Author: Donald Klip

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA: Swiss EAM and IAM Referral Partner Guide — US Real Estate Equity Release for Your High-Net-Worth Clients

Swiss EAM IAM independent asset manager US property equity release referral FinSA

The US Real Estate Equity Release Solution for Swiss External Asset Managers, Independent Asset Managers, and Private Banking Professionals, and the Referral Partnership That Rewards You for Solving Your Clients' Most Persistent Cross-Border Financing Problem 

Für Schweizer externe Vermögensverwalter, unabhängige Vermögensverwalter, und Privatbankiers, die Lösung für US-Immobilien-Eigenkapitalfreisetzung, die Ihre internationalen Kunden benötigen 

Pour les gérants de fortune indépendants suisses, les gestionnaires d'actifs externes et les professionnels de la banque privée — la solution de libération de capitaux immobiliers américains dont vos clients internationaux ont besoin 

Switzerland manages more internationally mobile high-net-worth wealth than any other country in the world. The Swiss wealth management ecosystem, from the major private banks in Zurich and Geneva to the thousands of licensed external asset managers and independent asset managers operating across Switzerland's financial centres, serves a client base that is uniquely globally diversified, uniquely sophisticated, and uniquely positioned to have accumulated significant US real estate equity alongside their broader international investment portfolios. 

And within that client base, there is a problem that every Swiss external asset manager, independent asset manager, and private banking professional encounters with a consistency that makes it one of the most persistent and most frustrating gaps in the Swiss wealth management service offering: the client who owns significant US real estate, needs to release equity from that property, and finds that neither the Swiss private banking system nor the American lending system can serve them efficiently and without unacceptable conditions. 

The Swiss private bank imposes an AUM condition, requiring the client to consolidate investment assets as the price of cross-border lending. The US bank requires a Social Security Number, a FICO credit score, and US-format income documentation that the Swiss client simply does not have. The client is trapped between two systems that were not designed for their situation. And the Swiss EAM, IAM, or private banking relationship manager, who knows the client, understands their financial position, and wants to solve the problem, has no solution to offer. 

Global Mortgage Group is that solution. And this article explains how Swiss wealth management professionals can deliver it to their clients, and earn a competitive referral fee for doing so. 

This guide is designed to reach the full breadth of Switzerland’s professional wealth management community, from FINMA-licensed independent asset managers in Geneva and Zurich to private banking teams across Basel, Bern, Lugano, and Lausanne.

The Swiss Wealth Management Ecosystem and the US Real Estate Problem 

Switzerland's wealth management landscape is one of the most diverse and most professionally sophisticated of any country in the world. It is also one of the most systematically affected by the US real estate equity release gap, because Switzerland's client base is disproportionately international, disproportionately mobile, and disproportionately likely to hold US real estate as a component of a globally diversified high-net-worth portfolio. 

The Swiss private banking community: the major institutions 

The major Swiss private banks: UBS Private Banking, Julius Baer, Pictet & Cie, Lombard Odier, Vontobel, EFG International, Union Bancaire Privée, Mirabaud, Edmond de Rothschild Suisse, Banque Syz, Reyl & Cie, Piguet Galland & Cie, Gonet & Cie, Bordier & Cie, Compagnie Lombard Odier, and their peers, collectively manage trillions of Swiss francs in client assets for internationally mobile high-net-worth individuals from across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and beyond. 

These institutions have a consistent and well-documented approach to cross-border lending against US real estate: they will consider it, but almost universally subject to the AUM condition, the requirement that the client consolidate a significant portion of their investment assets with the lending bank as a condition of the cross-border mortgage facility. 

For clients who accept the AUM condition, the major Swiss private banks can provide a solution. But a significant proportion of Swiss private bank clients, particularly those with established investment management relationships outside the lending bank, those with complex multi-bank or multi-manager structures, and those whose investment philosophy favours diversification of manager relationships — will not accept the AUM condition. These clients need an alternative. GMG is that alternative. 

The external asset manager and independent asset manager community: Switzerland's most important referral source 

Switzerland's external asset manager (EAM) and independent asset manager (IAM) community, also known as Externe Vermögensverwalter 

(EVV) or Gérants de Fortune Indépendants (GFI) in the Swiss regulatory framework, is the most important and most underutilised referral source for US real estate equity release in the world. 

Since the implementation of FINMA's new licensing regime under the Financial Services Act (FinSA — Finanzdienstleistungsgesetz, FinDG) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA — Finanzinstitutsgesetz, FIAG) from 1 January 2023, Switzerland's independent asset managers have been required to obtain FINMA licensing, implement comprehensive compliance frameworks, and operate under ongoing prudential supervision. This regulatory modernisation has produced a community of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 licensed and regulated independent asset managers, firms ranging from boutique two-person operations to substantial multi-portfolio managers with billions of CHF in assets under management — who collectively represent one of the most significant concentrations of internationally mobile high-net-worth client relationships in the world. 

The Swiss EAM and IAM community has several characteristics that make it the ideal referral partner for GMG's US real estate equity release programme: 

Client base alignment: Swiss EAMs and IAMs serve precisely the client profile that GMG's equity release programme is designed for, internationally mobile, high-net-worth, globally diversified, with investment portfolios and real estate positions spanning multiple jurisdictions including the United States. 

Product independence: Unlike private bank relationship managers who are constrained to offer only their employer's product shelf, Swiss EAMs and IAMs are actively seeking specialist solutions they can bring to clients. An EAM that can offer US real estate equity release, through a trusted specialist partner, differentiates itself from competitors who cannot. 

No AUM competition: Swiss EAMs and IAMs typically custody client assets at one or more Swiss private banks: Pictet, Lombard Odier, Julius Baer, UBS, and others are the most common EAM custodians. They do not compete with GMG for AUM because they are themselves not custodians. The referral relationship is structurally non-competitive. 

Regulatory framework: FINMA-licensed Swiss EAMs and IAMs operate under a regulatory framework that is compatible with the referral fee arrangements that GMG offers, subject to the client disclosure requirements under FinSA's inducement rules (Interessenkonflikte und Retrozessionen, Article 26 FinSA). 

The cantonal bank private banking community 

Switzerland's cantonal banks, Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Banque Cantonale de Genève (BCGE), Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV), Basler Kantonalbank, Aargauische Kantonalbank, St. Galler Kantonalbank, Luzerner Kantonalbank, and their peers — serve a significant and often overlooked segment of the Swiss high-net-worth market. Cantonal bank private banking clients frequently have international investment portfolios and US real estate positions that the cantonal bank itself is not equipped to finance cross-border. GMG provides the cross-border financing capability that cantonal bank private bankers can offer to their internationally mobile clients. 

Swiss family offices 

Switzerland has the highest concentration of single family offices per capita of any country, with Geneva and Zurich particularly dense with family offices managing generational wealth for Swiss, European, Middle Eastern, and Asian ultra-high-net-worth families. Swiss family offices whose investment mandates include US real estate frequently encounter the equity release gap when the family needs capital against a US property position. GMG's equity release programme, combined with our understanding of the offshore trust and foundation structures that Swiss family offices commonly use, makes us the natural financing partner for the Swiss family office community. 

Swiss fiduciaries and Treuhänder 

Switzerland's fiduciary professional community, the Treuhänder firms that administer trust and foundation structures, manage international estate planning mandates, and advise on cross-border wealth structuring, frequently manages client structures that hold US real estate. The Swiss Treuhänder who identifies a client trust or foundation holding US real estate where the beneficial owner needs capital is a natural GMG referral source. 

Swiss law firms and tax advisors 

Swiss law firms and tax advisors with international wealth management practices, particularly those in Geneva and Zurich who advise on US cross-border tax, international estate planning, and the legal structuring of US real estate holdings, are consistent sources of US real estate equity release referrals. The Swiss tax advisor who is helping a client optimise the holding structure for a US property is the same advisor who will be asked whether equity release is possible against that property. 

The Swiss High-Net-Worth Client's US Real Estate Equity Release Profile 

Swiss wealth management professionals encounter the US real estate equity release situation in specific and recurring forms that reflect the characteristics of the Swiss high-net-worth client base. 

The private banking AUM condition rejection 

The most common Swiss EAM referral scenario: a client has approached one of the major Swiss private banks, or the client's existing private bank has offered cross-border lending against their US property, and the bank has imposed an AUM consolidation condition. The client has rejected the condition. The EAM or IAM who manages the client's investment portfolio is asked whether there is an alternative. GMG provides that alternative, with no AUM requirement, no AUM condition, and no interest in the client's investment portfolio. 

The complex holding structure 

The Swiss high-net-worth client's US real estate is held through a structure, a Liechtenstein Anstalt or Stiftung, a BVI company, a Cayman trust, a Jersey discretionary trust, a Luxembourg SOPARFI, or a combination of these — that the Swiss private bank will not lend against or that adds complexity that the bank's compliance team uses as a reason to decline. GMG lends against these structures, subject to beneficial ownership due diligence. 

The undeclared or low declared personal income 

The Swiss high-net-worth client holds wealth primarily through a Swiss AG, GmbH, or Familiengesellschaft holding company structure. Their declared personal income — on the Swiss Steuererklärung, is modest relative to their actual economic capacity. US mortgage underwriters who assess only the personal income produce a loan amount that is entirely disconnected from the client's actual wealth. GMG's asset-led assessment looks at the property value and the exit strategy — not the Steuererklärung. 

The long-held appreciation 

The Swiss high-net-worth client purchased US real estate — in Aspen, in Manhattan, in Miami, in Los Angeles — in the 1990s or early 2000s, frequently during periods when the Swiss franc was strong against the dollar, at prices that now seem historically low. The property has appreciated dramatically and the equity has never been released. The Swiss EAM who identifies this situation and introduces the client to GMG delivers genuine and material value. 

