| | Villas de rêve ? | | | | Modifier la taille du texte: | A | | | A | | |
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|   | Par:- Pierrick Pédel
On 09/12/2009 |
Au départ l’idée était simple. En 2002, le gouvernement lance le mécanisme de l’«Integrated Resorts Scheme». Cet IRS permet l’acquisition de biens immobiliers de luxe par des ressortissants étrangers en leur donnant l’opportunité d’obtenir le statut de résident permanent. Moyennant un investissement minimal d’un demi-million de dollars, ce statut s’accompagne d’un régime fiscal avantageux si le pays d’origine de l’acheteur est signataire d’un traité de non double imposition avec Maurice.
L’objectif est clair : il s’agit alors d’attirer des personnes disposantd’un important pouvoir d’achat et d’un réseau à fort potentiel.
Aujourd’hui, le bilan est plus que mitigé. C’est que la crise est passée par là et les villas à un million d’euros pièce ne partent pas vraiment comme des petits pains. De la vingtaine de projets de villas IRS lancés, seuls cinq ont véritablement abouti : Anahita (CIEL), Tamarina (Médine), Villas Valriche (Espral), Belle-Rivière et Club Med à Albion. Deux autres projets sont en cours de démarrage dont celui de La Balise Marina (Espral). Et trois projets devraient connaître un début de concrétisation l’année prochaine.
On est donc loin des 6 000 à 7 000 villas annoncées en 2002 et des milliards de dollars de chiffre d’affaires qu’elles auraient dû générer. D’autant qu’entre-temps, le gouvernement a lancé le «Real Estate Scheme» (RES) qui propose des logements haut de gamme pour une moyenne de prix de 500 000 dollars.
Aujourd’hui, quelque 23 projets RES ont été adoptés par le «Board of Investment» (BOI) ce qui représente 1 000 logements haut de gamme et un chiffre d’affaires potentiel de l’ordre de 500 millions de dollars. Une sérieuse concurrence pour les IRS.
Chez les promoteurs, le rêve n’est donc pas devenu réalité.
Les investissements (terrassement, aménagement de la voirie et des réseaux) sont colossaux. Les frais initiaux (conversion des terres agricoles, TVA et réserves pour la contribution sociale) se révèlent exorbitants. Pour chaque villa, le promoteur doit, par exemple, payer 200 000 roupies de contribution sociale. Chez Espral (groupe ENL), on a déjà payé 15 millions de roupies depuis le début de l’année pour les villas Valriche de Bel-Ombre et l’ensemble du projet représente 60 millions.
Le niveau d’investissement est tel qu’une fois engagé, le projet devient en pratique plus coûteux à arrêter qu’à poursuivre. D’où la volonté des acteurs de rechercher une optimisation de leur dépenses. Les récentes restructurations des groupes sucriers (fusion Mon Désert Alma-Savannah et Harel Frères-The Mount, réorganisation chez Médine) ont d’ailleurs eu pour objet une meilleure gestion du foncier dans le cadre des projets IRS.
L’Etat est venu donner un coup de main aux promoteurs en donnant notamment la possibilité aux étrangers de contracter des emprunts bancaires pour financer l’achat de biens fonciers en IRS. Mais la demande tarde toujours à se manifester comme le montrent ces villas restées au stade de dalles de béton ou ce panneau publicitaire sur la route de Grand-Baie barré d’un bandeau «80 % sold» qui a été rapidement retiré. Ce qui n’empêche pas de nouveaux acteurs de s’intéresser au secteur des villas de rêve. Le «Sugar Investment Trust» et le groupe sud-africain «Jawitz Properties» se sont déjà manifesté. Mais attention le réveil pourrait se révéler douloureux.
