Between the five golfers sitting beside me at the bar, there is likely close to £1billion in wealth.
Richard sold his young internet company for £30million more than 25 years ago and has repeatedly reinvested the proceeds. David comes from a family that once owned a Premiership football club, while his friend Dan previously held a substantial stake in it. Guy still works in private banking, and Nick says he “manages investments” — chiefly his own.
I have changed their names, but their stories are genuine. They share two important facts: all are British, and all once lived, worked and paid taxes in the UK. None plans to return permanently, although they still come back occasionally for family events or football matches.
Their new home is Monaco, where they say they are settled and content. Increasing numbers of wealthy Britons are making the same choice. The number of British residents in the principality has reached a record 3,100 — almost twice the total recorded a decade ago.
Excluding the French, Britons are now the fastest-growing nationality among the 144 represented in the tiny state. They account for roughly 8 per cent of Monaco’s 39,000 residents.
The familiar image of Monaco as a refuge for elderly millionaires and a handful of sports celebrities is increasingly outdated, even if tennis star Novak Djokovic and numerous Formula One figures can still be spotted on its streets. The average adult in Monaco is 47, while the average British newcomer is 44 — younger than the average British adult, whose age is 49. The incoming population is getting younger.
“We are seeing more people in their late 30s and 40s arriving with young families because they are already thinking about issues such as inheritance,” says Mark Thomas of international estate agency Knight Frank. Mr Thomas, a former Cambridge rugby player who represented Wales in sevens and later played professionally for Nice, eventually joined Monaco’s bobsleigh team alongside Prince Albert, who was his best man, before moving into property.
After more than three decades in Monaco, he describes it as “the biggest small village in the world”. During that time, he has watched prices climb, with sales increasing by about 5 per cent a year and rents by 10 per cent, even as the age of new arrivals has fallen.
“It is about far more than tax. It is about healthcare, education and quality of life — which means the whole family has to be happy here,” he says from his harbour-front office, directly above the Grand Prix circuit.
The Mail on Sunday’s Robert Hardman travelled to Monaco to meet British billionaires who have left the UK for the principality
Mark Thomas, who works for Monaco’s leading estate agency, says increasing numbers of people in their late 30s and 40s are moving to the principality with young families as they begin planning for issues such as inheritance
Thomas and his colleagues offer more than property advice. They help clients navigate visas, lawyers, schools and parking. A garage space can cost around £320,000, while eight spaces recently sold for £2.2million to a buyer who wanted to store his Ferrari collection together.
When I arrive, an £18million sale involving a four-bedroom townhouse is nearing completion. Monaco property now averages £56,000 per square metre — almost double the price in London’s most exclusive districts — but British buyers see that as modest compared with the potential impact of the UK’s changing tax rules.
“These are generally people who built companies and businesses and paid their taxes,” says Mr Thomas. “Then they consider what would happen if they were suddenly killed. Their families could face a forced sale to meet an inheritance-tax bill, potentially destroying the business they built.”
By phone, I speak anonymously to a British billionaire who moved to Monaco after the election. “I was comfortable paying income tax,” he says. “But building a successful trading company — whether in manufacturing or hospitality — and then being unable to pass it on to your children is the point at which it becomes unbearable.”
“I had to dismantle a number of trusts and corporate arrangements, and rebuilding them would be extremely complicated if I returned. So I do not expect to come back.”
In blunt financial terms, a policy intended to raise money equivalent to the cost of perhaps 500 nurses may have driven away someone who previously contributed enough tax to fund several thousand.
The anxiety echoes the concerns of British farmers, who have mounted fierce protests against Labour’s decision to apply inheritance tax to farms worth more than £2.5million. That threshold is higher than the original £1million proposal, but farmers say it could still force the break-up of many family holdings.
Farmers command considerable public sympathy. Wealthy entrepreneurs generally do not — and most do not expect it.
They may have accepted being taken for granted. But being portrayed as villains for generating wealth while being asked to support what they see as uncontrolled public spending has become a decisive factor for many. Consider the latest Sunday Times ranking of Britain’s biggest taxpayers, published at the start of the year. Since then, Betfred founders Fred and Peter Done, listed in first place with an estimated annual tax bill of £400million, have moved their property business offshore to Jersey. Chris Rokos, the hedge-fund founder ranked third at £330million a year, has relocated to Greece.
Antoine de Massy’s coffin is carried into Monaco Cathedral. The 29-year-old was found dead in a private park after failing to attend a family lunch
Prince Albert of Monaco and his wife, Princess Charlene, attend Antoine’s funeral. Antoine was the Prince’s second cousin
Robert Hardman visits a memorial to Antoine near the garden where he died
A recent Bloomberg analysis offers another measure of the exodus, estimating that £120billion has left the UK
over the past two years. That is equivalent to the country’s entire annual education budget, or roughly twice its defence spending. The departure began under the Conservatives with the dismantling of non-dom arrangements for overseas millionaires and has accelerated under Labour’s expanding tax demands.
Critics may cheer the sight of private jets leaving Britain, but the question remains: who will replace the £120billion that has gone?
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The long-term cost could be greater still. The Treasury will lose not only future tax payments from these wealthy individuals, but also the employment, investment and new companies that might otherwise have been created in Britain.