FinSA Compliance and the Swiss Referral Fee Framework 

Swiss EAMs, IAMs, and private banking professionals operating under FINMA licensing are subject to the Financial Services Act (FinSA) inducement rules — specifically the requirement under Article 26 FinSA to disclose and, in most cases, pass on to clients any inducements (Retrozessionen) received from third-party financial service providers. 

GMG's referral fee arrangement is structured to support Swiss wealth management professionals' compliance with their FinSA obligations. The formal GMG Referral Partner Agreement — provided to all Swiss referral partners — includes the disclosure language and the fee documentation that the Swiss EAM or IAM needs to comply with their FinSA inducement disclosure requirements. 

GMG does not provide legal or compliance advice on FinSA obligations. Swiss EAMs and IAMs should discuss their specific FinSA compliance requirements with their compliance officer or external legal counsel before entering into a referral arrangement. 

Key points for Swiss EAMs and IAMs: 

FinSA Article 26 requires disclosure: The referral fee must be disclosed to the end client, the amount, the payer, and the basis of calculation, unless the client expressly waives the right to receive the fee. 

Referral fees may be retained or passed on: Swiss EAMs and IAMs may retain the referral fee if they comply with the disclosure requirements. If the client does not waive receipt, the fee must be passed on to the client. 

GMG provides the documentation: The GMG Referral Partner Agreement and the referral fee confirmation documentation are structured to support the Swiss EAM's FinSA compliance requirements. 

FINMA-licensed EAMs and IAMs only: GMG's Swiss referral partner arrangements are available only to firms that hold a valid FINMA licence as an asset manager under FinIA or that are otherwise authorised to provide financial services under Swiss law. 

The GMG Equity Release Product: What You Can Offer Your Swiss Clients 

Equity release against US residential and commercial real estate: 

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+ 
  • Term: 6 to 24 months 
  • LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised US market value 
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up — no monthly payment obligation 
  • No AUM condition — no requirement to move or pledge investment assets 
  • No US credit history required — no Social Security Number required 
  • Swiss franc, euro, and multi-currency income considered within asset-led assessment 
  • Swiss AG, GmbH, and Familiengesellschaft corporate structures — accommodated without restructuring 
  • Liechtenstein Anstalt, Stiftung — specialist legal assessment provided 
  • BVI companies, Cayman trusts, Jersey trusts, Luxembourg SOPARFIs — all considered 
  • Security: Aspen (highest Swiss buyer concentration), Manhattan, Miami, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and all major US premium markets with significant Swiss high-net-worth ownership 
  • Timeline: Indicative term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days 

America Mortgages long-term products for Swiss clients who want permanent US financing: 

  • Foreign National Mortgage, long-term US mortgage for Swiss nationals assessed on Swiss income 
  • DSCR Mortgage — investment property mortgage assessed on US rental income
  • EXPat Mortgage — for Swiss-American dual nationals living in Switzerland 

All products available across all 50 US states. 

Contact Donald Klip — Establishing a Swiss Referral Partner Relationship 

If you are a Swiss external asset manager, independent asset manager, private banker, fiduciary professional, family office advisor, or legal or tax professional who serves internationally mobile high-net-worth clients with US real estate positions and you want to discuss a referral partnership with GMG, contact Donald Klip directly. 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com 

To receive the GMG Referral Partner Agreement, including the FinSA-compatible disclosure documentation, email [email protected] with the subject line "Swiss Referral Partner Enquiry" and a brief description of your firm, your FINMA licence type, and your client base. 

To discuss a specific client situation on a no-names basis before making a formal introduction, call or email Donald Klip directly. We provide preliminary feasibility assessments for specific client situations without requiring client identification. 

GMG is headquartered in Singapore and is available for video conference meetings with Swiss wealth management professionals at any time convenient to the CET time zone. In-person meetings in Switzerland can be arranged on request.

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA: Partner With GMG — The Global Professional Intermediary Programme for US Mortgage and Equity Release

GMG referral partner private banker wealth advisor US property equity release fee

The Equity Release Solution Your International High-Net-Worth Clients With US Real Estate Have Been Waiting For, and the Referral Relationship That Rewards You for Making the Introduction 

How private bankers, wealth advisors, external asset managers, independent asset managers, family office advisors, real estate agents, immigration attorneys, corporate services firms, and all professional intermediaries who serve internationally mobile high-net-worth clients can solve one of the most consistent and most financially significant gaps in their service offering, and earn a competitive referral fee for every client they introduce to Global Mortgage Group 

You have a client. They are internationally mobile, high-net-worth, and financially sophisticated. They own real estate in the United States: in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Aspen, Hawaii, or another premium American market. The property has appreciated significantly. The equity is real and substantial, USD 2 million, USD 5 million, USD 10 million or more. And they need capital. 

They have asked you, their trusted advisor, whether there is a way to access that equity without selling the property. Without moving their investments to a bank that has imposed an AUM condition as the price of lending. Without the American banking system telling them they do not qualify because they do not have a Social Security Number and their income is in the wrong currency. 

Until now, your honest answer has been: not really. The US banks cannot serve them. Their home country private bank wants AUM. The conventional cross-border mortgage market has no product that works for their situation. 

Global Mortgage Group changes that answer. And we want to work with you to deliver it to your clients. 

This is the GMG Professional Intermediary Partner guide, for every professional who serves internationally mobile high-net-worth clients and who wants to add US real estate equity release to their service capability. 

The Problem Your Clients Have — and Why You Have Not Been Able to Solve It 

The international high-net-worth owner of US real estate faces a financing gap that is structural, consistent, and widely experienced across every private banking market in the world. It is not unique to any nationality, any income level, or any property market. It affects British families with Hamptons estates, Chinese business dynasties with Beverly Hills homes, Swiss high-net-worth investors with Aspen properties, Brazilian families with Fisher Island apartments, and Indian technology founders with Silicon Valley residences, equally and consistently. 

The gap exists because the American mortgage and home equity lending system was built for one borrower profile and one borrower profile only: the domestic American resident with a Social Security Number, a W-2 income from a US employer, and a FICO credit score. Every internationally mobile high-net-worth property owner — regardless of their global wealth, their professional standing, or their decades of US property ownership — falls outside that profile. And when they fall outside that profile, the American system has no framework for serving them. 

Their home country private bank faces the same challenge from the other direction. British private banks: Coutts, Barclays Private Bank, HSBC Private Bank, will lend against US real estate but only if the client consolidates substantial AUM as a condition of the facility. Swiss private banks — UBS, Julius Baer, Pictet, Lombard Odier, and hundreds of independent Swiss asset managers — apply the same AUM condition. The client rejects the condition. The conversation ends. 

The result: a generation of internationally mobile high-net-worth individuals sitting on USD 1 million, USD 5 million, USD 20 million of US real estate equity that they cannot access — and a generation of private bankers, wealth advisors, and family office professionals who cannot solve this problem for their clients. 

Global Mortgage Group solves it. And we want you to be the advisor who delivers that solution. 

What GMG Does and Why We Are Not Your Competition 

This is the most important point in this article for professional intermediaries who are considering a referral relationship with GMG, so we will state it as clearly as possible. 

GMG is a specialist international property finance firm. We provide equity release facilities and long-term mortgage products against US real estate for internationally mobile high-net-worth borrowers. That is what we do. It is the entirety of what we do. 

We do not manage investment portfolios. We do not offer wealth management services. We do not provide financial planning, investment advice, or asset allocation services. We do not compete for AUM. We do not have a private banking capability. We do not offer insurance, structured products, foreign exchange, or any other financial product beyond property finance. 

When you introduce a client to GMG, you are introducing them to a specialist who will solve one specific financing problem and then step back. The client's investment portfolio, wealth management relationship, estate planning structure, and broader advisory relationship remain entirely with you. GMG does not use the financing introduction as a platform to expand into the client's broader financial life. 

We complement your service offering. We do not compete with it. 

This non-competition positioning is the foundation of every GMG referral relationship. We understand that your client relationships are built on trust, years of service, and deep personal knowledge. We have no interest in disrupting those relationships. We have every interest in making you more valuable to your clients by giving you a solution that you previously could not offer. 

How the GMG Referral Relationship Works 

The referral process is designed to be simple, professional, and efficient, requiring minimal time from you while delivering a complete solution for your client. 

Step 1 — You identify a client situation 

A client mentions that they need capital and have significant equity in their US property. Or you are reviewing a client's asset position and identify that their US real estate equity is the most efficient capital source for a specific need. Or a client asks whether there is any way to avoid selling their American property to meet a capital requirement. You recognise the situation as one that GMG can address. 

Step 2 — You make the introduction 

You introduce the client to Donald Klip at GMG, by email, by phone, or in person if you and your client are in Singapore or another location where GMG has a presence. The introduction is simple: "I have a client who owns US real estate and wants to explore equity release, can you speak with them?" GMG handles everything from that point. 

Step 3 — GMG engages directly with the client 

GMG conducts an initial consultation with the client, gathering the basic property details, understanding the capital need, and providing an indicative view of whether equity release is feasible. You are welcome to be present for this conversation or to leave it entirely to GMG, whichever works best for your client relationship. 

Step 4 — GMG issues an indicative term sheet 

Within 24 to 48 hours of receiving the basic property information, GMG issues an indicative equity release term sheet to the client. The term sheet sets out the proposed loan amount, the LTV, the interest rate, the term, and the key conditions. The client reviews the term sheet, with your guidance if appropriate. 

