Number of millionaires in London falls as wealthy flee

Thousands of millionaires fled London in the past year with some moving to the United States or Asia driven out by high taxes and Brexit, according to a report published Wednesday.

The exodus continued a decade-long trend that has been attributed to tax increases, failure to recover from the 2008 financial crisis and Britain's acrimonious departure from the European Union.

Some 11,300 dollar millionaires exited London in 2024, found the annual World's Wealthiest Cities Report published by advisory firm Henley & Partners and data intelligence company New World Wealth.

London now has 215,700 dollar millionaires, down from 227,000 in 2023, the report found.

The British capital was pushed into sixth place last year by Los Angeles, which overtook it with 220,600 millionaires.

Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, said the "growing dominance" of the United States and Asia in tech had caused" several wealthy tech entrepreneurs in the UK to reconsider their base".

"Brexit has arguably had an exacerbating effect on this," he said, in comments emailed to AFP.

He added that capitals gains tax and estate duty rates in the UK are "amongst the highest in the world, which deters wealthy business owners and retirees from living there".

Amoils also cited the "dwindling importance" of the London Stock Exchange, which now ranks 11th in the world by market capitalisation, and the ascendance of nearby financial hubs such as Frankfurt and Dubai.

The Times newspaper said tax advisers revealed some people were moving to countries such as Portugal, Spain, Greece, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Italy, where taxes are lower or people can pay a fixed annual fee to avoid them.

According to the study, London's millionaire population has slumped 12 percent since 2014.

Moscow is the only other city in the top 50 which has fallen, suffering a 25 percent decline due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Paris has recorded a five percent rise in millionaire residents since 2014, with the San Francisco Bay area also soaring by 98 percent and Singapore enjoying a 62 percent millionaire growth.

New York City has the most millionaires in the world with 384,500.