LISBON – In a fresh hope for billionaires, the president of Portugal has vetoed a bill that sought to end a pathway to residency in the country.
The “Mais Habitação” Bill, which was intended to address the housing crisis in Portugal has been returned to the parliament by the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo.
The bill was debated publicly and garnered attention as it included the end of the real estate investment path within the Golden Visa program.
Although the bill can be passed by the president in the future, at this point in time it has been delayed for some weeks, giving time to the super-rich to get the Golden Visa of the country.
The details say the President highlighted several areas of concern in the bill and asked the parliament – which is not in session currently – to address the concerns.
If the bill is eventually approved hopefully in September, the real estate element of the golden visa program, allowing investment from as little as €280,000 will be terminated and the new investment routes will include fund options and job-creation routes from €500,000.
The Bill is now returned to the Parliament for reassessment in the backdrop of the president’s comments but the lawmakers can still get it approved through a fresh voting process.
In a letter forwarded to the Assembly with the bill, the President has sought more modifications before the legislation gets his final approval.
“Support given to cooperatives or the use of vacant public buildings, or privately acquired or contracted properties for affordable rentals, involve slow bureaucracy and reliance on entities overwhelmed with other tasks, such as the Development Bank, or lacking the necessary means, such as IHRU,” the President has said while returning the bill.
The president also noted that making some rentals compulsory would be very time-consuming and a limited practice, that, consequently, would have very poor results and a high political cost.
“…this present decree is not sufficiently credible for its short-term implementation…it fails to inspire mobilization for the challenge faced by all its indispensable protagonists – public, private, social, and above all, the Portuguese people in general,” he has said.
In the final version of this legislation submitted to the President, the lawmakers wanted to end two pathways for a Portuguese Golden Visa – that of property purchase and capital transfer of a minimum €1 million in a Portuguese bank account; it is not sure whether the Golden Visa part will go through any modifications at all.
Authorities in Portugal announced that they would abolish their Golden Visa Scheme, as part of the More Housing Program, on February 16, due to the housing crisis that the country is facing.
Portugal’s Golden Visa scheme, also branded as Residence Permit for Investment (ARI), allowed wealthy foreigners to secure residency in the country if they made a significant financial contribution; however, when it opened the doors to unlawful affairs, authorities decided to scrap the scheme altogether.
Portugal became the second country after Ireland to do away with the Golden Visa scheme despite the fact that Portugal saw a total of 41.9 per cent increase in investments through this programme last year.
Some say that the scheme was scrapped due to a surge in the prices of real estate and housing rents which made it difficult for locals to secure any place.
Meanwhile, authorities in EU countries have repeatedly pressed all European countries that offer Golden Visas to suspend the program.