Step 5 — If the client proceeds, GMG manages the full process 

GMG manages the valuation, the legal assessment, the beneficial ownership due diligence, the AML compliance, and the drawdown, from term sheet to funds in the client's account typically in 10 to 20 business days for standard structures. 

Step 6 — GMG pays you a competitive referral fee on drawdown 

On the successful drawdown of the equity release facility, GMG pays the referring intermediary a competitive referral fee calculated as a percentage of the loan amount. The fee is paid to the referring firm or entity, not to the individual advisor personally, consistent with the regulatory frameworks applicable in most jurisdictions. The referral fee is documented in a formal GMG Referral Partner Agreement that sets out the fee terms, the compliance obligations of both parties, and the payment mechanics. 

The Referral Fee 

GMG pays a competitive referral fee on every successfully drawn equity release facility introduced by a registered referral partner. 

The fee is paid on drawdown, not on application, not on term sheet, and not on credit approval. The referral partner earns the fee only when the facility is successfully completed and the client has received their funds. This aligns the referral partner's interest with GMG's and with the client's, everyone benefits from a successful outcome. 

The fee is paid to the referring firm or entity, the private bank, the wealth management company, the independent asset management firm, the family office, the law firm, or the corporate services provider, in accordance with the regulatory framework applicable to that firm's jurisdiction and licence type. 

The formal GMG Referral Partner Agreement, a straightforward document that sets out the referral fee terms, the compliance obligations, and the payment process, is provided to all registered referral partners before the first introduction is made. The agreement is designed to support the referring firm's compliance with its applicable regulatory obligations, including client disclosure requirements in regulated markets such as Switzerland (FinSA/FinIA), Singapore (MAS), the United Kingdom (FCA), Hong Kong (SFC), and Australia (ASIC). 

To discuss the referral fee structure and to receive the GMG Referral Partner Agreement, contact Donald Klip at [email protected]. 

The Client Situations Where GMG Can Help: A Quick Reference Guide for Advisors 

The following scenarios are the most consistent equity release situations that GMG encounters across its international high-net-worth client base. Use this as a quick reference when reviewing your client portfolio for GMG referral opportunities. 

The AUM condition client 

Your client has approached their private bank: Swiss, British, European, or Asian, for equity release against their US property. The bank has offered to lend but requires AUM consolidation as a condition. The client has rejected the condition. GMG provides the same equity release facility with no AUM requirement. 

The foreign national with no US credit history 

Your client owns significant US real estate but has never lived in the United States, has no Social Security Number, no FICO credit score, and income earned entirely outside America. The US lending system cannot process their application. GMG's asset-led assessment requires none of these. 

The offshore structure holder 

Your client's US property is held through a BVI company, a Cayman trust, a Jersey discretionary trust, a Liechtenstein Anstalt, a Panama SA, a Hong Kong limited company, or another offshore vehicle. The conventional US equity release market will not lend against the structure. GMG lends against it, subject to beneficial ownership due diligence. 

The complex income borrower 

Your client's income, whether from a Chinese manufacturing business, a German family holding company, a French SCI, a Swiss AG, a Middle Eastern family office, or a combination of corporate and investment income across multiple jurisdictions, cannot be assessed by conventional US mortgage underwriting. GMG's asset-led assessment does not require income to conform to US mortgage documentation standards. 

The retired or semi-retired high-net-worth client 

Your client has retired or reduced their active income, and the conventional US home equity lending system's debt-to-income assessment produces a loan amount that is entirely disconnected from their actual net worth and the value of their US property. GMG's retained interest structure, which requires no monthly repayment and is assessed on property value and exit strategy rather than income, is the natural solution. 

The time-sensitive opportunity 

Your client has identified an investment opportunity, a property acquisition, or a business need that requires capital within two to four weeks, a timeline that the conventional US equity release process cannot meet. GMG's 24 to 48 hour term sheet and 10 to 20 business day drawdown timeline can meet this need. 

The off-plan completion client 

Your client purchased a US branded residence or luxury condominium off-plan and has received a completion payment notice with a 30 to 60 day deadline. GMG's equity release against an existing US property provides the completion capital within the developer's timeline. 

The 1031 exchange bridge 

Your client is executing a 1031 like-kind exchange and needs bridge capital to complete the replacement property acquisition within the 45-day identification and 180-day closing timeline. GMG's equity release against an existing US property provides the bridge. 

Who Can Become a GMG Referral Partner 

GMG works with professional intermediaries across every discipline and every jurisdiction who serve internationally mobile high-net-worth clients with US real estate positions. Our referral partner community includes: 

Private banks and private banking relationship managers: The major international private banks and their relationship managers in Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, London, and all major financial centres. GMG's referral relationship specifically addresses the AUM condition gap, giving private banking relationship managers a solution for clients who reject the AUM condition. 

External asset managers and independent asset managers: EAMs and IAMs in Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and other financial centres who manage client portfolios on a discretionary or advisory basis and who want to add US property equity release to their client service capability. 

Multi-family offices and single-family office investment teams: Family offices managing portfolios that include US real estate positions, for whom GMG provides the specialist financing component of the overall portfolio management mandate. 

Independent financial advisors and wealth managers: IFAs and wealth managers in regulated markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the UAE who serve internationally mobile high-net-worth clients. 

Real estate agents and brokers: US and international real estate professionals who work with international high-net-worth buyers in American markets, and who can introduce existing US property owners to GMG's equity release programme. 

Immigration attorneys and US visa advisors: Legal professionals who work with EB-5 investors, E-2 visa holders, and other internationally mobile individuals who have US property as a component of their US immigration strategy. 

International tax advisors: Tax professionals who advise on US real estate ownership structures and who identify client situations where equity release is more tax-efficient than a property sale. 

Corporate services firms, trust companies, and law firms: Professional services firms in offshore financial centres who manage client structures holding US real estate, already addressed in the Unlocked in America: Offshore Structures guide, but equally relevant here as referral partners. 

US-based real estate attorneys: American legal professionals who work with international high-net-worth buyers on US property acquisition and who maintain ongoing relationships with their internationally mobile clients. 

Relocation specialists and international HR advisors: Professionals who assist internationally mobile executives and their families in establishing US property positions and who maintain ongoing relationships with those clients as their US real estate equity grows. 

The GMG Product Suite: What You Can Offer Your Clients 

Through GMG and America Mortgages, you can offer your internationally mobile high-net-worth clients the following US property finance solutions: 

Equity release, the core GMG product 

Senior secured equity release facilities against US residential and commercial real estate for international high-net-worth foreign nationals, non-US residents, US expatriates, and offshore structure holders. Assessed on property value and exit strategy. 

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+ 
  • Term: 6 to 24 months 
  • LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised US market value 
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up — no monthly payment obligation 
  • Timeline: Term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days 

America Mortgages long-term products, for clients who want permanent US financing 

Foreign National Mortgage: Long-term US mortgage for non-US citizens and non-residents assessed on foreign income, available across all 50 US states 

DSCR Mortgage: Investment property mortgage assessed on rental income rather than personal income, ideal for internationally mobile investors with US rental properties 

Expat Mortgage: Long-term US mortgage for US citizens living and working abroad whose foreign income makes conventional US mortgage qualification impossible 

All America Mortgages products are available across all 50 US states and are specifically designed for the internationally mobile high-net-worth borrower. 

Contact Donald Klip, and Become a GMG Referral Partner 

If you are a professional intermediary who serves internationally mobile high-net-worth clients with US real estate positions and you want to discuss a referral partnership with GMG, contact Donald Klip directly. 

Email: [email protected] 
Phone: +65 9773-0273 
Website: gmg.asia 
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com 

To receive the GMG Referral Partner Agreement and to discuss the referral fee structure, email [email protected] with the subject line "Referral Partner Enquiry" and a brief description of your firm and your client base. 

To discuss a specific client situation on a no-names basis before making a formal introduction, call or email Donald Klip directly. We are happy to give you a preliminary view of whether equity release is feasible for a specific client situation before you introduce the client formally. 

GMG is headquartered in Singapore and operates across 23 jurisdictions. We are available for in-person meetings in Singapore and across the Asia-Pacific region, and by video conference for intermediaries in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and beyond. 

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA: Japanese High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate — The Complete Equity Release Guide

Japanese HNW US real estate equity release kabushiki kaisha Beverly Hills Hawaii

How Japanese nationals, Japanese corporations, and Japan-based high-net-worth individuals who own property in Los Angeles, Hawaii, New York, and across America's premium real estate markets can release the equity they have built across four decades of Japanese investment in American real estate, without restructuring corporate ownership arrangements that have been in place since the 1980s 

Japan's relationship with American real estate is one of the oldest, deepest, and most historically significant of any international nation. The late 1980s saw an extraordinary wave of Japanese investment in American property, driven by the exceptional strength of the yen against the dollar, the capital surplus generated by Japan's economic miracle, and the strategic logic of diversifying Japanese corporate and family wealth into dollar-denominated assets. Japanese corporations, real estate companies, golf course operators, hotel companies, and individual high-net-worth families all participated in this wave, acquiring assets across Los Angeles, Hawaii, New York, and the major resort markets at prices that, in yen terms, seemed extraordinarily accessible. 

Many of those properties have been held for thirty-five to forty years. They have been held through the Japanese asset price bubble and its collapse in the early 1990s, through multiple cycles of yen-dollar exchange rate movement, through Japan's two lost decades, and through the extraordinary post-COVID appreciation that has elevated their US dollar values to levels far above even the most optimistic original projections. The equity that Japanese high-net-worth owners, both individual and corporate, have built in these long-held American properties is, in many cases, extraordinary. And for the most part, it has never been released. 

