Latest News on the Portugal “Golden Visa” Program

The Portuguese government is preparing changes to the conditions for obtaining the Golden Visa

On December 22, 2020, the Portuguese Government met for the first time to discuss changes to the public investment program known in Europe as the Golden Visa.

The decision on the changes has not yet been published anywhere and information about it is unofficial. Moreover, even if the innovations will be adopted - their further adjustment is not excluded. Nevertheless, we found it useful to inform our readers about these hypothetical plans.

Advantages of the Golden Visa Portugal

Golden Visa Portugal is a program that allows foreign nationals to obtain the country's residence permit for investment. Between January and September 2022 alone, Portugal earned about 400 million euros from golden visas. 

Golden visa of Portugal - advantages of the program:

The ability to visit Schengen countries visa-free.
The applicant and his family members get the opportunity to legally live, work, and study in Portugal.
Obtaining status without the need for permanent residence in the country.
If desired, you can apply for Portuguese citizenship 5 years after obtaining a residence permit.
It is convenient to invest in real estate and receive a stable income.

Conditions for obtaining a golden visa

Participating in the program for obtaining a residence permit in Portugal for investment, it is important that the purchased property can not be sold 5 years from the date of obtaining residency status. The investor can choose the most acceptable way of obtaining a residence permit.

Purchase of real estate in popular regions:

for an amount of 500 thousand euros or more (commercial properties, apartments or hotels);
for the amount of 350 thousand euros if the object was commissioned more than 30 years ago and needs repair.

Acquisition of real estate in regions with low population density:

in the amount of 400 thousand euros or more for commercial or residential real estate;
for the amount of 280 thousand euros, if the object was commissioned more than 30 years ago and requires repair or major restoration.

Other ways to obtain a residence permit:

Job creation or investment - a minimum of 10 jobs must be created. 
Investment in local businesses for an amount of 500 thousand euros and the creation of 5 jobs.
Investments in venture capital funds - a minimum of 500 thousand euros. You can return the invested funds after 7 years.
Registration of a deposit account in a bank in Portugal for 1.5 million euros.

If you need assistance in obtaining residency status or advice on the purchase of real estate in Portugal, contact the specialists of the licensed agency GARANT IN. We will help you choose a suitable object, based on the client's preferences, purpose, budget, and other requirements. We will help with the execution of documentation and other related issues. 

About the terms of changes: not earlier than July of the next year

About its intention to change the conditions of the program, the Parliament of the country reported back in 2019, and information about it was posted on the website of our emigration center GARANT.in. However, the pandemic and its consequences made adjustments to the plans of Portuguese officials. Against the background of the developing economic crisis, it was decided to postpone the adoption of innovations, at least until the end of this year.

The meeting that opened yesterday indicates that the “timeout” ends, and perhaps the Golden Visa of Portugal will be issued to investors already according to the new rules. It should be immediately emphasized that all changes, even if adopted, are planned to be introduced only from July 1, 2021. This means that until this date, all current conditions of the Golden Visa remain the same. All documents and applications submitted before this date will be processed according to the conditions that exist now.

Lisbon and Porto remain available to investors

And this is perhaps the most important news that is currently known. Recall that previously these major Portuguese cities were planned to be excluded from the Golden Visa program altogether to avoid a distortion in the real estate market. They were the most popular places in which investors purchased homes.

Less developed, inland areas of the country, and municipalities with low population density, were not favored by investors, resulting in an uneven distribution of funds flowing into the housing market.

For your information! Regions with low population density in Portugal are those with less than 100 inhabitants per km².

Rumors about the exclusion of Lisbon and Porto from the program greatly frightened potential investors. Analysts began to say that such a move would seriously reduce the popularity of the Portuguese Golden Visa program.

Government officials have taken these concerns into account. Now it is assumed that real estate in the main cities of the country will still be available for investment under the program, but its value will increase significantly. The same applies to much of the southern, popular with tourists, province of Algarve.

At the last meeting also considered an increase in the minimum investment amounts and other regions of Portugal, but not on such a large scale.

Other anticipated innovations

In all likelihood, the minimum investment thresholds for other program options will change: investments in venture capital funds and bank deposits. There are also plans to:

designate the Azores and Madeira as “low population density” regions;
to change the rules for granting citizenship by birthright. Now a child born, whose parent had a Golden Visa of Portugal during the year, will immediately get the right to citizenship. At the same time - note - according to the terms of the program, this parent could live in the country only 7 days a year!

Results

The information given is unofficial for the time being. Now these are plans, although the probability of their realization is quite high. Obviously, in general, if they are adopted, it will become more expensive to obtain a Golden Visa for Portugal, especially in the most popular regions. All the more valuable is the fact that there are still six months ahead when you can apply and submit documents, having time to become a holder of a residence permit in this EU country under the old rules.

