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Europe is having a distress sale on visas

London

MAYFAIR, a well-heeled neighbourhood in central London, has attracted the world's elite for decades.

Only a short walk to Hyde Park, its luxury town houses include spacious basements with swimming pools and can easily cost more than US$10 million. Ferraris and other high-end sports cars often line the streets. Wealthy foreigners are drawn to the area because Britain's immigration rules have made it relatively easy to settle in the city, as long as they invest at least £2 million (S$4.1 million), or US$3 million, in the economy.

But lately there are alternatives if that's too rich for a well-off immigrant's blood. Rival residency programmes have sprouted across the European Union to give...

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