The Japanese equity release barrier is rooted primarily in the holding structure: properties acquired by Japanese corporations or Japanese family holding companies in the 1980s and 1990s through kabushiki kaisha (KK) structures, or through offshore vehicles established to navigate the Japanese regulatory environment of that era, are held in forms that the conventional US equity release market cannot process. 

This is the Unlocked in America: Japanese High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate guide, part of the Unlocked in America series by Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages. 

What Japanese High-Net-Worth Owners Have Built in US Real Estate 

Los Angeles: Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, and Malibu 

Japanese high-net-worth buyers are among the most historically established international owner communities in the Los Angeles premium residential market. 

Pacific Palisades properties purchased by Japanese high-net-worth families in the late 1980s, at a time when the yen was at approximately 130 to the dollar, for USD 800,000 to 1.5 million are now worth USD 4 to 8 million. Beverly Hills estates acquired for USD 2 to 5 million in the 1988 to 1992 window are now worth USD 12 to 25 million. In yen terms, the appreciation from the original purchase price is extraordinary. 

Hawaii: Kahala, Wailea, and the Kohala Coast 

Hawaii's Japanese ownership story is one of the most significant in the history of American real estate. Japanese corporations developed major Hawaii hotels. Japanese high-net-worth individuals established Kahala, Wailea, and Kohala Coast property positions that have now been held for four decades. Kahala oceanfront properties purchased in the 1980s for USD 500,000 to 1.5 million are now worth USD 8 to 25 million. 

New York 

Japanese high-net-worth buyers and Japanese financial services firms maintained Manhattan residential positions throughout the 1980s and 1990s that have in many cases been retained and have appreciated dramatically. Upper East Side and Midtown properties held through Japanese corporate structures represent some of the most significant unreleased Japanese high-net-worth US property equity outside Los Angeles and Hawaii. 

The Japanese Corporate Structure Challenge 

The single most acute Japanese equity release barrier is the kabushiki kaisha (KK) holding structure, the Japanese joint stock company that many Japanese high-net-worth families and corporations used to acquire US real estate in the 1980s and 1990s. US equity release lenders are unprepared to assess KK entities as borrowing vehicles, and the compliance and due diligence process for a Japanese corporate borrower is beyond the capability of most conventional US lenders. 

GMG has specific experience with Japanese corporate holding structures in the US real estate context. We assess KK-held US properties through a structured due diligence process that identifies the ultimate beneficial owners and assesses the equity release on a basis that is appropriate to the corporate structure without requiring its liquidation or restructuring. 

GMG's Equity Release Solution for Japanese High-Net-Worth Owners 

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+ 
  • Term: 6 to 24 months 
  • LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised US market value 
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up — no monthly payment 
  • No US credit history or SSN required 
  • Japanese yen income and Japanese corporate income, considered within asset-led assessment 
  • Kabushiki kaisha (KK) entities, Japanese family holding companies, offshore vehicles established under Japanese law, all considered subject to beneficial ownership due diligence 
  • Security: Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Kahala, Wailea, Kohala Coast, Manhattan, and all major US markets with significant Japanese high-net-worth ownership 
  • Timeline: Term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days 

Contact Donald Klip 

If you are an international high-net-worth owner of Florida real estate and want to explore equity release against your property, contact Donald Klip directly. 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com 

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA: French High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate — The Complete Equity Release Guide

French HNW US real estate equity release SCI societe holding Manhattan Miami

How French nationals and France-based high-net-worth individuals who own property in Manhattan, Miami, Los Angeles, the Hamptons, Aspen, and across America's premium real estate markets can release the equity they have built, without their wealth being locked inside a French corporate structure that the American lending system cannot read 

France produces a specific and well-documented profile of high-net-worth borrower that the conventional US mortgage system handles particularly poorly. The French high-net-worth individual, whether a founder, an executive, a professional, or a member of an established business family, frequently holds the majority of their wealth not in declared personal income but in a French holding company (société holding, SCI, or SAS), a family investment vehicle, or a combination of corporate and personal assets that reflects the French preference for structuring wealth through corporate entities rather than taking it as personal income. 

The consequence for US mortgage underwriting is consistent and predictable: the declared personal income, what appears on the avis d'imposition (French tax return), is a small fraction of the French high-net-worth individual's actual economic capacity. The holding company owns the assets. The shareholder takes minimal salary. The wealth is real and substantial; the personal income is modest and unrepresentative. 

French private banks and the major French commercial banks: BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, BPCE, and their private banking affiliates, face a similar challenge when considering cross-border lending against US real estate. They understand the French corporate structure. They know the client. But they will not lend against a US property without either moving the lending relationship to a US affiliate (which creates its own complications) or requiring the French holding structure to be unwound in a way that creates French tax consequences the client rightly wants to avoid. 

Global Mortgage Group assesses the property and the exit strategy. We do not require the French corporate structure to be unwound, the personal income to be inflated, or the wealth management relationship to be restructured. We lend on the asset. 

This is the Unlocked in America: French High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate guide — part of the Unlocked in America series by Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages. 

What French High-Net-Worth Owners Have Built in US Real Estate 

Manhattan: SoHo, Tribeca, and the Upper West Side 

The French high-net-worth community in Manhattan is one of the most culturally distinct of any international nationality in the city. French buyers have concentrated in SoHo and Tribeca, attracted by the neighbourhood's European street-level character, and on the Upper West Side, where the Lycée Français de New York has created a consistent anchor for French family residential investment since the school's establishment. SoHo and Tribeca loft apartments purchased by French buyers in the late 1990s and early 2000s for USD 500,000 to 900,000 are now worth USD 2.5 to 5 million. 

Miami: The French Riviera's American Counterpart 

French high-net-worth buyers, particularly those with yacht culture connections and Côte d'Azur lifestyle sensibilities, have found in Miami Beach and Coconut Grove an American lifestyle market that offers genuine parallels to the French Riviera at a significantly lower price point. French buyers have been consistent Miami investors since the Art Deco revival of the early 1990s. 

The Hamptons and Aspen: French Lifestyle Second Homes 

French high-net-worth buyers are among the most established European communities in both the Hamptons and Aspen, the Hamptons for its sailing and beach culture connection, Aspen for its obvious parallel to the French Alpine ski resorts of Courchevel, Val d'Isère, and Méribel. 

Napa Valley and Wine Country 

French high-net-worth buyers with wine industry connections have established a specifically significant presence in Napa Valley and Sonoma County, in some cases acquiring both residential properties and winery estates that combine lifestyle and investment logic in a way that resonates naturally with French buyers. 

GMG's Equity Release Solution for French High-Net-Worth Owners 

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+ 
  • Term: 6 to 24 months 
  • LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised US market value 
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up, no monthly payment 
  • No US credit history or SSN required 
  • French corporate income through SCI, SAS, société holding, and other French holding structures, considered within asset-led assessment without requiring restructuring 
  • EUR income and French tax return documentation, accommodated within GMG's framework 
  • Security: Manhattan, Miami, Hamptons, Aspen, Los Angeles, Napa Valley, and all major US markets with French high-net-worth ownership 
  • Timeline: Term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days 

Contact Donald Klip 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA: Florida — The Complete Equity Release Guide for International High-Net-Worth Owners

Florida Miami Palm Beach Naples international HNW equity release foreign national

How global high-net-worth investors from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Israel, China, Hong Kong, India, and the Middle East who own property in Miami, Miami Beach, Fisher Island, Brickell, Palm Beach, Naples, Sarasota, Orlando, and across Florida's premium coastal markets have built extraordinary equity, and how international equity release finance finally makes that wealth accessible without selling 

Florida has a relationship with international high-net-worth capital that is unlike any other state in America. It is not simply a destination for overseas property investment, it is the place where Latin American wealth has parked its most trusted dollar-denominated assets for more than fifty years, where Canadian and British snowbirds have built lifestyle and retirement property portfolios for generations, where Israeli and Middle Eastern high-net-worth families have established their American bases, and where the global financial services migration of the past five years has created an entirely new layer of internationally connected ultra-high-net-worth residential demand. 

Florida has no state income tax. It has no state capital gains tax. Its property rights are among the strongest in the United States. Its lifestyle infrastructure, from the ultra-luxury resort communities of Palm Beach and Naples to the Latin American cultural richness of Miami, is world class. And its accessibility from Latin America, Europe, Canada, and increasingly from Asia makes it the most geographically convenient American state for the internationally mobile high-net-worth property owner. 

The equity that international high-net-worth families have built in Florida real estate — across fifty years of consistent appreciation in Miami, Palm Beach, Naples, and the broader coastal corridor, is extraordinary. And for the most part, it has never been released. This is the Unlocked in America: Florida guide, part of the Unlocked in America series by Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages, the only US mortgage lender focused exclusively on overseas borrowers. 

Florida Property Appreciation: What International High-Net-Worth Owners Have Built 

Florida's residential property market has delivered exceptional appreciation, particularly in the premium coastal markets that have attracted the most international high-net-worth investment. The broader Florida context: the state's median home price has risen from approximately USD 100,000 in 1990 to over USD 400,000 today, a fourfold increase. In the premium markets, the appreciation is dramatically higher. 

Miami's transformation from a regional American city to a global financial and lifestyle capital has been directly reflected in property values across every premium submarket. Fisher Island residences that sold for USD 400,000 to 700,000 in the early 1990s now 

trade at USD 3 to 8 million. Brickell condominiums purchased in the early 2000s for USD 200,000 to 400,000 are now worth USD 800,000 to 2 million. Miami Beach and South Beach properties purchased in the 1990s for USD 300,000 to 600,000 now command USD 2 to 5 million. Coral Gables homes purchased in the early 1990s for USD 300,000 to 600,000 now sell for USD 2 to 4 million. 

