The taxes left Massachusetts. The buyers followed. The Maris is the first development in Portsmouth built for exactly this moment.
The taxes left Massachusetts. The buyers followed. The Maris is the first development in Portsmouth built for exactly this moment.
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Portsmouth, New Hampshire just got its first luxury waterfront condos, and the story behind their arrival is bigger than one building. It’s a story that has already played out in Florida, and it’s now playing out again, further north.
Miami absorbed the first wave. When New York and New Jersey residents began relocating in earnest, drawn by Florida’s tax advantages and accelerated by the pandemic, luxury developers and branded hospitality groups were close behind. The city’s transformation was loud, fast, and well-documented. West Palm Beach is living its own version of that story now. As Chris Leavitt, broker for The Ritz-Carlton Residences, West Palm Beach, told Branded Living earlier this year, roughly 80% of buyers there are arriving from the Northeast — executives and investors who want Florida’s sunshine and its tax environment, and who are no longer willing to compromise on the quality of residential product they live in.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire is earlier in that arc. And for a reader who knows how this tends to unfold, that is precisely the point.
New Hampshire has been running one of the most compelling tax stories in the country for years, with little fanfare. No income tax. No sales tax. No estate tax. And since the full repeal of the interest and dividends tax, no meaningful levy on passive income either. For a high-net-worth individual relocating from Massachusetts, where a 4% millionaire surtax now sits on top of the state’s base income tax, the numbers are not complicated. According to IRS data analyzed by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy and the Pioneer Institute, movers from Massachusetts to New Hampshire brought nearly $6 billion in net adjusted gross income with them between 2012 and 2023. New Hampshire’s net income gain from Massachusetts movers grew tenfold between 2012 and 2019, then doubled to a new baseline in 2020. In 2023 alone, the net gain was $870 million, with income flowing north at nearly three times the rate of the reverse.
What these buyers found when they arrived was a state that had not yet built for them. That is changing.
This week, The Maris opened its Sales Gallery in Portsmouth, marking the arrival of something the Seacoast has genuinely not had before: a waterfront condominium community with a private dock, concierge service, and residential finishes calibrated to the buyer this market has been quietly accumulating. One- to three-bedroom residences appointed with white oak cabinetry, calacatta countertops, and marble bathrooms. Private outdoor spaces with views over the Piscataqua River and Portsmouth’s historic rooftops. Direct water access, a fitness center, and a yoga and pilates studio round out an amenity program that puts the river at residents’ doorstep.
Sue Hawkes, Managing Director of The Collaborative Companies, puts it plainly: “What makes The Maris truly special is how rare this opportunity is — waterfront living, in the heart of the city. There is simply nothing else like it on the Seacoast.”
The project brings together a team with serious Northeast credentials. Developer Cathartes has placed $1.5 billion in investments across the region, with a track record built on projects that anticipate how people want to live rather than how they have lived. Builder Chinburg Properties is the largest home builder on the Seacoast, known for construction quality that holds up to scrutiny after the sales gallery closes. Architecture and interiors come from Embarc, a 60-person Boston firm whose work spans luxury residences to large-scale mixed-use. Sales are handled exclusively by The Collaborative Companies, which has represented more than $20 billion in Northeast luxury condominium transactions over three decades.
Portsmouth itself deserves more credit than it typically receives outside New England. Often called the crown jewel of the New England coast, the city has built a genuine identity around maritime heritage, a thriving culinary scene, and a walkable historic core. The galleries, the acclaimed restaurant row, and the boutique hospitality that has arrived in recent years are not amenities assembled for a development pitch. They are the reason a certain kind of buyer has been spending weekends here for decades, and increasingly asking whether weekends are enough. Portsmouth is attracting a new class of full-time residents who want an elevated, year-round coastal life without compromise. Until now, the residential product available to them has not kept pace with that ambition. The Maris is the first development that does.
Situated along the Piscataqua River, steps from downtown yet set apart by the particular privacy that only a waterfront address provides, the building’s amenity program reflects a genuine understanding of how this buyer lives. A dedicated concierge team. A resident lounge and private conference room for those working remotely. Bicycle and kayak storage, a pet spa, and direct access to the Riverwalk. The AC Hotel next door offers a vibrant setting for entertainment and visiting guests.
Branded residence developers have not yet arrived in New Hampshire in any meaningful way. Portsmouth sits at an early and genuinely interesting moment: the wealth migration is real, the quality of life is established, and the supply of residential product at this level remains exceptionally limited. The developers paying attention to Portsmouth are arriving early.
