Traditionally, home has been tied to a single place or geography. It was the norm for one country to serve as a one-size-fits-all base, where people built their economic activity, family life, and long-term plans.
Today, home is no longer tied to a single location. Instead, it is increasingly shaped across multiple countries, where individuals secure different forms of stability across borders, whether financial, residential, or generational.
At its core, this shift is about optionality: the ability to maintain multiple viable paths rather than relying on a single jurisdiction for long-term planning.
Resources like the Global Atlas of Risk & Readiness (GARR) by the Global Intelligence Unit at Global Citizen Solutions are becoming more relevant in this context. The report goes beyond measuring current economic performance by assessing how well a country can handle shocks and adapt to future disruption. What it highlights is a growing gap between countries, where stability is no longer evenly distributed.
This matters because it changes how individuals approach decisions about where to live, invest, and build their future. Relying on a single country for capital, lifestyle, or long-term planning is becoming less certain, and as a result, people are beginning to structure their lives across multiple jurisdictions rather than relying on one.
At the same time, the Global Intelligence Unit’s briefing on high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and holiday home acquisition shows how this shift is already translating into real-world behavior. While the Global Atlas highlights where risk and resilience differ, the real estate data shows how people are responding through cross-border property ownership and multi-location living.
Together, these perspectives point to a broader shift. Multi-home living is no longer just a lifestyle choice tied to one place, but a more structured approach to managing risk, mobility, and long-term planning across borders.
From Lifestyle Choice to Structural Strategy
The data from the Global Atlas of Risk & Readiness is already translating into visible behavioral shifts, particularly in real estate and among high-net-worth individuals. By focusing on both risk and readiness within a country’s economy, decisions about where to invest are becoming increasingly calculated.
Based on the GIU briefing, second-hand ownership now accounts for 28% of global luxury property transactions, and 82% of agents report that these purchases are mostly driven by cross-border buyers. These figures reveal that property acquisition has evolved from a lifestyle purchase into a strategic decision, influenced by factors such as financial diversification, family planning, and long-term resilience.
As the briefing clearly states, “HNWI motivations for second-home ownership are not monolithic. They are multi-layered, including financial strategy, family utility, and personal well-being”.
What emerges is not simply movement between locations, but a more deliberate coordination of assets, residence, and access across different jurisdictions, creating a Plan B that is already in place if needed.
How Investment Migration Supports the Multi-Home Shift
Ownership alone does not guarantee access. Owning property in another country does not necessarily provide the legal right to live there, remain long-term, or fully operate within that system.
This is where residency and citizenship programs become crucial. They provide the legal infrastructure that connects property ownership with mobility, rights, and long-term planning across multiple countries.
As a result, many of the countries that rank among the top holiday home markets in the briefing also serve distinct roles within a multi-home strategy, whether for lifestyle and family living, investment diversification and flexible residency, tax efficiency and wealth protection, or as strategic, cost-effective entry points into the EU that provide additional flexibility.
Lifestyle, family, and property investment
Within a multi-home strategy, some jurisdictions are primarily used as lifestyle and family bases. Countries such as Spain, Greece, and Cyprus fall into this category, where property ownership is closely tied to quality of life, seasonal residence, and long-term family planning, while still offering potential for investment returns.
Spain, for example, often functions as a primary lifestyle base within this structure. Its real estate market remains in demand and accessible to international buyers. While property is not a direct path to residency, options like the Spain Non-Lucrative Visa still require applicants to prove they have stable accommodation, further reinforcing Spain’s role as a country suited for long-term living and lifestyle stability.
Similarly, the Greece Golden Visa is closely tied to property investment. According to the Bank of Greece, apartment prices rose by 7.8% in 2025, following 9.1% growth in 2024. Transaction volumes have also increased, with average monthly values reaching €543 million, much of it linked to the program.
The same trend can be seen in Cyprus, where the Cyprus Golden Visa has contributed 3.8% of the country’s economic growth in 2025. The real estate sector reached record levels, with total transaction value hitting €6.5 billion.
Investment diversification and flexible residency
Other jurisdictions play a different role, supporting investment diversification and flexible residency within a broader cross-border strategy. Portugal and Italy fall into this category, where property and investment routes are often used alongside residency planning.
Portugal ranks second in the GIU briefing for HNWI buying a second home and continues to attract investors with its competitive property market. Although real estate is no longer a qualifying option under the Portugal Golden Visa, the country still offers a highly sought-after investment environment with several options for asset diversification, including starting a business and investing in a range of funds.
Italy, on the other hand, ranks fourth and has a more layered model. Even though it does not have a real estate route, programs such as the Italy Golden Visa grant residency through investment in government bonds, companies, or innovative startups. At the same time, many residence permits require proof of accommodation, meaning property still plays a practical role within a broader asset and residency structure.
Together, these jurisdictions support flexibility, allowing individuals to align investment decisions with residency and long-term mobility planning.
Tax efficiency, wealth protection, and long-term stability
Switzerland represents a different function within a multi-home strategy. The country acts as a safe environment for financial security and long-term wealth protection.
Through programs like Swiss Residency by Lump-Sum Taxation, it allows investors to protect wealth through structured tax planning, which puts more emphasis on its position as a stability-focused destination.
Switzerland ranks first in the GARR report, stating: “Switzerland’s position reflects a combination of institutional strength, financial sophistication, and innovation capacity.”
Strategic and cost-effective entry into the EU market
Finally, some jurisdictions are used primarily to expand access, adding an additional layer of flexibility to a multi-home structure. Smaller or less traditional destinations, such as Latvia, reflect this approach.
Latvia is less about lifestyle and more about access, offering a cost-effective way to secure residency in Europe and strengthen overall mobility.
For instance, The Latvia Golden Visa is seeing renewed traction, with 44 main applicants processed in the first half of 2025, already reaching 76% of the total for 2024, and 107 visas issued, including dependents. Demand is increasingly global, with applicants from Turkey, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, India, and China, as well as growing interest from Central Asia.
In this way, these smaller jurisdictions provide an additional layer within the system, expanding optionality and reinforcing the overall flexibility of a multi-home strategy.
A New Model of Living Is Emerging
A new model of living is emerging, one that is based on flexibility, diversification, and access. At its center, this shift redefines what home means. It is no longer a single destination, but a system that is shaped across multiple jurisdictions.
This system is not only enabled by wealth or mobility, but by the ability to legally access and operate across countries. Residency and citizenship programs, alongside broader tax and legal frameworks, provide the infrastructure that makes this possible.
Without this infrastructure, multi-home living would remain fragmented. With it, it becomes structured, coordinated, and sustainable over the long term.
Each jurisdiction now serves a distinct function, economic, social, or strategic, that takes the form of:
- A primary economic base, linked to business activity, income generation, or investment diversification, which we see in countries such as Portugal and Italy
- A secondary location centered on family life, education, and quality of living, such as Spain, Greece, and Cyprus
- A third jurisdiction that acts as a contingency layer, offering flexibility, tax efficiency, or wealth protection in the face of political, economic, or regulatory change, as seen in countries such as Switzerland and Latvia.
It is clear that what was once a single decision is now a coordinated system in which investors mitigate risk through a multi-jurisdictional approach.
In this context, residency and citizenship are not simply about movement, but about access. They provide the legal infrastructure that allows individuals to maintain optionality, manage risk, and operate across borders with greater predictability.
The question is no longer where to live, but how to structure investments and mobility across multiple countries to reduce reliance on a single jurisdiction.