Growing Wealth
Europe's wealth is on the move, and it is settling in a few places.
Knight Frank's research this spring shows that enquiries from wealthy families are turning into relocations, and that Switzerland, Monaco and Italy are drawing the most.
Between 2021 and 2026, the number of people worth US$30 million or more grew by 39% in Switzerland, 32% in Monaco and 23% in Italy. In the UK it grew by 12%, from 24,871 to 27,876.
The transactions behind those figures are specific. A family relocating over geopolitical concerns bought in Madrid for around €17 million. A buyer in Verbier agreed a €10 million-plus purchase within hours. Another turned a planned Tuscan second home, worth about €4 million, into a permanent move. Monaco recorded €5.9 billion in residential sales last year, level with its record.
Some buyers who had planned to base themselves in the Middle East are now looking at Europe instead, including one who signed a Monaco lease, the required first step towards residency there.
Mobile Lives
Time is divided between several places, and London is one of them.
Knight Frank describes London as a city people dip into and out of: still connected socially and professionally, but no longer where they live.
A typical client arrives on Tuesday morning, spends the day in meetings, dines in town and stays until Wednesday night. By Thursday they are back in Milan, Madrid or Malta, and the weekend belongs to a home in the Alps or on the coast. Tax changes have played their part, but this audience knows the detail. What matters here is the pattern.
For travel, that means short stays, repeated routes and plans that move at short notice. Party sizes vary too, from a principal travelling alone to a family with guests and staff.
The rhythm also concentrates demand. Late-week departures and Sunday returns are when airports and handlers are busiest, and when the best slots and aircraft go first. Serving these clients well means planning around the peaks rather than reacting to them, with aircraft positioned early and crews scheduled flexibly.
Many relocations begin as weekend experiments. A family trying out a new base over several months flies the same journeys again and again, and the quality of each one shapes whether the move sticks.
Access and Value
Access shapes where people choose to live.
London's average prime prices fell 4% last year, while Zurich, Frankfurt, Paris and Milan all rose. Each of the new bases comes with its own journey.
The London end of the week is a short-sector, time-critical journey. London to Milan, Geneva, Nice or Madrid is a flight of around two hours, well suited to light and midsize jets. The departure airport matters more than the aircraft: Farnborough, Biggin Hill and Northolt are chosen for how quickly a principal can be airborne after leaving a meeting in town, and a few minutes saved at either end is worth more than a larger cabin.
Verbier is reached through Geneva or Sion. Geneva offers capacity and a wide choice of handlers; Sion is closer to the resort, but a mountain airfield brings weather sensitivity and tighter operating limits. A well-run trip has its diversion agreed before departure, not after the cloud comes down.
Monaco has no airport. Nice Côte d'Azur is the gateway, and the helicopter transfer is part of the journey. Timing the jet's arrival so that neither aircraft waits for the other takes real coordination, particularly on busy summer days.
Lake Como is reached through Milan's Linate or Malpensa, each with a different character and different ground access, and Tuscany through Pisa or Florence. The best airport depends on the season, the weather and who is on board.
Why Charter
Families with several homes need an aircraft that follows them.
Their travel rarely follows a single fixed route. Routes change with the season, with a new property or with a tax-year decision, and charter fits the way they live.
- Flexibility. The aircraft is chosen for each journey, from a light jet for a midweek London rotation to a large-cabin aircraft for a family move between homes, with a second aircraft for the household team where needed.
- Short notice. Plans change, and charter lets you respond without depending on one aircraft's availability or location.
- Variety of routes. London, Geneva, Nice, Milan and Madrid are not limited by one aircraft's range or capacity.
- No fixed commitment. You fly when you need to and carry no costs between trips.
Ownership can make sense where use is high and predictable on a narrow set of routes. For many families dividing their time between homes, that is not how they travel.
Our Approach
The Oryx perspective.
We plan each journey around the client rather than the aircraft, so that for families whose addresses span several countries, the aircraft is the one constant.
For families with homes in several countries, that means understanding your routes, your timing, which airports serve each property best and who is travelling, then arranging the right aircraft and ground support for each trip, whether the destination is a helicopter pad at Nice, a mountain airfield in the Valais or a lakeside villa near Milan. We build in alternates before they are needed.
Living across several countries also adds administration to every flight: residency and days-in-country awareness, customs arrangements for private arrivals, documentation for children and staff, and travel with pets. We handle it in advance and out of sight, which is why many families prefer a single accountable partner to a different broker for each leg.
Backed by the wider Oryx group, we can extend that care beyond the aircraft door, and our Black Edition service offers a dedicated level of attention for the most demanding itineraries.
Figures are taken from Knight Frank, "Mobile wealth targets key European hubs" (30 April 2026) and its Wealth Report 2026. Flight times are indicative.