Palm Beach's appreciation has been equally dramatic, accelerated by the migration of northeastern financial wealth from New York during and after the COVID period. Palm Beach properties purchased in the 1990s and early 2000s for USD 1 to 3 million are now worth USD 6 to 20 million for well-positioned holdings. The broader Palm Beach County market — Wellington, Manalapan, Jupiter Island, has seen similar structural appreciation. 

Naples, the ultra-luxury Gulf Coast community that has attracted the most consistent long-term international high-net-worth investment on Florida's west coast, has seen bay and beachfront properties purchased in the 1990s for USD 500,000 to 1.5 million now valued at USD 3 to 8 million. 

Why Florida Is Different: No State Capital Gains Tax 

Florida's most significant advantage for international high-net-worth property owners considering equity release versus sale is the absence of state capital gains tax. Unlike California, where the combined federal and state capital gains rate can reach 33.3% — or New York, where the combined federal, state, and city rate can exceed 34% — Florida imposes no state income tax and no state capital gains tax. The only capital gains exposure for a Florida property sale is the federal rate of 20% for long-term gains, plus the 15% FIRPTA withholding for non-resident foreign national sellers. 

This does not mean that selling is always the right answer for international high-net-worth Florida property owners, the federal FIRPTA withholding alone on a USD 5 million property sale represents USD 750,000 withheld at closing, and the federal capital gains liability on a property purchased for USD 400,000 and now worth USD 4 million is still significant. But it does mean that the tax case for equity release over sale in Florida is less extreme than in California or New York, and that the equity release decision in Florida is more likely to be driven by the specific capital need and timeline than by tax avoidance logic alone. 

Part One: Miami and South Florida — The Latin American Gateway and the Global Financial Capital 

Miami Beach and South Beach 

Miami Beach, the barrier island city connected to mainland Miami by a series of causeways, is one of the most internationally recognised and most consistently international high-net-worth residential markets in the United States. The Art Deco revival of the late 1980s and early 1990s transformed South Beach from a derelict 

neighbourhood into a global lifestyle destination, and Latin American high-net-worth buyers were among the earliest and most committed participants in that transformation. 

Brazilian high-net-worth families are the most historically significant and most consistently present international buyer community in Miami Beach and South Beach, with ownership going back to the 1970s and representing the largest single concentration of Brazilian private wealth outside Brazil. Colombian high-net-worth families are the second largest international buyer community, with significant concentration in the mid and upper price tiers of the Miami Beach condominium market. Venezuelan high-net-worth families, many of whom relocated capital to Miami in advance of Venezuela's political and economic deterioration, represent a significant and long-established ownership community. Argentine high-net-worth buyers have been consistent Miami Beach investors through multiple Argentine economic cycles, using dollar-denominated Florida real estate as their primary safe haven asset. Mexican high-net-worth families have established a growing presence. 

Beyond Latin America, Miami Beach attracts British, French, German, and Italian high-net-worth buyers who value the lifestyle credentials of the city. Israeli high-net-worth buyers and Israeli-American business families are among the most significant non-Latin American international buyer communities on Miami Beach. Canadian high-net-worth buyers, particularly those from Quebec who are drawn by the Latin cultural connections — are consistent Miami Beach investors. 

Fisher Island 

Fisher Island, the private island development accessible only by ferry, with no road connection to the mainland, represents the pinnacle of Miami's international high-net-worth residential market. The island's absolute privacy, its world-class amenities, and its extraordinary waterfront setting have made it the preferred Miami address for ultra-high-net-worth Latin American principals, Middle Eastern royal family members, European old money, and globally connected technology and finance wealth. 

Fisher Island residences purchased in the early 1990s by Latin American and European high-net-worth buyers for USD 400,000 to 700,000 now trade at USD 3 to 8 million for comparable units. Waterfront positions with direct ocean exposure have seen values exceed USD 15 to 20 million. The equity release opportunity for Fisher Island's original buyer cohort is among the most dramatic in Florida real estate. 

Brickell and Downtown Miami 

Brickell has undergone a complete metamorphosis from a quiet residential neighbourhood to one of the most active financial districts in the United States. The migration of hedge funds, private equity firms, and financial services companies from New York, driven by Florida's tax advantages and lifestyle quality, has permanently elevated Brickell's residential values and its status as a genuine global financial address. 

The international high-net-worth community in Brickell includes the established Latin American buyer base: Brazilian, Colombian, Venezuelan, alongside the newer cohort of financial services professionals who have relocated from New York and London and who bring with them significant international capital. British, Israeli, and Canadian financial professionals are well-represented in Brickell's premium condominium towers. 

Coconut Grove and Coral Gables 

Coconut Grove, Miami's oldest neighbourhood, characterised by banyan trees, bayfront estates, and a community of artists, academics, and internationally connected professionals, and Coral Gables — the Mediterranean-architecture city within Miami-Dade County that has been the preferred residential address of Latin American high-net-worth professional and business families for decades, together represent Miami's most established and most genuinely residential international high-net-worth neighbourhoods. 

Coral Gables in particular has a deeply Latin American character that reflects fifty years of consistent investment from Colombian, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Argentine, and Mexican high-net-worth families who value the neighbourhood's combination of safety, school quality, cultural familiarity, and community infrastructure. The Coral Gables waterway — with its Mediterranean-revival homes and bayfront estates, represents some of the most consistently appreciated residential real estate in Miami. 

Key Biscayne 

Key Biscayne, the barrier island south of Miami connected by the Rickenbacker Causeway, has been one of the most consistently international high-net-worth residential communities in Florida for decades. Latin American high-net-worth families — Venezuelan, Colombian, Brazilian, are the dominant international buyer community, drawn by the island's combination of beach lifestyle, privacy, and the security of a controlled access community. 

Surfside, Bal Harbour, and Sunny Isles Beach 

The communities north of Miami Beach: Surfside, Bal Harbour, and Sunny Isles Beach — represent a distinct and highly international layer of the broader Miami luxury residential market. Sunny Isles Beach in particular has attracted extraordinary concentration of Russian and Eastern European high-net-worth ownership, earning the informal designation "Little Moscow" for the volume and consistency of Russian high-net-worth investment in its luxury oceanfront condominium towers. Israeli high-net-worth buyers are among the most significant international communities in Bal Harbour and Surfside. Latin American high-net-worth families are well-represented throughout the corridor. 

Part Two: Palm Beach and the Gold Coast — Old Money, New Money, and International High-Net-Worth Capital 

Palm Beach Island 

Palm Beach Island, the 14-mile barrier island that is the most socially established and most architecturally significant high-net-worth residential community in Florida, has undergone one of the most dramatic value transformations of any American real estate market in the past five years. The migration of northeastern financial wealth: hedge funds, private equity, family offices, from New York and Connecticut has permanently elevated Palm Beach's profile from a regional American luxury destination to a genuine global ultra-high-net-worth address. 

The international high-net-worth buyer community in Palm Beach includes British high-net-worth families who have maintained a consistent Palm Beach presence for decades, drawn by the community's social infrastructure and its similarities to the English country house lifestyle. Canadian high-net-worth buyers, particularly from Toronto's financial and manufacturing community, are among the most consistent international Palm Beach investors. Israeli high-net-worth business families are significant Palm Beach buyers. Latin American high-net-worth families: Brazilian, Colombian, Argentine — have been consistent Palm Beach investors since the 1990s. Middle Eastern high-net-worth principals and family offices have established growing positions as Palm Beach's global profile has risen. German and Swiss high-net-worth buyers value Palm Beach's combination of privacy, lifestyle quality, and the strength of Florida's property rights framework. 

Palm Beach properties purchased in the 1990s and early 2000s for USD 1 to 3 million are now worth USD 6 to 20 million. On the oceanfront — South Ocean Boulevard — values have exceeded USD 30 to 50 million for significant estate holdings, representing appreciation of tenfold or more from early 2000s purchase prices. 

Boca Raton and Delray Beach 

Boca Raton and Delray Beach, the Gold Coast communities immediately south of Palm Beach, have attracted a significant and consistently international high-net-worth buyer community including Canadian, British, Israeli, and Latin American buyers who value the combination of lifestyle quality, golf infrastructure, and relative accessibility compared to Palm Beach Island. Boca Raton's gated communities: Woodfield Country Club, Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club, The Polo Club, have attracted significant Canadian, Israeli, British, and Latin American high-net-worth ownership. 

Jupiter Island and the Treasure Coast 

Jupiter Island, one of the most exclusive and least publicised residential communities in the United States, has attracted a small but extraordinarily high-net-worth international buyer community, particularly from the United Kingdom, Canada, and 

Latin America. The island's combination of absolute privacy, direct ocean access, and an established community of multi-generational wealth holders makes it one of the most significant concentrations of unreleased equity in Florida real estate. 

Part Three: Southwest Florida — Naples, Sarasota, and the Gulf Coast 

Naples 

Naples, the Gulf Coast city consistently ranked among the wealthiest communities in the United States by per-capita income, has attracted a deeply international high-net-worth buyer community that reflects the city's position as one of America's most exclusive lifestyle residential destinations. 

Canadian high-net-worth buyers are the largest and most consistently present international buyer community in Naples, with ownership going back to the 1970s and representing the most significant concentration of Canadian private residential investment in the southern United States. British high-net-worth buyers are the second most significant international community, drawn by the Gulf Coast lifestyle and the relative affordability compared to Palm Beach. German and Swiss high-net-worth buyers value Naples for its privacy infrastructure and its world-class golf and tennis facilities. Latin American high-net-worth families — Colombian, Venezuelan, Brazilian, have been growing their Naples presence as the city's global profile has risen. Israeli high-net-worth buyers have established a consistent Naples presence. 