Stephan Balkin, Mr Thomas’s Danish-born business partner, puts it more wryly: “We love socialism in Britain because it sends us excellent clients in Monaco.”
Safety is another powerful attraction. Riots across Europe, particularly in neighbouring France, have alarmed residents, but Monaco’s dense network of surveillance cameras and high police presence make a repeat there seem unlikely. The principality has one police officer for every 60 residents, compared with one for every 450 people in France.
“Security is unmatched. I can walk home at midnight without giving it a second thought,” says Victoria Barker, a British-born former tennis professional who is now a senior executive at Monaco’s largest hotel, the Fairmont.
Several British residents tell me Monaco is one of the few places where they feel comfortable wearing expensive jewellery in public without worrying about being targeted by a thief on an e-scooter.
The challenge is space. Monaco has very little room to expand, while demand continues to rise. This summer, the native Monegasque population passed 10,000 for the first time, following the birth of Anna Ella Carlevaris. Prince Albert and Princess Charlene marked the occasion by presenting the three-month-old with a special medal.
The expatriate population is also at a record level. The war in the Middle East has made Dubai less attractive to some, while Italy — once a favoured destination for tax exiles — has unsettled potential arrivals with talk of a new departure tax. Both developments have strengthened Monaco’s appeal.
Victoria Barker, executive officer at Monaco’s Fairmont Hotel. The British-born former tennis professional now works at the city-state’s largest hotel
From left to right: Stephen Balkin, Mark Thomas and Sebastien Le Graverend, who work for Monaco’s leading estate agency
At Slammers, a few streets from the harbour, the atmosphere is far removed from Monaco’s luxury image. It is a straightforward sports bar, with English football on television and Guinness costing £8 a pint. There I meet a group of expatriates fresh from the golf course — and none expresses any regret about moving.
“There are not many places where an accountant can walk in for a drink with a tennis player, a racing driver and a prince,” says Richard. Moments later, one of Prince Albert’s cousins enters the bar.
The group also highlights Monaco’s political stability. “Britain or Italy can look dependable one year and completely different the next,” says Nick. “This place does not really do change.”
The one complaint they share is the old Somerset Maugham description of the Riviera as “a sunny place for shady people”. “That is just History Channel material,” Nick says.
Yet Monaco will inevitably attract questionable characters when around 40 per cent of its population are millionaires. As I stand in drizzle outside the cathedral, another, darker side of the principality is impossible to ignore. The royal family has gathered to mourn one of its own.
Antoine de Massy, 29, was found dead in a private park after failing to attend a family lunch. His father, Christian — known as Baron de Massy — is the son of Princess Antoinette, elder sister of the late Prince Rainier III.
Antoine had hoped to represent Monaco in tennis at the Olympic Games, but a wrist injury ended that ambition. After studying international relations in the United States, he returned home and launched a technology business.
He was last seen leaving a nightclub in the early hours of October 25 and walking along Boulevard du Larvotto, a busy road lined with apartment buildings. He fell 40ft to his death. Candles, tennis balls and a Monaco flag now mark a small shrine in the park above the spot.
Authorities have charged a 42-year-old Ukrainian national, who has lived in Monaco for 30 years, with involuntary manslaughter and failing to assist a person in danger. Officials have not ruled out an accident. However, after examining the scene — including the railings, hedge and flower bed between the pavement and the drop — I find that explanation difficult to accept.
Local journalists keep their distance outside the steps of the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate as relatives and friends arrive for the funeral. Prince Albert enters from a side street with Princess Charlene and his sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie.
Once officials notice me, a police officer positions himself directly in front of me. It is quintessentially Monaco: the authorities clearly want this painful episode handled quietly.
The Ukrainian connection inevitably recalls a dramatic incident in June, when Ukrainian expatriate financier Vadym Yermolayev, his partner and teenage son were seriously injured by a bomb outside their home. The alleged attacker, Anastasiia Berezovska, also Ukrainian, was caught on CCTV and later found shot dead in woodland near Kyiv.
At Sun’s Palace, Yermolayev’s elegant townhouse just behind Boulevard du Larvotto, builders are finishing repairs to the bomb damage. There is little else to see. The message is clear: move on.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Monaco has also faced intense pressure from the European Union to eliminate illicit Russian money. Last month, the principality was removed from the global Financial Action Task Force’s grey list and given a clean bill of health.
Even so, Monaco remains considerably safer than almost any other European city. That security, expatriates say, is helping to overcome what was once the biggest obstacle to moving there. “The wives used to be the ones who resisted,” says one long-established resident. “The men had business to conduct, but their partners worried they would be bored. That is no longer true for younger families. Most also have a weekend home across the border in France or a yacht.”
The International School of Monaco, which has an alliance with London’s leading independent school, King’s College School Wimbledon, reportedly has a growing waiting list. Meanwhile, the principality has seen a boom in hair salons and spas.
Developers are responding with increasingly ambitious homes. Mr Thomas shows me a two-bedroom apartment in a traditional townhouse five minutes from the harbour. It covers just 1,000 square feet, but offers sea views and has been redesigned by British interior designer Guy Phoenix with a steam room and sauna. It went on the market last week for £5million and already has a prospective buyer. The buyer’s nationality? Take a guess.
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