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| Triptophan | | | Mauritian government joins on the band wagon of IRS as developped in Barbados etc, but Mauritius is NOT Barbados. | | | Emiliano Z | | | Eric, how dare you confess to a basic IQ? It's unmauritian! Hahaha | | | Emiliano Z | | | Selling that which was not theirs to sell in the first place, then calling it progress and duping people into believing that it is really in their best interest. But saddest of all: pintadd e dindon applodi. | | | Baltazar | | | On veut vendre aux étrangers un morceau du paradis mais même les étrangers les plus riches ont vitement conclus qu'il n'y a plus de paradis sur terre. Réchauffement climatique, volcan, tremblement de terre, innondations, sunami, cyclones qui deviennent plus fort, épidémies,pandémie etc. etc. Aucune garantie. Le paradis peut se changer très vite en enfer. Rich people ! Share your billions with poor people, then you will surely have a place reserved in heaven. You don't need a lot of burocratic formalities, just a simple act of human generosity and you will see that the godly father in heaven will reward you. Amen ! | | | eric | | | Hi Terrified, Wov! Due to my basic IQ, the perusing of your comments took me some time. Ever considered Joining the team of Nazim, Rabin and Ariane ? but you'd have to stick to only one pseudonym. Thanks mate, | | | Starbright | | | Dubay has showed that it's never easy to purchase a property abroad. The asking price is not he end of the costs you will have to pay up front for your dream house in the sun.For a start there will be lawyers and agent fees, then there will be taxes when you buy, taxes for ownership, taxes on any rental income and even taxes if you sell up and make a profit.If you decide that you want to make money from your property and let it out you will have also to pay someone to clean and maintain it when you are not there-and if you have a swimming pool it will cost you a small fortune in servicing every single month of the year.You should know and think about the hidden costs and on going financial obligations and outlap up front before you get involved with overseas property.You gotta be sure you know what you are letting yourself in for otherwise you will find your bank account haemorrhaging money and there'll be no quick and easy way out. | | | Burn-it | | | Attirer des étrangers et leur vendre nos terres avec de surcroît, l'octroi d'un permis de résidence permanent. Voilà comment on gère nos ressources, voilà comment on se vend à des étrangers qui n'ont aucune idée de nos cultures et de notre langue et qui ne s'en soucient pas. Donc le devoir d'intégration importe peu pour eux, alors que nous, si l'on doit résider chez eux, toutes sortes de conditions sont imposés et l'une d'entre elles consiste à connaître la langue du pays. Nous resterons ainsi les éternels dindons de la farce... | | | From: TERRIFIED. | | | From : TERRIFIED.
IRS development- too much room for exercising official discretion.
Villas de rêve ? En 2002, le gouvernement lance le mécanisme de l’«Integrated Resorts Scheme». Aujourd’hui, le bilan est plus que mitigé. / On est donc loin des 6 000 à 7 000 villas annoncées en 2002 et des milliards de dollars de chiffre d’affaires qu’elles auraient dû générer.\ Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS)? The IRS is basically a project for the construction and sale of luxury villas to foreigners in an idyllic setting near th beautiful coastal region of Mauritius. The acquisition of a villa for residential purposes only by a foreigner under the Scheme will allow the foreigner and his family to reside in Mauritius as long as he holds the property. WHERE ARE THE SAFETY NETS? For many the inherent issues and true impact of the policy for integrated resort scheme are not yet known. The Democratisation of the Economy unit in Mauritius spell the risks that are visible when the HAVE and HAVE NOTS living side by side and witnessing the opulence and lavish life style of those new neighbours. Then again so often the leveling criticism that the best fertile land are picked up and conversion for launching IRS projects makes no wisdom reflections upon the scarcity of farming areas in the country. What makes these super rich moves to the Mauritian side. Reading one of the property investment consultant advice – the minimum formality is the catch phrase. Many wealthy individuals seeking to externalise assets are "semigrating" to Mauritius by purchasing residential property which is widely being marketed as an excellent investment. One of the much touted advantages is the acquisition of residence status under the so-called Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS), which earmarks specific residential property valued in excess of $500 000. By acquiring a property, the purchaser can obtain residence status with a minimum of formality, with permanent residence status to follow some years later. The BOLD statement surges forth on the profit making opportunity when the property is sold by those same IRS buyers. This seems to present an easy solution: stump up $500 000 to acquire an IRS property, obtain resident status in Mauritius as a result and then relocate to sunnier climes with your wealth in tow, albeit poorer thanks to the 10% exchange control charge and the additional 10% capital gains tax hit in the event that gains are realised when the assets are liquidated. The marketing company affirms the attractiveness of the IRS by spelling - there is no requirement that the individual spend a certain minimum amount of time in Mauritius in order to qualify for the residence permit. Many people are of the opinion that there has been a bubble in the real estate market in Mauritius that is due to burst at any time and that the Integrated Resorts Scheme (IRS) projects are to the detriment of Mauritius and its future generations. In reality it is only in 2007 onwards that foreigners (i.e. end buyers) started to become aware that buying a piece of property in Mauritius is real. Regular commentators are always criticizing whether it is the IRS schemes or what Government does or tries to implement as policies do attract foreign direct investment. For obvious reason that some foreign property buyers tried to secure loans from the domestic financial institutions. The high voltage claims that promoters are to abide to locality and social developmernt where IRS are launched remain unconvincing. We are losing good farming lands and long time skill agricultural labour for there is no conversion of sugar land into other forms of production. Some debates the issue along such lines as stating that rush headlong into the IRS (Integrated Resorts Schemes) strategy and a savage set of new hotel plans that will ruin our coast-line forever, reduce our country to a “playground