The Portuguese ruling Socialist Party rejected a proposal for the end of the ‘golden visa’ scheme that grants residency in exchange for investments in the country.
The initiative was presented by the communists to be included in the 2023 Budget, but was rejected by the socialists, despite the fact that the first Portuguese minister, António Costa (pictured above), recently admitted this month that the Executive is studying the possibility of ending this regime.
“We are evaluating whether the ‘golden visa’ program makes sense”, said Costa, who considered that “probably it has already fulfilled the function that it had to fulfill and there is no reason to maintain it”.
The Minister of Economy, António Costa Silva, revealed after that the Government was going to create a working group to evaluate the program, which allows to obtain residency in the country since 2012 through large investments, purchase of buildings or housing units.
Over the last decade, Portugal has granted 11,180 residence permits through this programme, the majority (92%) through the purchase of real estate.
This regime has been heavily criticized in the country, pointed out as one of the causes of the rise in prices in the real estate sector, especially in cities like Lisbon, and as a possible source of money laundering.
China continues to lead, in the accumulated, in the list of ‘golden’ visa investments by nationality. Since the ARI program was launched almost 10 years ago, the amount invested by Chinese citizens has amounted to more than EUR 2.913 million, with a total of 5,168 ‘golden’ visas awarded.
The United States, in turn, account for an accumulated investment of EUR 268.2 million, with 466 ‘golden’ visas granted.
Of the total ARI awarded, more than 250 were through the acquisition of real estate with a value equal to or greater than half a million euros and 97 for urban rehabilitation. Most of the investment coming from China is in real estate.
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