Nearly half of China's super-wealthy individuals are considering leaving the country, a new survey said with most looking to Canada citing better overseas educational and employment opportunities for their children.
The global survey of 2,000 high net worth individuals by Barclays Wealth found that 47 percent of the wealthy Chinese who were questioned plan to move overseas within the next five years.
The Chinese semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong is their preferred destination, cited by 30 percent of respondents, followed by Canada with 23 percent - although earlier this year Ottawa closed an immigrant investor visa scheme that had been popular among wealthy Chinese.
The results show that "better educational and employment opportunities for their children is the main pull factor for Chinese high net worth individuals", according to the survey.
China has seen double-digit economic expansion in recent decades but faces mounting uncertainty over its pace of growth. Its economic expansion has also come at great environmental cost - particularly in large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai - another factor among the country's super-wealthy in considering a move overseas.
The survey also found that a significant share of Singapore's wealthy - 23 percent - plan a move abroad in the next five years, even as the city-state remains a top destination for Hong Kong's rich.
In Hong Kong, 16 percent of the wealthy said they plan to move, with 44 percent of these naming Singapore as their destination. Another 31 percent anticipated going to China.
Around the world, a little over half - 57 percent - of super-rich individuals have only lived in one country, with 20 percent having lived in three or more.
The aurvey also reports that 23 per cent of Singapore's wealthy are planning to move abroad in the next five years. 
The Barclays report said the prospect of securing and growing their assets could be one reason that prompts the ultra-wealthy to move. 
A growing proportion of HNWIs earn their wealth through entrepreneurship, rather than inheritance - more than 750 of the survey's respondents identified themselves as entrepreneurs. Barclays suggested that these HNWIs believe they need an international outlook to grow their wealth.
By the end of 2014, Asia is set to become the largest regional market by the number of millionaires. This means a new generation of HNWIs from this region are keen to expose their children to other parts of the world, the report said. 
Jean-Francois Harvey, Managing Partner of Harvey Law Group, told Barclays that the practical needs of the wealthy tend to outweigh the strength of emotional ties when it comes to migrating. Despite an initial reluctance to leave their home countries, "once the process has started, they show no concern (about leaving) and they never talk about it anymore”, he said of his Asian clients. 
Still, Barclays reported that Singapore has become increasingly entrenched as a destination for migrating HNWIs, along with Australia, the United States and Britain. For example, the survey found that 44 per cent of Hong Kong’s wealthy who planned to move abroad named Singapore as their destination.
Singapore has also been one of the preferred spots for the majority of wealthy emigrants from China over the past decade. Liam Bailey, Head of Residential Research at global real estate consultancy Knight Frank, told Barclays: “The reality is that most ultra-high net worth individuals in China are probably making money in China right now. So, for business reasons, they need to be relatively close — that might prevent some of them going further afield.”
These hotspots for wealthy immigrants share traits such as “buoyant property markets, luxury hospitality and leisure offerings, an abundance of international wealth management advisers, and a relative degree of political stability”, the survey stated. Globalisation and mobility expert James Faulconbridge told Barclays: “Certain cities have become parts of that circuit and the places to be seen in where the events and the lifestyle plays out.”