The Highly Coveted Expat
December 22, 2010 5:21 pmIn our industry, we talk about expats all the time. Specially, in International real estate, the expat community is highly coveted. There are thousands of websites dedicated to expat communities, adjusting to foreign ways of life, new trends in expat dining and shopping, how to change currency, pay your taxes and just general places to congregate.
We are seeing international real estate property portals like Viviun popping up all over. Hundreds of second home real estate projects are trying to capture those willing, able and looking to leave their homeland. As market conditions have changed, global real estate groups are seeking expats to increase their market share. According to the United Nation’s, there are 180 million people or 3% of the world population who are living in a country other than the one they were born in. Historically, this area has been highly under researched. Seperate note, if you are interested in learning more about property portals check out InternationalRealEstateReview.com.
According to Wikipedia, the definitions are as follows:
An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing or legal residence.
A diaspora (from Greek διασπορά, “scattering, dispersion”) is the movement or migration of a group of people, such as those sharing a national and/or ethnic identity, away from an established or ancestral homeland.
Diaspora entrepreneurs are one sector of skilled migrating expatriate workers who present opportunities to developing countries. They create jobs, foreign investment and innovation according to recent research. International investors group together for strength in union. According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), ways to support and encourage diasporas entrepreneurship include the encouragement of access to capital, lower tariffs on importing/exporting, make it very clear they are welcome and make it easy for them to come and go from their country origin.
According to the World Bank, these “first mover” entrepreneurs can have an advantage with their multi-lingual skills and personal connections when engaging in higher risk business activities or emerging markets. MPI profiled success organizations across a variety of countries and discovered a 5 levels of commitment to diaspora entrepreneurship:
- Networking
- Mentoring
- Training
- Investment
- Venture Capital and Partnerships
A recent HSBC expat survey reported that expats more commonly prefer to socialize with other expats. These are good points to consider when tied back to second home real estate and resort real estate in emerging markets.
E360 provides global real estate research for international investors and developers. Our resort research takes a market driven approach in order to identify emerging real estate markets. Our value starts with the accuracy of our real estate forecast regarding pricing and sales velocity. Our real estate development consulting services cover the spectrum of research, finance, property development marketing and sales. To learn more please contact us at [email protected]