Storing wealth overseas, specifically in real estate in the United States, UK, Switzerland, and a small number of other nations, has been a trick of the the global wealthy for a long time. Examples abound, like a stretch of one of the most expensive places on the planet to own property, sits vacant for nearly the whole year.
In a three-block stretch of Midtown, from East 56th Street to East 59th Street, between Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue, 57 percent, or 285 of 496 apartments, including co-ops and condos, are vacant at least 10 months a year. From East 59th Street to East 63rd Street, 628 of 1,261 homes, or almost 50 percent, are vacant the majority of the time, according to data from the Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/realestate/pieds-terre-owners-dominate-some-new-york-buildings.html
New York City has tried (and failed as of 2019) to pass a “pied-à-terre tax” for various reasons like the Real Estate Board of New York claiming, “if wealthy foreigners stay away, it could cut into revenues of restaurants, retailers, and even taxis.” Which is ridiculous when they don’t even enter the country. While that might be a useful tax it singles out the wealthy and therefore garners a lot of money and corruption backing the opposition instead of actually helping the citizens that live in the city. A better way might be to simply tax vacancy. If you are not using the property, let someone else. As long as the property is occupied in some way for, let’s say, 10 days of every month, you pay standard property taxes. But how do you enforce something like that? “Opponents said New York City lacked the resources to determine an owner’s residency.”
Other cities, including Vancouver and Paris, have adopted pied-à-terre taxes. Seems likely that this will slowly become a necessity for most other cities as real estate prices reach new highs and global populations continue to grow.
These value store properties seem to have less volatile prices and weather the storms of the real estate market better than properties us peasants are able to pay for.
30% of the apartments in large-scale Manhattan developments were sold to foreigners, or LLC’s. A foreign investor or LLC isn’t inherently a dishonest entity, but many are looking for a way to stash big cash in something secure (especially the LLC crowd).
https://www.moneymakers.com/220-central-park-south-is-immune-from-faltering-manhattan-prices/
In the mean time, put your properties on Stayy and stop letting your gorgeous Park Ave. condos sit vacant and let your friends, like me 😉, use them!