Wealthy are to be offered huge tax breaks by Uruguay’s new president to lure them to the country’s coastal resorts and help boost the economy as other South American countries crumble

• Luis Lacalle Pou says he wants up to 200,000 foreigners to move to Uruguay 
• Millionaire playgrounds like Punta del Este want to lure more foreign investors
• Business leaders want to offer residency for buying property over £380,000 

Uruguay's new president wants to attract wealthy foreigners to the country by offering massive tax breaks if they buy property in the country.

Luis Lacalle Pou says he wants to offer residency to up to 200,000 by slashing the minimum amount of property foreigners need to buy to qualify.

The newly-elected leader, who officially takes office in March, wants to attract well-heeled foreigners to invest in property in Montevideo and coastal resorts like Punta del Este, known as a millionaire's playground.

Foreigners currently have to spend more than 183 days a year in the country as well as purchasing real estate worth more than £1.3million or investing more than £4.1million in a business.

Destino Punta del Este, a nonprofit organisation that promotes tourism in the city, has asked the incoming president's team to change the rules to 90 days and £380,000. 

'The idea is for it to be competitive,' said Juan Carlos Sorhobigarat, the group's chairman. 'Not many people are going to come way down here to a small country like Uruguay if it's not competitive.' 

Lacalle Pou hasn't given any figures yet, but business leaders are calling for levels as low as countries such as Portugal, where foreigners only need to invest £292,000 in property to qualify.

Lacalle Pou's centre-right National Party won last November's election as part of a coalition to end 15 years of left-leaning policies.

He said in a radio interview last week: 'It seems to me that it's generally accepted that Uruguay would benefit from 100,000 or 200,000 more people.' 

The nation's population is 3.5 million. 

Uruguay is one of South America's wealthiest nations with stunning beaches and countryside dotted with picturesque farms and vineyards.

Wealthy visitors are already important to the tourist industry, which generated more than eight per cent of GDP in 2018.  

Its coastal resorts are already a magnet for millionaires from neighbouring Argentina. 

Incoming Tourism Minister German Cardoso likens his county to an 'island of tranquility' in a continent beset by conflict. 

However, violent crime has been rising for years despite significant investments in policing. The stable but sputtering economy also needs all the help it can get, with growth averaging a meager 1.3 per cent in the last five years and unemployment above nine per cent.

'As people with high disposable income settle here that will have an immediate impact on the economy,' Cardoso said in an interview earlier this month.

Ignacio Albanell, whose real estate firm Meikle focuses on posh Montevideo neighborhoods like Carrasco, said strict financial reporting requirements was putting foreigners off.

'Today, if a foreigner comes here to open a bank account, he's almost treated like a criminal,' Albanell said. 

But Argentine President Alberto Fernandez has recently warned Lacalle Pou to 'think twice' before making the country what he suggested would be a tax dodger's paradise. 

'It cost Uruguay so much to escape its nickname as a fiscal paradise that to go back to that doesn't seem to me to be a good idea,' Fernandez said.