Timo Geldenhuys: Well, Mauritius is this little tiny tropical island, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. 

It’s off the south-eastern part of Africa, about 1000 km East of Madagascar, and very close to Reunion Island, a French island that we can see on a good day. 

Well, it’s not very big at all, it’s a tiny little island, 70 km long by 40 km wide. 

Here, things aren’t really measured in distance, it’s more measured in time. 

So, if you want to drive around the circumference of the island, it’s gonna take you about a day, and for the areas where people live, everything’s about half an hour to an hour, to two and two and a half hours drive, depending on how fast or how slow you drive. 

The Mauritian population is about 1.3 million, all living in harmony and so happy together. 

Definitely the most accommodating and happy multicultural society I’ve ever visited in my life.

The official language is English, but most people speak French and creole. 

The reason you have this nuance is that prior to independence the British were in control of Mauritius. 

So, that was the official language existing when independence happened, but day-to-day, the prominent languages spoken are French and Creole, though people are comfortable with English, as most of the population can adequately speak English. 

No matter where you come from around the world, you’re not gonna feel isolated, and language is not gonna be an issue. 

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Timo Geldenhuys: It’s something we get asked a lot, how do I get citizenship in Mauritius?

Well, unfortunately, you don’t. Unless you’re born here, unless you’re married to a Mauritian and unless you are of Mauritian heritage, it’s almost impossible to get citizenship. 

The good news is that with property investment and purchase, you do get residency and permanent residency for you and your family. 

Any investment into one of the approved schemes by the government in Mauritius leads to a permit. The schemes are, the I.R.S (Integrated Resort Scheme), the R.E.S ( Real Estate Scheme), the P.D.S (Property Development Scheme), the Smart City Scheme or the Ground + 2 scheme. If the value of the purchase is over USD 375 000, you qualify for permanent residency for you, your spouse, and dependents who are your kids as long as they are still under your responsibility. There’s no specific age limit to that, and they all qualify for residency in Mauritius.

You can come and go as you please, and that residency stays in place for as long as you own that property. 

The Economic Development Board Mauritius (EDB), is the arm that facilitates that on behalf of the government and they’ve made it really easy for people to come, work, live and play in Mauritius.

If you’re interested in those various permits and how you can get into Mauritius easier, the EDB portal is amazing, so I advise you to go and have a look there, but if it comes to investment and residency through property purchase, Mauritius Sotheby’s International Realty is perfectly placed to advise you and assist you in that regard. 

We have a number of properties all over the island, and if you purchase these properties you and your family will qualify for permanent residency. 

So, unfortunately, no citizenship, but definitely permanent residency. We look forward to assisting you in that process and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Timo Geldenhuys: The emphatic answer is yes, I’m very grateful for that because if you weren’t able to, I probably would not have a job. 

So, the answer is yes, we as foreigners can definitely buy property in Mauritius.

The first scheme that came along was under the acronym IRS, which is Integrated Resort Scheme. 

It is very much focused on high-end development with a lot of amenities and infrastructure in place, golf courses, restaurants, kids clubs, etc. 

Systematically, that’s changed, the RES came around about 2009, RES being, Real Estate Scheme. 

It allowed for slightly smaller developments, and smaller land owners to do these developments, and also brought the entry-level pricing down.

The government then looked at how they could amalgamate these two schemes and come up with a more consolidated and better offering. The PDS, effectively, is a development that can be done by anyone, any developer in Mauritius. 

It’s predominantly on freehold land, and it’s in approved schemes on freehold land, and hence your purchase is very much protected at the registrar’s office under the fact that you have freehold titleship and ownership of your property. 

There are certain derivatives that have come in now in terms of further ownership. We have the Ground + 2 scheme, which is more apartment-style and duplex-style living.

It’s brought the threshold right down in terms of entry-level, and we also have the Smart City scheme, some of the big developments in Mauritius happening right now are in the Smart City scheme.

It’s a combination of retail, commercial and residential. It encourages urban lifestyle, urban living, and the development of massive infrastructure.

I like to see it as a partnership between the government and the private sector. So yes, there is a massive amount of opportunity of owning a property in Mauritius

Prices range all the way from the USD 200 000 range all the way up to USD 10 million. 

The residency and the ownership are often combined, we’ll touch on that in a later video, but your threshold now is USD 375 000 and if you buy one of these properties, you and your family qualify for residency.

So, yes you can buy property in Mauritius and we look forward to welcoming you guys, Mauritius Sotheby’s International Realty is well placed on the island to answer any questions you have around that.

Today, the question is what do we do for fun in Mauritius? What activities are there to do? 

Timo Geldenhuys: As you can see, I’m standing here on the beautiful beach of Grand Bay, and behind me are a lot of boats and the first thing that a lot of people do is fish.

Here is one of the best fishing spots of the Indian Ocean for big game fishing, tuna and marlin fishing etc. You’ll have awesome places both in Black River and in Grand Bay.

Other things to do in terms of amenities and fun, are watersports like tubing, skiing, snorkeling, glass bottom boats, swimming with the dolphins, all these things you can do on this beautiful ocean. There are operators that offer all those services, so awesome things to do in Mauritius.

Another thing to do is play golf, and here we are at the Tamarina Golf Club which is one of the twelve beautiful golf courses around the island. We have both 9-hole, and 18-hole championship golf courses and it’s one of the big attractions for people wanting to come on holidays here and invest here. Indeed there are great investment opportunities around golf estates, and it’s an awesome thing to do. 

For those who love nature, there are some amazing activities. Mauritius offers great hiking, walking in the gorges, along the rivers that are natural and pristine. There are awesome mountain biking and cycling opportunities, you can mountain bike on weekends through the sugarcane fields and the other natural areas of Mauritius.

One of the greatest attractions in Mauritius is also kitesurfing and windsurfing. Mauritius has one of the world’s leading kitesurfing spots in Le Morne, so all in all just a fantastic offering in terms of world-class amenities, activities, and attractions. If you love the outdoors, Mauritius is the place for you.