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Money talks — and moves.
In 2025, 142,000 millionaires around the world are expected to relocate — the largest voluntary transfer of private capital in modern history — per Henley & Partners, a London-based consultancy that tracks global trends in high-net-worth relocation.
Traditional migration paths for the 1% have seen wealthy individuals fleeing high-tax areas like New York and California — which are losing Americans making over $200,000 at the highest rates of any US states — for buzzy locales such as Miami, Monaco and Portugal.
But for the rich, a number of new destinations — both in the US and abroad — are gaining ground.
“[They’re] not just looking for safe bets in proven markets,” real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller told NYNext. “They’re looking to live where they want to live.”
Here, five locations where high-net worth individuals are increasingly flocking to.
Puerto Rico
The US territory is luring big money with its Resident Tax Incentive Code, known as Act 60.
Signed into law in 2019 and recently extended through 2055, Act 60 offers a 4% corporate tax rate and 0% federal capital gains to those who spend 183 days per year on the island.
“Ninety-nine percent of my clients are coming here for the tax advantages,” San Juan luxury real estate specialist Christian Kleiner told NY Next.
According to Kleiner, more than 3,500 participants are currently taking advantage of Act 60.
Many are in the finance, crypto and tech worlds, including early island adopters John Paulson, manager of the hedge fund Paulson & Co., and Michael Terpin, a digital asset investor.
The real estate market has surged accordingly.
Home values in Puerto Rico rose 11.6% year-over-year in Q1 2025 — outpacing every US state in annual price growth, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
One of Puerto Rico’s best-known transplants is Phil Shawe, co-CEO of TransPerfect, the world’s largest privately held language services provider.
Shawe relocated in 2018 after a bruising legal dispute in Delaware, which he says cost a third of the company’s value in legal fees.
Puerto Rico’s favorable legal climate — it’s still under US federal law — and a lifestyle shift prompted his move.
Shawe and much of his C-suite now live in Condado, just 15 minutes from TransPerfect’s headquarters in Hato Rey, San Juan’s financial district.
“The infrastructure reminded me more of Florida than I expected,” Shawe told NY Next.
Uruguay
Felipe Silva, a Punta del Este–based advisor with Engel & Völkers told NYNext that the South American country is drawing wealthy folk — particularly those from California and New York — with its business opportunities and safety.
“They want a place with no war risk, no earthquakes, no tsunamis … there aren’t many of those left, especially in the Southern Hemisphere,” Silva said. “They’re looking for a place to escape, but at the same time, to invest.”
Uruguay’s fertile soil, vast freshwater resources and per-hectare prices far below US and European norms make agricultural land a popular bet, too.
Uruguay offers a 10-year income tax holiday for foreign buyers who spend at least 60 days per year in the country and invest $500,000 or more in real estate. Or, you can invest $2.3 million and no time in the country is required.
Buying property, Silva noted, is relatively frictionless — with transactions typically wrapping within 30 to 60 days.
These various advantages have drawn numerous people in recent years, including musicians Shakira and Ronnie Wood, as well as Cipriani CEO Giuseppe Cipriani.
Developers have been eager to meet demand.
Trump Tower Punta del Este, a 26-story luxury tower that opened in 2024, has listed apartments for upwards of $8 million.
Down the beach, Cipriani Ocean Resort is marketing a penthouses for $17 million.
Silva noted that the lifestyle is hard to beat.
“You have the city, the coast and the countryside all within 15 minutes,” he said.
Florida — but not Miami
The rationale for moving to the Sunshine State hasn’t changed — zero state income tax, favorable weather and a business-friendly environment — but buyers are increasingly looking beyond the usual suspects like Miami and Palm Beach.
“We’re seeing demand spread out a bit,” Jonathan Miller, CEO of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, told NYNext. “We’re now seeing significant [multi-million dollar] transactions in Manalapan and Wellington.”
