Foreign demand for luxury properties continues unabated in Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island nation known for its long stretches of white-sand beaches, blue lagoons and an absence of capital gains and inheritance taxes.
Foreign direct investment in Mauritius’ real estate industry climbed 13% to almost 24 billion rupees ($530 million) in 2024, according to preliminary estimates published by the Port Louis-based Bank of Mauritius. Acquisitions of properties including luxury villas and apartments totaled 18.6 billion rupees — up from 13.9 billion rupees in 2023.
Real estate investment accounted for almost three quarters of total inflows into Mauritius, a nation of 1.2 million people east of Madagascar. The authorities are currently working on measures to complement its property-investment program to encourage wealthy people to set up family offices in the country, Dhaneshwar Damry, the junior minister of finance told Bloomberg last month.
France and South Africa were the top sources of direct investment in Mauritius last year, representing 42% of the total, while inflows from Switzerland almost quadrupled to 2.3 billion rupees.
Still, total foreign direct investment in Mauritius dropped almost 11% to 33 billion rupees in 2024, largely because of a significant drop in flows to the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector.
