There are two billionaires among the 35 ultra-high-net-worth expatriates with property in Malta.

The average net worth of these expatriates was €140 million, according to a Wealth X survey.

Ultra-high-net was designed as assets worth more than €27 million.

A survey by Wealth X for Sotheby’s International included a focus on Malta as one of the 20 nations in Europe and the Americas that offer citizenship and residency programmes, singling out Malta, São Paolo and Bahamas as ones offering “good, long-term investment opportunities”.

Seventeen per cent of Parkistani UNHW individuals have a second citizenship, followed in second place by Lebanon (15 per cent) and the US, Syria and Egypt in joint third place (all seven per cent). Russia was in fourth place with six per cent.

The nationwide survey found that the average price of the properties they bought was €2.7 million, with an average of 4.2 bedrooms.

It also reported that their average age was 59 and that there were mostly from the finance, banking and investment sectors, with the top nationalities being French, German and American.

Wealth X’s index of the luxury residential real estate index rose to 115.2 in the second quarter of 2015, an 8.3 per cent rise year on year, and the sixth consecutive quarter that the index has risen.