Manalapan, a town of fewer than 500 residents just south of Palm Beach, made headlines in 2022 when Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison purchased a $173 million estate. The sale triggered a new wave of high-end buyers, including hedge funders — Chris Rokos has a $150 million property — musicians and developers.
In July 2025, developer Stewart Satter obtained approval to begin construction on a $285 million spec mansion directly adjacent to Ellison’s property. If sold at that price, it will become the most expensive home in U.S. history.
Wellington, an equestrian community about 20 miles inland, doesn’t have ocean views, but the horsey set cares more about being near the showgrounds.
Wellington’s 12-week winter show circuit, the longest-running in the world, has turned the town into a seasonal hub for the super-rich, drawing Olympic riders, star polo players like Nacho Figueras and horsewoman-heiress such as Jessica Springsteen (daughter of Bruce) and Georgina Bloomberg (daughter of Michael).
Matt Johnson, a luxury broker with 26 years of experience in the market, said many of his buyers tour stables in the area before looking at houses. He noted that the area has had 23 sales over $5 million in the past 18 months alone.
“The luxury market is the equestrian market,” Johnson told NYNext.
Scottsdale, Arizona
In 2025, Scottsdale unseated Austin as the fastest-growing millionaire hub in the US, according to a Wealth Report conducted by Henley.
The Phoenix suburb saw a 125% surge in millionaire residents from 2014 to 2024, fueled by remote work trends, a thriving tech sector and a flood of Californians — and some Seattleites — in search of lower taxes and peace of mind.
Unlike coastal competitors, Arizona has no earthquakes, no hurricanes, and — compared to Florida — more forgiving winters. It also boasts something high-end buyers increasingly crave: land.
“[They want] acreage, uninterrupted views, new builds, guest houses, pickleball courts, pools,” Scottsdale’s preeminent luxury broker, Kelly Jones, told NYNext.
From a financial and legal perspective, Arizona’s appeal begins with a flat 2.5% income tax — adopted in 2023, and still among the lowest in the country — and ends with favorable estate-planning laws.
Moreover, friendly business regulations have streamlined everything from corporate formation to trust structuring to legal investments.
High‑profile residents in Scottsdale and its surrounding suburbs reportedly include retired Phoenix Suns star Charles Barkley, retired race car driver Danica Patrick, actors Emma Stone and David Spade and GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons, who also owns the Scottsdale National Golf Club.
All together, Scottsdale now hosts about 14,800 millionaires, 64 centi‑millionaires and five billionaires, per Henley.
“We continue to surprise ourselves,” Jones said.
This story is part of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC’s power players (and those who aspire to be).
Milan, Italy
The city is quickly transforming from the wealthiest in Italy to one of the wealthiest in continental Europea, predominantly because of Italy’s special tax regime.
Introduced in 2017, it’s been dubbed the “CR7 rule” after footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. He was one of the first to take advantage of the policy, which allows non-domiciled residents to pay a flat tax of no more than €200,000 (about $233,000) annually on all foreign-generated income.
More recently, the rule has attracted prominent financiers like Elio Leoni-Sceti, founder of venture capital fund The Craftory; Bart Becht, former CEO of Reckitt Benckiser; Richard Gnodde, Goldman Sachs’ investment banking vice chair; and Nassef Sawiris, Egyptian investor scion and billionaire.
“Milan is a financial center with international schools and classy shopping precincts,” Dominic Lawrance — a partner at the London-based law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, which recently opened an office in Milan — told NYNext. “The city is, by Italian standards, highly cosmopolitan.”
Many making the move hail from London — which experienced a 12% decline in millionaire growth from 2014 to 2024 per Henley. Only Moscow saw a greater decline.
“Italy has benefited greatly from ill-judged tax reforms in the UK, which have had the unintended effect of driving away wealthy, mobile individuals,” Lawrance said.
The Milanese even have a name for this migration: “svuota Londra” or “empty London.”
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