Naples properties purchased in the 1990s for USD 400,000 to 1 million are now worth USD 2 to 5 million. On the waterfront, Gordon Drive, Admiralty Parade, and the Port Royal community, values have exceeded USD 10 to 30 million for the most significant holdings. 

Sarasota 

Sarasota, the arts-focused Gulf Coast city with a world-class performing arts infrastructure anchored by the Ringling Museum and the Sarasota Orchestra, has attracted a distinct international high-net-worth buyer community drawn by the city's cultural density and its reputation as one of America's most liveable cities. British and Canadian high-net-worth buyers are the most significant international communities in Sarasota. German and Scandinavian high-net-worth buyers drawn by the cultural infrastructure are well-represented. Siesta Key — Sarasota's barrier island with quartz sand beaches — has attracted international buyers from across Europe, Canada, and Latin America. 

Marco Island and the Ten Thousand Islands 

Marco Island, the largest of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands, has attracted significant Canadian, British, German, and Latin American high-net-worth investment, particularly 

in the waterfront condominium and single-family home market that offers direct Gulf access and a genuine island lifestyle at price points below Naples and Palm Beach. 

Part Four: Orlando and Central Florida 

While Orlando's premium residential market is less internationally concentrated than coastal Florida, the communities around Orlando's luxury golf and resort developments: Isleworth, Windermere, and the Lake Butler Sound area, have attracted significant Canadian, British, and Latin American high-net-worth investment. The Disney and theme park proximity drives a distinct vacation home investment community that includes significant British, Canadian, German, and Brazilian ownership. 

The Florida Equity Release Barrier: Why International High-Net-Worth Owners Cannot Access Their Wealth 

International high-net-worth owners of Florida real estate face the same fundamental barriers that affect all internationally mobile US property owners: no US credit history, foreign income in unassessable formats, offshore holding structures that conventional US lenders will not lend against, and the structural exclusion of foreign nationals from the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-backed US mortgage market. 

Florida-specific considerations add additional complexity. Many Latin American high-net-worth owners of Florida property hold their assets through Cayman Islands, Panama, or Latin American corporate structures that were established for capital protection and estate planning purposes and that the conventional US equity release market will not accommodate. The capital control restrictions in certain Latin American countries complicate the documentation of income and assets in ways that satisfy US underwriting requirements. And the privacy requirements of some Latin American high-net-worth families, for whom the confidentiality of their US property ownership is important, make engagement with conventional US bank equity release processes genuinely problematic. 

GMG's international equity release programme addresses every one of these barriers directly. 

GMG's Florida Equity Release Solution 

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+ 
  • Term: 6 to 24 months 
  • LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised Florida market value
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up — no monthly payment obligation in most structures 
  • Security: Miami Beach, Fisher Island, Brickell, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter Island, Naples, Sarasota, Marco Island, and all major Florida premium residential markets 
  • Borrower: Brazilian, Colombian, Venezuelan, Argentine, Mexican, British, Canadian, Israeli, German, French, Swiss, Italian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Hong Kong, Indian, and all international high-net-worth foreign nationals and non-US residents; Cayman, Panama, and Latin American holding companies; US LLCs and family trusts 
  • No SSN, no US credit history, no US income documentation required 
  • Timeline: Indicative equity release term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days 

For long-term financing after the equity release period, America Mortgages provides Foreign National mortgages, DSCR investment property mortgages, and EXPat mortgages for US citizens living abroad, all available in Florida and across all 50 US states. 

Contact Donald Klip 

If you are an international high-net-worth owner of Florida real estate and want to explore equity release against your property, contact Donald Klip directly. 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com 

To receive an indicative equity release term sheet, we need only: Florida property address and type, estimated current market value, any existing mortgage balance, approximate equity release amount required, desired loan term, and a brief description of the intended use of funds and repayment plan. 

No tax returns. No W-2 forms. No Social Security Number. No US credit history required at the initial stage. Learn more. Continue reading the Unlocked in America series at gmg.asia.

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA (Pt 9 of 11) — Selling Your US Property Costs Far More Than You Think. Here Is the Full Calculation.

FIRPTA capital gains tax US property sale vs equity release comparison

The financial case for international high-net-worth owners of US real estate: why FIRPTA withholding, capital gains tax, depreciation recapture, and transaction costs make selling the most expensive way to access the value in your American property, and why equity release finance is almost always the more rational choice.

When an international high-net-worth owner of US real estate needs to access capital, the instinctive answer is often to sell. The property has done well. The equity is real. A sale converts that equity into liquid capital. The logic seems straightforward.

But for internationally mobile, non-resident, and high-net-worth US property owners, selling is almost always the most expensive way to access the value in an American real estate asset. The combination of FIRPTA withholding, capital gains tax, real estate agent commissions, closing costs, and the permanent loss of future appreciation on an asset with a demonstrated long-term track record makes selling a decision that needs to be very carefully considered, and in many cases, a decision that equity release finance makes unnecessary.

This article is not tax advice. Before making any decision about selling or retaining US property, consult a qualified US tax attorney. What this article does is explain the financial architecture of the sell-versus-equity-release decision in terms that allow you to have an informed conversation with those advisors.

This is Part 9 of UNLOCKED IN AMERICA, an 11-part series for international high-net-worth owners of US real estate who have built extraordinary wealth in America and cannot access it. For a full overview of how the equity release facility works, visit GMG's US property equity release programme.

The FIRPTA Reality: What Happens When a Non-Resident High-Net-Worth Owner Sells Instead of Releasing Equity

FIRPTA, the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act, requires the buyer to withhold 15% of the gross sale price when a foreign national or non-resident alien sells US real property, and remit that amount to the IRS.

The critical word is gross. The FIRPTA withholding is calculated on the total sale price, not on the gain, not on the equity, not on the profit. On the entire price.

On a USD 3 million property sale, FIRPTA withholding is USD 450,000, regardless of what the property cost, regardless of how much of the proceeds represent original capital versus appreciation, and regardless of what the seller's ultimate US tax liability will be after filing their return.

The withholding is a prepayment against ultimate tax liability, not a final tax. But the refund process takes time and involves a period where withheld funds are in the hands of the IRS rather than the international high-net-worth seller. The IRS FIRPTA withholding guidance confirms that withholding certificates can reduce the amount withheld, but the application process adds complexity and time to any disposal. Equity release avoids this entirely: no disposal, no FIRPTA event.

The Capital Gains Calculation: The True Cost of Selling Versus Releasing Equity

For non-resident alien sellers, the US federal capital gains tax rate on US real property is generally 20% for long-term gains, with the additional 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax potentially applying. State capital gains taxes vary significantly. California imposes a state rate that can add a further 13.3% for high-income sellers, making the combined federal and state capital gains rate one of the highest in the developed world.

The Tax Foundation's analysis of US capital gains tax rates by state confirms that California and New York represent the most expensive jurisdictions in the country for high-net-worth property disposals, precisely the markets where international buyers have the greatest concentration of appreciated assets.

To put concrete numbers to the sell-versus-equity-release decision, consider an international high-net-worth family that purchased a Manhattan condominium for USD 800,000 in 2000. It is now worth USD 4.2 million.

Selling to Access USD 1.5 Million

  • Gross sale price: USD 4,200,000
  • Agent commission (approx. 6%): USD 252,000
  • Closing costs and transfer taxes: approx. USD 150,000
  • FIRPTA withholding at closing (15% of USD 4.2M): USD 630,000
  • Capital gains tax (estimated combined federal and NY State rate): USD 800,000 to 1,000,000
  • Net capital available after all costs: potentially below USD 2.5 million
  • Asset: permanently gone
  • Future appreciation: permanently forfeited

Equity Release to Access the Same USD 1.5 Million

  • Loan amount: USD 1.5 million (approximately 36% LTV)
  • Cost: Interest for 6 to 12 months, retained upfront at drawdown, known and fixed
  • FIRPTA event: None
  • Capital gains event: None
  • Depreciation recapture: None
  • Agent commissions: None
  • Asset: retained in portfolio
  • Future appreciation: preserved
  • Capital available: USD 1.5 million in 10 to 20 business days

For long-term holders with very low cost basis, the equity release case is particularly strong. GMG's dedicated resource on equity release for long-term US property owners covers how the facility is structured for exactly this profile, where embedded gains are large and the cost of disposal would be severe.

"The decision to sell a US property to access capital is almost always more expensive than it looks at first. By the time an international high-net-worth owner has settled FIRPTA withholding, capital gains tax, agent commissions, and closing costs, a USD 4 million property might put USD 2.2 million or less in their hands, and they have permanently exited an asset that has been their best long-term investment. An equity release facility against the same property delivers USD 1.5 to 2 million in two weeks, the asset stays in the portfolio, and the future appreciation is still theirs."
— Donald Klip, Co-Founder, Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages

When Equity Release Is Clearly the Right Choice Over Selling

The Capital Need Is Temporary or Time-Specific

If the need arises from a specific opportunity that will be resolved within 6 to 24 months and the underlying US property is a desired long-term holding, equity release is almost always cheaper than selling. The interest cost of a short-term equity release facility is a fraction of the tax and transaction costs of a disposal.

The Property Has Very Low Basis

International high-net-worth properties acquired in the 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s at a fraction of current value have very large embedded capital gains. The longer the holding period and the larger the gain, the stronger the equity release case over sale. For families in this position, GMG's resource on education and US property equity also explains how released equity can be deployed for next-generation purposes without triggering a disposal.

The Seller Is Non-Resident and Faces FIRPTA

The 15% gross withholding at closing creates a significant and immediate cash flow impact that equity release avoids entirely. For non-resident international high-net-worth owners who need capital quickly, avoiding a USD 450,000 to 900,000 FIRPTA withholding event at closing is itself a compelling reason to choose equity release over sale.

