Why Dollar Earners Are Looking At Euro Residency

More of our US and Gulf clients now ask which currency their second residence sits in, not only which country.

For most of the past decade, the US dollar was the obvious home for international wealth. That assumption is now being questioned. Investors who earn, save and invest almost entirely in dollars are looking for ways to spread that wealth across more than one major currency, and a European residency investment gives them a simple way to do it.

Today’s Rate Is Not Expensive By Historical Standards

A euro at around US$1.14 can look expensive to anyone who remembers early 2025. European Central Bank reference rates put the euro at US$1.13 on 29 September 2026, compared with lows close to US$1.02 in January 2025.

Across the euro’s lifetime, however, early 2025 was the outlier. ECB reference rates show the euro trading between a low of US$0.82 in October 2000 and a high close to US$1.60 in July 2008. For most of the decade from 2004 to 2014, the euro traded well above today’s level, with annual averages between roughly US$1.24 and US$1.47.

Measured against that history, today’s rate sits in the lower half of the euro’s range against the dollar.

Why Waiting For A Better Rate Rarely Works

Nobody knows where the euro goes from here. It could strengthen, weaken or hold steady, and investors who wait for a better rate are trying to time the currency market. Even professional currency traders rarely manage that reliably.

Waiting also carries its own risk. If the dollar continues to weaken, the investors who delay pay more for the same euro investment, not less. For families planning a residency, the more reliable approach is to decide how much of their wealth they want in euros and act on that plan.

Currency isn’t the only thing that can move while an investor waits. Residency and citizenship programs evolve too, and the terms available today aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. In recent years, Portugal has closed its real estate route and extended its citizenship timeline, Greece has raised its investment thresholds in its most popular regions, and the Caribbean programs have moved to higher minimum contributions.

Each of those changes gave notice, and investors who had already applied were able to proceed on the terms they’d secured. It’s a pattern we see regularly among clients speaking with our team. The families who act on a clear plan lock in the program as it stands, while those who hold off for a better exchange rate can find the program itself has moved on.

The Dollar’s Fall Is The Case For Diversifying

Since January 2025, the euro has strengthened by around 10% against the dollar. For a US family with all of its wealth in dollars, that means their savings and income now stretch a little less far in the eurozone than they did 21 months ago, without any change to their own finances.

Diversification is what stops that from happening again. A family that holds part of its wealth in euro-denominated property or fund units is no longer exposed to a single currency, whichever way the exchange rate moves next.

The families who come to us aren’t trying to call the next move in the dollar. They’ve seen how much a currency swing can change their spending power abroad, and they want part of their wealth in euros so it doesn’t catch them out again. A Golden Visa lets them do that while securing a home and residence rights in Europe.

This is a pattern we see regularly among investors speaking with our team. The conversation often starts with currency and moves quickly to schooling, travel and where the family might want to live in 10 years’ time.

Why Gulf Investors Share The Same Exposure

The same logic applies to clients in the Gulf. The UAE dirham has a fixed peg of AED 3.6725 to the US dollar, so UAE-based families earning in dirhams carry the same currency exposure as American investors. Other Gulf currencies with dollar pegs follow the same pattern.

For these clients, a eurozone residency adds a second currency to a portfolio that would otherwise move in line with the dollar. It also gives them a base in Europe to sit alongside their home in the Gulf.

The Euro Residency Programs Clients Choose

La Vida’s clients most often look at three eurozone programs:

• Portugal Golden Visa – a €500,000 investment in a qualifying fund, a minimum stay of seven days a year, the option to apply for permanent residence after five years, and the possibility to apply for citizenship after 10 years.
• Greece Golden Visa – real estate investment from €250,000 for qualifying conversion and restoration projects, €400,000 in most regions and €800,000 in Athens, Thessaloniki and the larger islands, with no minimum stay.
• Malta Permanent Residence Program – permanent residence from the outset for the investor and their family, in an English-speaking EU member state.
  Each program gives visa-free travel across the Schengen Area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Planning Currency Diversification With La Vida

Currency is a factor worth considering, but it’s rarely the reason a family starts looking at a second residence. For most of our clients, the original motivations are security, education, travel and the freedom to choose where the family lives in the years ahead. Those reasons don’t change with the exchange rate, and they’re still the best guide to the right program.

Many of the clients we speak to started out asking about currency and ended up focused on the program that suited their family best, with the euro exposure as a welcome additional benefit. A Golden Visa that meets the family’s long-term goals delivers value whatever the exchange rate does next.

La Vida’s advisers help US and Gulf clients compare Portugal, Greece and Malta on the investment itself, the long-term value of holding part of their wealth in euros, and, above all, how well each program fits the family’s wider plans.

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