Program statistics: optimism turned out to be justified

In recent months, the site GARANT in repeatedly reported that the program Golden Visa Portugal, despite lockdowns, successfully survived the most difficult year of the coronavirus pandemic. The real estate market held steady, and demand from Golden Visa applicants remained at a good level. The outlook for the next year, 2021, was cautiously optimistic.

And now, by the beginning of spring, we can already summarize the first results of the coming year. Statistics show that the forecasts were correct: the Golden Visa Program in Portugal shows excellent results at the start of the new season!

Amounts of investments attracted by the Program in January-February 2021 compared to the same months of 2020 (In million euros).

The investments attracted in the two months of the current year are only 7% lower than in the same period of the previous year. Moreover, the February figures even surpassed the level of February 2020. Not only did capital inflows increase in February, but the number of Golden Visa approvals also rose, exceeding the 2020 figures by almost 20%.

These figures show that investor interest in the Portuguese program has not decreased.

Who are the most frequent applicants for the Portuguese Golden Visa?

As in previous years, Chinese citizens remain the leaders in the number of applications, followed by Brazilians and Russian citizens. Here is the distribution of applicants from these countries for the last six months (by month).

It is important to note here that the share of Chinese, although remaining stably high, has been steadily decreasing for five years. Analysts explained this fact by the increasing interest of the Chinese in the cheaper Greek program.

But last year Greece significantly slowed down the issuance of its Golden visas, and it is not excluded that the share of Chinese in the Portuguese program will increase again in 2021. In any case, this forecast has its real confirmation both in the previous chart and in the following graph.

In all likelihood, the Portuguese Golden Visa this year will pass a kind of “milestone” of 10 thousand main applicants for the entire period of its operation. If the pace taken continues, this should happen sometime in the third quarter of this year.

During all the years of the Program's operation, it has attracted about 5 billion 646 million euros of investments into the country, which is reflected in the following chart.

It is interesting to see exactly how these investments have been categorized.

Distribution of investments in the Program over the last 7 years (2021 is represented by two months)

The main conclusions from this chart are as follows.
The overwhelming number of investments falls on the Golden Visa through the purchase of real estate.
Although the real estate option remains the leading one, its share has started to decrease, primarily due to an increase in investments in venture capital funds.
Investments in old real estate requiring renovation are increasing (options for 350 and 280 thousand euros). Until 2015-2016, investors practically did not use this option.

The last point is worth dwelling on in more detail. As we have already reported, the Portuguese Government has made some changes to its Golden Visa Program, which will come into effect from January 1, 2022. In particular, it will be prohibited to buy luxury residential real estate worth €500 thousand or more in Lisbon, Porto, and some municipalities of the Algarve province.

These innovations may entail changes in the structure of investments. Analysts believe that investments in cheaper real estate will increase significantly. At the same time, when this will happen is an open question.

It is quite possible that in the current year 2021, while investors still have the right to use the old conditions, they, on the contrary, the main focus will be on the acquisition of elite real estate, seeking to have time to “play by the old rules”. At least, as already mentioned, our chart shows that interest in cheaper real estate options is quite high at the beginning of this year.

Trends in the distribution of investments show a clear correlation with the number of applicants who chose one or another option of the Program.

It is evident that over the entire period of the Program, about 94% of all applicants chose the option of the real estate purchase option. To summarize: thanks to such encouraging statistics of the last months, investors can be calm. The Portugal Golden Visa program remains reliable and promising, despite all the difficulties that the European economy is currently experiencing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Golden Visa Portugal - when to expect the program to close?

Recently, the Prime Minister of Portugal made a statement about the possible closure of the program of residence permits for investment. According to the representative of the authorities, now there is a revision of some programs, among which - the golden visa. Experts believe that the reason for this decision was pressure from the European Commission, which is skeptical about obtaining EU residence permits through investments. It is assumed that this is the shortest way to become a citizen of the European Union through investments.  

Is there a possibility in this case to participate in the program and get the cherished residence permit of Portugal in the future? Of course. In most cases, a lot of time passes between the public announcement and the actual adoption of the bill. Tentatively, the project will be in effect for at least another year. However, this is no reason to relax. If you dream of moving to Portugal, it is time to think about it and take decisive steps. This kind of announcement always provokes an increased demand among candidates. 

GARANT IN - the leading company in the field of investment immigration will help you to get the cherished residence permit in Portugal with a minimum of effort. We call real terms of obtaining and providing maximum assistance and support to each client.