “ Entries include the edited comments of readers and are intended to reveal a property’s character rather than to catalog its facilities. Each score represents the percentage of respondents who rated a property excellent or very good on specific criteria. Criteria for hotels, resorts, and cruise lines vary. Rates ($, $$, $$$, and $$$$) reflect the average price for a double room in 2009. The Gold List is based on data collected from the annual Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Survey; to qualify for inclusion in these rankings, a property had to receive a required minimum number of responses.”

I was not surprised when I read the announcement that Soneva Fushi has been awarded by Condé Nast Traveller Gold List 2009 as one of the best locations to stay. “No news, No shoes” is not only the slogan of this great island resort it’s also a refreshing way of lifestyle separating from other destinations. The eco friendly environment where the furniture is built from renewable or sustainable sources, and bathrooms are open to private gardens, offers a relaxing and very laid back surrounding for all stressed business people and one or the other celebrity.

Soneva Gili, also in the Maldives, made it on the Gold List for Best Rooms what is again, no surprise to me. Couple Weeks ago I stayed in both “resorts” and only can agree and totally confirm that they have been honored with good reason.

Imagine living in a house where you can not only enjoy being in of the greatest spots in Thailand, but also the great and eco-friendly design married with top of the line service and treatment. That’s Soneva Kiri Private Residences on Koh Kood, Thailand where you can own your very own hideaway by Six Senses. It will be truly an experience unparallel like no other.