At a glance
- A flat-tax regime was introduced in 2017 wooing cosmopolitan elite as traditional wealth hubs clamp down on mega wealth
- A growing number of the world’s well heeled are trickling into the fashion capital of Italy
- Milan offers a sartorial mix of fashion, lifestyle and culture as well as being close to scenic Lake Como and Lake Maggiore with mega mansions
- Property prices are rising, international schools are cropping up, hotels and luxurious serviced residences are sprouting and private members’ clubs are opening their doors.
Offering a heady mix of culture, luxury, and a favourable tax regime designed for the ultra-wealthy, an estimated 3,600 millionaires will choose Italy as a place of residence in 2025 – more than the traditional tax haven hubs of Monaco and Switzerland.
A top European destination for wealth relocation, the Italian city is bucking the trend of clampdowns on the super rich in place or mooted across Europe.
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Milan currently ranks third on the global list of inbound wealth migration and is one of the most popular UHNW addresses in Europe according to residency-by-investment firm Henley & Partners’ roundup of global wealth migration.
Milan, in particular, is enjoying its time in the sun as monied investors relocate to the fashion capital in increasingly frothy waves. And where wealth goes, more wealth follows.
Henley & Partners’ 2025 data reveals that the city is currently home to 115,000 millionaires and 17 billionaires, raking eleventh in the roundup of the world’s richest cities and third in Europe.
Cosmopolitan Milan’s kerb appeal among wealthy global citizens - what’s the pull?
Since 2017, Italy has played a savvy hand in the global game of favourable wealth taxation strategies with a lucrative flat-tax scheme, dubbed the ‘CR7 rule’ (coined after footballer Cristiano Ronaldo), which allows non-domiciled residents to pay a fixed annual tax of €200,000 ($233,000) on income generated abroad, for a period of 15 years.
Aimed at global high-earners and UHNW families with large international portfolios and assets, Italy’s flat-tax scheme offers:
- €200,000/year flat tax on all foreign income
- €25,000/year for each family member
- No wealth tax, no income tax
- Under Article 24-bis of the Italian Tax Code, non-domiciled residents are exempt from foreign property tax and foreign financial assets tax
With financial perks the key driver of smart relocations among cosmopolitan elite, Milan’s lifestyle opportunities are also a big draw for the super rich with la dolce vita on offer through upscale restaurants, shopping, luxury property and the perks of glamorous Alpine ski resorts and glittering Lake Como a short drive away.
In line with a growth of Milan’s super rich wooed by tax breaks are luxury new homes and private members’ clubs, serviced apartments and international schools catering to the appetite for the finer things in life.
Milan - a renaissance city
Milan is enjoying renewed interest, with the sartorially-led city becoming even more fashionable since the tax introduction.
Property prices in Milan have risen 49% since the country’s flat-tax regime was introduced in 2017, compared to 10.9% across the rest of Italy’s big cities, according to real estate group Tecnocasa.
Global property consultancy Savills expects the northern Italian city’s prime real estate market to record a further 1.9% price growth in the latter part of 2025, with realtor Knight Frank forecasting a 3.5% rise in market values across twelve months.
The city is enjoying a renaissance with an increasingly international and cosmopolitan crowd calling the city home.
With incoming wealth buoying the luxury real estate and lifestyle markets, many of the monied new arrivals look to rent or buy in Brera.
This elegant neighbourhood in the heart of the old city is home to upscale food shops, fashion boutiques ,cobbled alleys and excellent restaurants.
Reflecting a growing appetite for high-end, niche services, a coterie of private equity firms, hedge funds, family offices, wealth advisers and boutique law firms are clustering around Milan’s luxury addresses.
Law firms, estate agents, hedge funds, advisers and other businesses servicing the rich and facilitating the flow of wealth between London and Milan are having to take on more staff to cope with growing demand.
UHNW families needing more legroom are drawn to scenic Lake Como and Lake Maggiore, both within commuting distance, where large palazzos come with acres of outdoor space lining crystalline waters. Some of the region’s best luxury ski resorts can be accessed in two hours from Milan city centre.
Milan’s gain is London and Paris’s loss with these traditional high-net-worth hubs experiencing an exodus of millionaires in recent years.
Milan’s gain, London’s loss
The United Kingdom is the world’s biggest loser when it comes to UHNW drain – dubbed ‘Wexit’, according to Henley & Partners’ data.
A cautionary tale for top-tier countries, the United Kingdom’s dramatic fall from grace with its super rich is a familiar tale woven over the past five years.
10,800 HNWIs were lost in 2024 swelling to 16,500 millionaires in 2025 – the highest single year recorded.
Henley & Partners cites the catalysts as predatory political crosswinds sounded by the Brexit knell and compounded by the closure of the Tier 1 Investor Visa, hikes on capital gains and inheritance taxes, as well as declining economic confidence.
Changes to non-dom tax regimes set out by the Labour government took effect from 6 April, 2025.
A new Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime will now apply to those newly arrived in the UK provided they have not been a UK resident at any point in the last 10 years.
Under the new rules, individuals who come to the UK for the first time after April 6, 2025 will have a four-year transitional period where they are not subject to UK tax on foreign income.
Individuals who have been resident in the UK for more than four tax years, or recent arrivals who fail to meet the QNR criteria, are not eligible for the FIG regime, and as such are taxed on an arising basis (i.e. subject to UK tax on worldwide income and gains).
Whispers of a further tax raid by UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves in late November is stirring more unrest among the country’s super rich, with Milan looking even more appealing.
Many of the UK’s super rich are packing their monogrammed bags and heading to Dubai, the US and Switzerland in search of more welcoming taxation set ups.
Another traditional wealth hub, Paris, may also witness a ‘millionaire drain’, as France’s socialist party would look to introduce a so-called Zucman wealth tax as part of plans to boost revenue by taxing the country’s richest individuals.
The tax, named after an idea put forward by French economist Gabriel Zucman, if pushed through, would impose a 2% levy on the wealthiest 0.01% of people in France – those with over €100 million.