for world playboys” (if not the actual mafia), and that will incidentally reduce the entire people to a nation of domestic servants, who will be cooking for the master, sweeping and dusting for the master, washing up after the master, gardening for the master, playing music while the masters eat, child-minding for the masters, taking the masters out in pleasure craft, and in general, getting us back to being slaves. On September 27, 2009- the Singapore state media has launched a tirade against jobless Singaporeans. About 24,000 people in that age group were out of work, compared to 14,600 for the same period last year. Seah Chiang Nee, a Singapore columnist with Malaysian Daily The Star, penned a provocative article over the weekend about advertisement put up by an electronics firm for a “preferably non-Singaporean” engineer. It particularly stipulated that “permanent residents are welcome” to apply for this “mid-career job (salary negotiable)”. A copy of the advertisement found its way onto the web which sparked a massive furore. As usual, Singaporeans are expected to shoulder most of the blame for their plight. They can blame nobody except themselves for being fussy, unrealistic and of course unqualified for the jobs on offer, never mind that foreigners stand a better chance because of their lower wage demands.Most Singaporeans who grew up knowing no other news agency other than SPH will have little choice but to swallow the bitter truth. Concerns about land- question will need to be answered urgently as Mauritius gradually transforms itself from being a sugar plantation into a garden ‘city-state’. Mauritius’ fragile ecology is unlikely to permit it to house sustainably more than three million people, however high their net worth might be. That limit will oblige (if not compel) the authorities in charge of Mauritius’ destiny eventually to allocate land to all-comers (not just to locals) by price via the market rather than attempt to protect or ration land by direct controls and government fiat. With high worth foreign individuals in its midst, Mauritius has to avert the possibility that it displays extreme concentration of wealth. It is no secret that as land is converted from agricultural to urban use, its value multiplies in proportion to the overall increase in annual value-addition derived from transformed use. Whatever extant land values in Mauritius are, the conversion of agricultural land into urban land will almost certainly result in an increase in its value of anywhere between 40-100 times or more with the passage of time. Each successful development that is successfully marketed around the world will increase the value of the next development significantly. That would certainly happen if ownership of land was opened up to everyone around the world and the Mauritian land market was internationalised or globalised. Left only to local bidding Mauritian land would always be undervalued at well below its international level. That would result in a huge opportunity loss cost for Mauritius especially for those who do not have any land but would be affected by the granting of planning permission for development rights. That kind of increase in land value – not by a percentage but by a huge multiple - is a ‘windfall gain’ by any standard of definition. If such a windfall accrued entirely to the registered landowner, merely as a result of a change in planning permission and development use, it would be regarded as grossly unfair not only by the population at large, but by most Mauritian landowners themselves. But, should such a windfall gain derived from the granting of development rights accrue solely to the property owner? In a globalising economic regime where respect for property rights is becoming a watchword for every government, no matter how socialist it once was, or now pretends to be, does a concern for property rights suggest that the windfall gain be left to the landowner alone? The answer is: not at all. There is a large body of law and precedent around the world that legitimises the taxation of capital gains and of windfall gains at premium marginal rates, whether those gains accrue from speculation in capital markets, in land, in art, in gold or in whatever. In Mauritius landowners will accrue windfall gains not because of anything they have done, or the sudden discovery of hydrocarbons or minerals beneath their feet. Their windfall gains will arise because the government – as the representative of society at large – will grant the right to use the land for purposes other than growing sugar. Any gains emerging from that bestowed right must legitimately be shared by the granter of the right and the beneficiary. The inherent disadvantages of the IRS scheme. The IRS is a suboptimal option for land development in Mauritius. It should never have been permitted. It is a license for opaque and dirty dealings, for favours and kickbacks. It gives the landowner-cum-developer a free ride to capture most of the eventual value gain from transformation of land use in perpetuity depending on the nature of the IRS development. It pre-empts outsiders and stifles competition for ideas in terms of development alternatives and maximising value to both developer and government/society. It allows too much room for exercising official discretion, the granting of favours and for rampant corruption. The best step would be to look at all the possible development alternatives on these parcels ,not just the typical resort plan under the IRS but alternative uses such as residential housing, office and commercial space, shopping malls, hotels, casinos, and other leisure-cum-recreational facilities, integrated shopping, commercial and entertainment complexes, etc. within the framework of the Master Environmental and Ecological Protection Plan . Those opportunities are not just for achieving economic democratisation in a meaningful sense, but also for protecting the interests of those for whom social safety nets and social capital provision is needed. The amounts involved for are likely to be so large that it is difficult to imagine, in a political environment like that of Mauritius (or for that matter India, France or the UK), that those with sticky fingers and with political power, will permit all this to happen transparently, responsibly and accountably, without finding some way of enriching themselves by interfering in the process. As frequently been heard- Mauritian civil society and its various watchdogs (including most of all the fourth estate of the media) will need to use every facility at their disposal to ensure that such an eventuality – of pigs dipping into the trough - does not occur.
| | | Puke | | | Crony capitalism at its best under the chairmanship of DCDM lads. | |
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