New figures show that Portugal’s Golden Visa scheme has attracted more than 2.4 billion euros worth of investment since it was launched in 2012.
The Golden Visa programme is a fast track scheme for foreign investors from non-EU countries to obtain a fully valid residency permit in Portugal. Investors qualify for the visa by purchasing any property for more than 500,000 euros.
If the property is less than 30 years old, or located in an area of urban renovation, than the cost required to be awarded a Golden Visa falls to 350,000 euros.
The figures show that since the launch of the scheme, 3,888 Residency Permits have been granted by the Portuguese state and 2016 has had the most “golden visas” so far.
In 2012 just two golden visas were granted followed by 494 in 2013, 1,526 in 2014 and 766 in 2015. So far this year 1,100 visas have been granted under the scheme.
Nearly all of the Golden Visas (3,669) have been granted in return for real estate investments of over 500,000 euros.
On Friday, Portugal’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Augusto Santos Silva said the results of the scheme were “positive” but insisted that the Golden Vis scheme was “far from” being the most important way of attracting investment.”
Article published 10th October 2016