LISBON – The proposal of Portugal’s government to do away with new residence permits for investment in housing has been supported in the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic.
In this regard, votes were cast in favour by major political, forces like Socialist Party (Partido Socialista), Bloque de Izquierda- a left-wing political party- and the Portuguese Communist Party.
The halting of the golden visa – which is the name for residency through investment – was included in the More Housing Program, introduced previously by the government in order to cater to the housing issues and also regulate the real estate market.
The fresh voting ultimately implies that new requests for granting of residence visas for investment activities will not be accepted, however, the possibility of renewing authorizations which have already been granted still exists.
According to a report by Portugal News, the adopted limitation has also been excluded from the granting or renewal of residence permits for family reunification.
Details say that Portugal’s government’s initial proposal accepted new applications for residence permits for investments, but the elimination of this exception was proposed by the Socialist Party.
Earlier this year, Portugal terminated its much sought-after Golden Visa scheme for reasons including skyrocketing housing prices.
The abolishment of this program was considered to have a limited impact on the residential market. Moreover, the termination of the Golden Visa scheme also led to the cancellation of a residential tourism project worth billions of dollars.
Portugal’s Golden Visa scheme attracted citizens from across the world as the country increased the investment made through it by 42 percent.
Investment raised through golden visas in 2022 amounted to €654.2 million which is a sharp increase from the previous year. According to a media report by Portugal’s leading news agency 1,281 Residence Permits for Investment (ARI), also known as golden visas were granted in 2022.
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 ended due to 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 programme.