The Property Is in a High State-Tax Jurisdiction

California, New York, and other high-tax states impose state capital gains taxes that significantly increase the total cost of a sale. These are the same states where international high-net-worth buyers have the largest concentration of appreciated property. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York are also the cities where GMG sees the highest volume of equity release applications from sellers who have run the numbers and concluded that selling is not rational.

The Owner Wants to Preserve Future Appreciation

US prime residential property has delivered consistent long-term appreciation. Selling to access today's equity forfeits all future gains on an asset with a demonstrated track record. Equity release preserves that future upside while meeting today's capital need. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, US median home values have risen consistently over every 10-year period in modern history, making long-term retention a structurally rational position for high-net-worth owners who have alternative ways to access liquidity.

Key Equity Release Parameters

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 20,000,000+
  • Term: 6 to 24 months
  • LTV: Up to 65 to 70% of independently appraised US market value
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up, the total equity release cost is known upfront, with no monthly payment obligations
  • No FIRPTA event. No capital gains event. No depreciation recapture. No agent commissions.
  • Security: US residential and commercial property in all major markets
  • Borrower: International high-net-worth foreign nationals, non-US residents, US citizens, offshore holding entities, family trusts, US LLCs
  • Timeline: Equity release term sheet 24 to 48 hours; drawdown 10 to 20 business days

Contact Donald Klip

If you are an international high-net-worth owner of US real estate and want to explore equity release or a bridging loan against your American property, contact Donald Klip directly before making any decision about selling.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com

To receive an indicative equity release term sheet, we need only: US property address and type, estimated current market value, any existing mortgage balance, approximate equity release amount required, desired loan term, and a brief description of the intended use of funds and repayment plan.

Continue reading the UNLOCKED IN AMERICA series at gmg.asia.

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA (Pt 8 of 11) — Your US Property Is Held in an LLC or Trust. Most Lenders Stop Reading Right There.

LLC trust offshore structure US property equity release international owner

Why the legitimate legal and tax planning that protects high-net-worth US property owners, including LLCs, family trusts, and offshore companies, becomes the exact barrier the conventional US lending system uses to deny equity release, and how GMG lends against the structure rather than demanding you dismantle it.

You did everything right.

When you acquired your US property, whether a Manhattan condominium, a Beverly Hills estate, a Miami waterfront residence, or a Hamptons weekend house, you took legal and tax advice. Your advisors recommended holding the property through a structure that would protect personal liability, facilitate estate planning, simplify generational transfer, and optimise the tax treatment. You followed that advice. You established a US LLC, a Delaware holding company, a family trust, or an offshore vehicle in the British Virgin Islands or the Cayman Islands.

Now, years or decades later, the property has appreciated significantly. You need to release equity. You approach a US bank. And the conversation hits a wall.

The lender will not extend an equity release facility to an LLC. Or the trust is the wrong type for their underwriting system. Or the offshore holding company is too complex for their compliance team. Or they will proceed, but only if you transfer the property into personal name first, which is an instruction to undo the legitimate planning you paid to create, potentially triggering tax consequences in the process.

GMG does not require you to dismantle your legal planning to release your equity. We extend equity release facilities against the structure.

This is Part 8 of UNLOCKED IN AMERICA, an 11-part series for international high-net-worth owners of US real estate who have built extraordinary wealth in America and cannot access it. For a full overview of how the facility works, visit GMG's US property equity release programme.

Why High-Net-Worth US Property Owners Use Structures, and Why Those Structures Block Conventional Equity Release

The structures that international high-net-worth families use to hold US property exist for sound legal and tax reasons. They were established on professional advice. They serve legitimate purposes. And they are the precise reason that the conventional US equity release market turns these families away.

The US LLC for Liability Protection and Privacy

LLCs separate the property's liability exposure from the owner's personal assets and, in most US states, prevent the beneficial owner's name from appearing on public land records. For internationally mobile high-net-worth owners who value both liability protection and discretion, LLCs are the standard holding vehicle. According to the American Bar Association, LLC ownership of investment real estate is among the most widely recommended structures in US estate and property planning precisely because of this combination of protection and flexibility.

The Family Trust for Estate Planning and Generational Transfer

Family trusts avoid probate on the owner's death, enable seamless transfer to beneficiaries, facilitate generation-skipping planning, and provide asset protection. For internationally mobile high-net-worth property owners, a US family trust accommodates the complexity of a financial life that extends across multiple jurisdictions. The trust does everything it was designed to do, until the owner tries to access a conventional equity release facility.

Offshore Holding Companies for International Tax Efficiency

Internationally mobile high-net-worth buyers, particularly non-US residents who own US property as an investment, have historically used BVI, Cayman Islands, or Panama holding companies to manage US estate tax exposure. This was standard practice for international high-net-worth US property buyers throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. The same structures that made perfect legal and tax sense then are the precise structures that the conventional US equity release market will not lend against today.

The IRS guidelines on foreign ownership of US real property confirm that offshore holding structures for US real estate remain a legitimate and widely used approach for managing FIRPTA obligations. The existence of the structure is not a tax problem. It is a conventional lending problem, and it is one that GMG was built to solve.

How GMG Extends Equity Release Against Structured US Property Ownership

GMG's equity release programme is specifically designed to lend against the structures that conventional US lenders decline. Each structure type has its own assessment process, and in every case the approach is to work within the structure rather than around it.

US LLCs

GMG extends equity release facilities to US LLCs. We assess the LLC as the borrowing entity, take security against the property held by the LLC, and require personal guarantees from the LLC's beneficial owners. No restructuring and no property transfer required. The LLC continues to serve its liability protection and privacy functions throughout the equity release period.

For families considering the longer-term financing picture after equity release, GMG's resource on equity release for long-term US property owners covers how LLC-held properties transition from the short-term equity release facility into permanent financing through America Mortgages.

US and Domestic Family Trusts

GMG extends equity release against US property held in revocable living trusts and, on a case-by-case basis, irrevocable trusts. For revocable trusts the process is straightforward. For irrevocable trusts the trust terms and beneficiary structure are reviewed to ensure the equity release security interest can be properly perfected. In most cases, irrevocable trust equity release can proceed without modification to the trust instrument.

Offshore Holding Companies

GMG has extensive experience extending equity release facilities against properties held by BVI Ltd companies, Cayman Islands LPs and LLCs, Panama SAs, Liechtenstein foundations, and comparable entities. Full beneficial ownership disclosure to the ultimate individual level is required, consistent with regulatory obligations, along with personal guarantees from qualifying beneficial owners. The offshore structure remains in place throughout.

For families with children approaching US university age, GMG's dedicated resource on education and US property equity explains how equity released from LLC or trust-held US property can fund both university costs and a next-generation US property acquisition, often the most tax-efficient way to use the facility.

Key Equity Release Parameters

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 20,000,000+
  • Term: 6 to 24 months
  • LTV: Up to 65 to 70% of independently appraised US market value
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up, no monthly payment in most structures
  • Borrower entity: US LLC, US family trust, US LP, BVI Ltd, Cayman LLC or LP, Panama SA, and comparable offshore entities subject to due diligence
  • Personal guarantee: Required from ultimate beneficial owners in most cases
  • No ownership restructuring required as a condition of equity release
  • Timeline: Standard structures 10 to 20 business days; complex structures 20 to 35 business days

For long-term financing after the equity release period, America Mortgages provides Foreign National and DSCR mortgage products designed to accommodate LLC, trust, and offshore entity ownership across all 50 US states.

The Wall Street Journal has reported on the growing frustration among high-net-worth property owners whose legitimate holding structures create unnecessary friction with conventional US lenders, describing it as one of the most common and avoidable barriers in American property finance.

"We see this situation regularly. A high-net-worth family has done exactly the right thing, held their US property through a well-structured LLC or offshore trust, kept the planning current, done everything their advisors recommended. And then they find that the structure that protected them for twenty years is the thing the bank is using to decline their equity release application. We are set up to extend equity release against the structure, not around it."
— Donald Klip, Co-Founder, Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages

Is This Right for You?

This solution is most relevant if:

  • You own US property held through a US LLC, a family trust, a US LP, or an offshore holding company
  • You have been declined for US equity release finance because the lender will not extend a facility to your holding entity
  • You have been told you need to transfer the property into personal name before any equity release can proceed
  • The equity in the property is substantial and the capital need is real
  • You want to release equity without dismantling the legal and tax planning you have put in place

Contact Donald Klip

If you are an international high-net-worth owner of US real estate and want to explore equity release or a bridging loan against your American property, contact Donald Klip directly.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com

To receive an indicative equity release term sheet, we need only: US property address and type, estimated current market value, any existing mortgage balance, approximate equity release amount required, desired loan term, holding entity type and jurisdiction, and a brief description of the intended use of funds and repayment plan.

Continue reading the UNLOCKED IN AMERICA series at gmg.asia.

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA: Swiss High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate — The Complete Equity Release Guide — No AUM Requirement

Swiss HNW US real estate equity release no AUM Aspen Manhattan alternative private bank

How Swiss nationals and Switzerland-based high-net-worth individuals who own property in Manhattan, Aspen, Miami, Los Angeles, and across America's premium markets can release the equity they have built, without pledging their investment portfolio to a Swiss private bank as the price of accessing their own property wealth 

Switzerland's private banking community has made the AUM-for-lending condition an art form. Nowhere else in the world of international high-net-worth finance is the practice of tying lending availability to assets under management more explicit, more systematic, or more aggressively applied than in Swiss private banking. The Swiss private banks: UBS, Credit Suisse (now UBS), Julius Baer, Lombard Odier, Pictet, Vontobel, and their peers, have built their business models around the comprehensive management of client wealth, and mortgage lending, including lending against overseas real estate, is a loss leader offered as part of that comprehensive relationship rather than as a standalone service. 

