Portugal has closed the program for issuing a residence permit News

The “golden visas” already issued, as the Prime Minister said, can be extended, but for this foreigners will have to meet a number of conditions: investments must be made in homes where the owner or his descendants have intend to live permanently, or the property will be rented out long term. The definitive abandonment of the program was the logical conclusion of a process in which the Portuguese authorities have already limited the possibilities of potential investors.Portugal issued 11,628 golden visas. Most of them were received by Chinese citizens

Since January 2022, they are allowed to buy houses only outside the big cities, mainly Lisbon and Porto, which are the most attractive in terms of investment. From October 2012 to January 2023, Portugal issued 11,628 golden visas. Most of them were received by Chinese (5258), Brazilian (1178), American (558), Turkish (547) and South African (508) citizens. More than 10,000 people have bought houses in the country for more than 500,000 euros. However, another part of the investors took advantage of other forms: 938 foreigners received a “golden visa” in Portugal thanks to large capital transfers (more than 1.5 million euros), 22 others – by creating jobs for local residents. These investments helped the country’s economy recover from the 2008 crisis, but then led to rising house prices, which created great hardship for local residents, whose incomes are among the lowest in the world. the European Union.However, real estate experts do not see a link between the currently high prices of apartments and houses and the investment of “golden visa” holders. As noted, their transactions did not exceed three percent of all real estate transactions. “It is a mistake to blame golden visa holders for the rise in property prices, since this increase is mainly due to an imbalance between supply and demand,” said the Savills spokesperson, Paolo Silva. In his opinion, the refusal of the programs will only lead to the fact that investors will invest in other countries. In this regard, it has been proposed to keep the “golden visas” in Portugal, but only for investors who are not interested in buying real estate. Previously, Ireland had closed the “golden visa” scheme. A few years ago, Cyprus did the same. However, in a number of other EU countries, eg Spain, Greece, Malta, this practice continues.