Cross-border
Global Mobility and Residency Planning for Property-Owning Families
Where a family is tax-resident, where the children go to school, and where the assets sit — these decisions interact, and they should be planned together.
For an internationally mobile family, three sets of decisions interact at the structural level: where the family is tax-resident, where they spend physical time, and where the assets sit. Decisions in any one of these silos rarely make sense in isolation. They should be planned together, ideally with counsel in each affected jurisdiction.
The variables
- Tax residence — typically determined by physical presence (often 183 days) plus tie-breaker tests.
- Citizenship — fixed for many, increasingly multiple for globally mobile families.
- Asset situs — where the property and other assets are legally located, which determines estate and gift tax exposure.
- School and family base — often the most operationally constraining variable.
Common configurations
There is no single right answer. Common configurations among Shibui's client base include: Swiss or Monaco tax residence with European property and US investment exposure; Singapore residence with Japan property; UK non-dom (where still applicable) with European property. Each has trade-offs.
About the author
Shibui Research is the editorial desk of Shibui Collective, covering private real estate for cross-border family capital. Our team has structured and operated more than $1.2B of value-add and core-plus real estate across Europe, the Americas, and Asia over the past fifteen years.