98% of Grenada’s Citizenship by investment program applicants so far in 2018 are from China
During an interview with Investment Migration Insider in February the Chairman of Grenada’s Citizenship by Investment Committee (effectively Grenada’s CIU) revealed that applicants to the country’s CIP are, at the moment, overwhelmingly Chinese.
“Grenada’s program has historically always had a majority of Chinese applicants, but what we saw in 2017 was a further boost in awareness of the Grenada program in the China market, a trend that’s continued well into 2018. In fact, I would estimate that 98% of the applications we have received so far in 2018 have originated in China,” disclosed CIP-Committee Chair Kaisha Ince.
Grenada’s Citizenship by Investment Programme has experienced a massive growth in popularity over the last 18 months and saw application volume triple in the first half of 2017 as compared to the same period a year earlier. While complete statistics for 2017 are as yet unavailable, based on the annual report published in August the program is estimated to have brought in approximately US$150 million in 2017.
Chairman Ince associates the spike in applications to an increasing familiarity with the program among Asian investor immigrants, as well as its unique roster of visa-free privileges. “We’re seeing growing interest for the program in Asia, and not just in China but also in India, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. We will certainly be focusing our promotional efforts on Asia in 2018,” said Ince, who also pointed out that Grenada’s good relationship with China and visa-free access to the country had sustained demand.