The consequence for Swiss high-net-worth owners of US real estate is direct and consistent: when they seek to release equity from their American property through their Swiss private bank, the bank's response is to offer the lending at an attractive rate — but with the condition that the client must consolidate a significant portion of their investment assets with the bank as AUM. The facility rate is good. The AUM condition is frequently unacceptable. 

Swiss high-net-worth clients are among the most financially sophisticated in the world. They understand exactly what the AUM condition means: the bank is using the mortgage as a mechanism to capture wealth management revenue. They frequently have investment managers, asset allocators, and family office relationships that they value and do not want to disrupt. And they have no interest in consolidating USD 3 to 5 million of investment assets with a Swiss private bank simply to access equity from a US property they own outright. 

Global Mortgage Group has no AUM requirement. No investment assets need to be moved, pledged, or consolidated. The equity release facility is assessed entirely on the US property value and the exit strategy. That is the beginning and end of it. 

This is the Unlocked in America: Swiss High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate guide — part of the Unlocked in America series by Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages. 

What Swiss High-Net-Worth Owners Have Built in US Real Estate 

Aspen: Switzerland's American Mountain 

The parallel between Aspen and the Swiss Alpine resorts — Gstaad, Verbier, St. Moritz, and Klosters — is not lost on Swiss high-net-worth buyers, many of whom have made Aspen their preferred American mountain destination. The Swiss–Aspen corridor remains one of the most established cross-border investment links for high-net-worth individuals, driven by lifestyle alignment and long-term value appreciation. Swiss buyers who acquired property in Aspen’s West End, on Red Mountain, or in the Starwood gated community in the 1990s and early 2000s paid prices that now appear historical. Properties purchased for USD 2 to 5 million are now worth USD 12 to 35 million for the most significant holdings.

Manhattan 

Swiss high-net-worth buyers have established consistent pied-a-terre positions in Manhattan,  particularly on the Upper East Side, in Tribeca, and on Billionaires' Row — driven by New York's position as the global financial capital and the Swiss financial community's deep professional connections to Wall Street. Manhattan condominiums purchased by Swiss buyers in the early 2000s for USD 1.5 to 3 million are now worth USD 5 to 10 million. 

Miami and Palm Beach 

Swiss high-net-worth buyers value Miami and Palm Beach for the combination of lifestyle quality, warm climate, and the financial privacy of Florida's legal environment. Palm Beach properties acquired in the late 1990s and early 2000s for USD 800,000 to 2 million are now worth USD 4 to 10 million. 

The Swiss Equity Release Barrier Beyond AUM 

Beyond the AUM condition, Swiss high-net-worth owners of US real estate face the standard international barriers, Swiss franc or euro income in an unassessable US format, no US credit history, and holding structures through Swiss foundations, Liechtenstein Anstalts, or offshore entities that the conventional US equity release market cannot process. 

GMG's equity release assessment accommodates Swiss franc and euro income, Swiss corporate and family foundation holding structures, and Liechtenstein and BVI vehicles commonly used by Swiss high-net-worth families, without requiring AUM consolidation and without requiring income documentation to conform to US mortgage standards. 

GMG's Equity Release Solution for Swiss High-Net-Worth Owners 

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+ 
  • Term: 6 to 24 months
  •  LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised US market value 
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up — no monthly payment obligation 
  • No AUM requirement — investment assets remain where they are 
  • No US credit history or SSN required 
  • CHF and EUR income considered within asset-led assessment 
  • Swiss foundations, Liechtenstein Anstalts, BVI and Cayman entities, US LLCs — all considered 
  • Security: Aspen, Manhattan, Miami, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, and all major US premium markets 
  • Timeline: Term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days 

Contact Donald Klip 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com

UNLOCKED IN AMERICA: Israeli High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate — The Complete Equity Release Guide

Israeli HNW US real estate equity release Manhattan Miami Hamptons multi-jurisdictional

How Israeli nationals and Israel-based high-net-worth individuals who own property in Manhattan, Miami, Beverly Hills, the Hamptons, New Jersey, Aventura, Bal Harbour, and across America's premium real estate markets can release the equity they have built, without the American lending system dismissing decades of ownership because the income is in shekels and the holding is in a Delaware LLC 

Israel has one of the highest concentrations of high-net-worth individuals per capita of any country in the world. Its technology sector, the Start-Up Nation ecosystem that has produced more Nasdaq-listed companies per capita than any country outside the United States, has created a generation of Israeli entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and technology executives whose wealth is real, substantial, and internationally distributed. The Israeli-American connection is one of the deepest bilateral relationships in global business and finance, and it has produced one of the most significant concentrations of Israeli and Israeli-American high-net-worth US real estate ownership of any small country's diaspora. 

Israeli high-net-worth owners of US real estate are found across the country's most valuable markets. In Manhattan, particularly on the Upper West Side, in Tribeca, and in the West Village, Israeli-American business and technology families have built long-term residential equity. In Miami and Aventura, where the Israeli high-net-worth community has one of the largest and most established non-Latin American international buyer bases, Israeli buyers have held through multiple appreciation cycles. In Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and the Palisades — where the Israeli technology and entertainment industry community maintains a strong LA presence. In the Hamptons, where Israeli-American finance and business families have been consistent summer community members since the 1980s. In New Jersey's premium suburbs, particularly the Bergen County communities of Tenafly, Englewood, and Cresskill — where the largest Orthodox Jewish community outside Israel has built substantial residential equity over four decades. 

The Israeli equity release barrier has a specific character: Israeli high-net-worth income is frequently a combination of Israeli shekel business income, US dollar technology equity, and international investment returns that spans multiple jurisdictions in a way that no single lending system is designed to assess cleanly. 

This is the Unlocked in America: Israeli High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate guide — part of the Unlocked in America series by Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages. 

The Israel-Specific Equity Release Barrier: Multi-Jurisdictional Income and Technology Equity Complexity 

Israeli high-net-worth income is frequently among the most complex of any nationality from a documentation and assessment perspective. The typical Israeli high-net-worth technology founder or investor has income that spans: Israeli shekel salary or distributions from an Israeli operating company; US dollar equity compensation from an Israeli company listed on Nasdaq or NYSE; carried interest from a venture capital fund that may be structured in Israel, the US, or offshore; investment returns from a portfolio managed across multiple jurisdictions; and in some cases royalty income, licensing revenue, or M&A proceeds that do not fit any standard income category. 

This multi-jurisdictional income complexity, combined with the Israeli tax system's specific treatment of technology equity income, the offshore holding structures commonly used by Israeli high-net-worth investors, and the absence of US credit history for Israeli nationals who have not lived long-term in the United States, creates a layered equity release barrier that the conventional US lending system simply cannot navigate. 

GMG's asset-led assessment accommodates the full complexity of Israeli high-net-worth income without requiring it to be mapped onto US mortgage documentation standards. 

What Israeli High-Net-Worth Owners Have Built in US Real Estate 

Manhattan: Upper West Side, Tribeca, and the West Village 

Israeli and Israeli-American high-net-worth families have been among the most consistent and most historically established international buyer communities in Manhattan's premium residential market. Upper West Side properties, purchased by Israeli-American professional and academic families from the 1980s onwards, have appreciated dramatically from their original purchase prices. Tribeca condominiums acquired by Israeli technology and finance founders in the 2000s and early 2010s are now worth multiples of their purchase prices. 

Miami, Aventura, and Bal Harbour 

The Israeli high-net-worth community in Miami is one of the most significant non-Latin American international owner groups in the city. Aventura, the planned residential community north of Miami Beach, has one of the largest concentrations of Israeli and Israeli-American residential ownership of any US community outside New York and New Jersey. Bal Harbour's luxury condominium market has attracted significant Israeli ultra-high-net-worth investment. Properties purchased in the 1990s and early 2000s have appreciated substantially. 

The Hamptons 

Israeli-American finance, business, and media families have been consistent Hamptons summer community members and property owners since the 1980s. East Hampton and Southampton properties purchased by Israeli-American families in the 1990s for USD 800,000 to 2 million are now worth USD 4 to 12 million. 

New Jersey: Bergen County 

The Bergen County communities: Tenafly, Englewood, Cresskill, and adjacent towns, have the largest concentration of Israeli and Israeli-American residential ownership of any community in the United States outside Manhattan. Properties purchased in these communities in the 1990s for USD 400,000 to 800,000 are now worth USD 1.5 to 4 million. 

Beverly Hills and Los Angeles 

The Israeli technology and entertainment industry community's LA presence has created consistent Israeli high-net-worth ownership in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and the Pacific Palisades. Israeli technology founders who have built US operations alongside their Israeli businesses frequently maintain LA property alongside their New York positions. 

GMG's Equity Release Solution for Israeli High-Net-Worth Owners 

  • Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+ 
  • Term: 6 to 24 months 
  • LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised US market value
  • Interest: Retained or rolled up — no monthly payment 
  • No US credit history or SSN required 
  • Israeli shekel income, technology equity compensation, venture carried interest, and muli-jurisdictional investment returns — all considered within asset-led assessment 
  • Israeli holding companies, BVI entities, Delaware LLCs with Israeli beneficial owners — all considered 
  • Security: Manhattan, Miami, Aventura, Bal Harbour, Hamptons, Beverly Hills, Bergen County NJ, and all major US markets with significant Israeli high-net-worth ownership 
  • Timeline: Term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days 

Contact Donald Klip 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com