Property held by a company, and what that does to the visa

Buying property through a company is a reasonable decision in several situations — joint ownership between unrelated parties, succession planning, holding a portfolio as a business. It also creates one specific complication that buyers discover after registration: the residence visa attached to property ownership is granted to an individual owner.

The mechanics

The visa route rests on a person holding a qualifying title. Where the title is in a company's name, the person behind the company does not automatically hold what the route requires. Whether and how a corporate structure can support a visa depends on the type of company, where it is registered, and the rules in force — and those rules have been revised more than once.

This is a question to settle before the purchase, with the authority's current position rather than with an assumption, because unwinding it afterwards means transferring the property — a second registration, with its own fee.

What a structure genuinely solves

• Joint ownership between parties who are not family. Shares in a company are easier to transfer and to document than fractional title.
• Succession. Ownership of shares can be dealt with by the law governing the company, which for some families produces a cleaner outcome than the law governing the property.
• Portfolio management. Several properties run as a business, with staff and accounting, is a business, and it belongs in a company.
• Confidentiality, within the limits of beneficial ownership registers, which are more extensive than they were.

What it costs

• Formation and annual maintenance — licence, registered office, accounting, filings.
• Corporate tax exposure. A company is inside the corporate tax perimeter in ways an individual is not, and rental income held corporately is treated differently from rental income held personally.
• Financing. Lenders treat corporate borrowers differently, with different terms and more documentation.
• Sale friction. Selling a property held in a company means either selling the property or selling the company, and the two have different buyers, different diligence and different costs.

The rule of thumb

For a single home or a single investment apartment held by one person or a married couple, personal ownership is almost always simpler, cheaper and better for the visa. A structure earns its cost when there is a reason for it that is not tax — several owners, several properties, or a succession problem that personal ownership does not solve.

And the sequence matters more than the choice: this is decided before the reservation form is signed, because both the title and the visa follow from what is registered on the day.