Portugal will not be making any changes to golden visa scheme due to the Covid-19 situation in Portugal, according to the latest media reports from the portuguese media today.
“The changes are not a priority at the moment,” a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Dinheiro Vivo.
In February, Portugal announced a proposal closing golden visa scheme in Lisbon and Porto and shifting to rural areas away from Lisbon and Porto. The proposal was approved by parliament in Budget 2020 supposed to come into effect by early 2021, to release property market in Lisbon and Porto from soaring property prices. The news sent shockwaves across the Golden visa industry.
The latest news were largely welcomed by the real estate associations and developers in Portugal.
Luís Líma, president of the national association of real estate professionals (APEMIP), who believes that the government should “Think again about moving forward with the alterations. Nobody will emerge from this crisis unscathed and the country would really appreciate the millions of euros that it would receive”, he said to Dinheiro Vivo.
SEF is currently not processing golden visa applications at the moment due to Covid-19. The face to face interactions has been suspended from March 30. But golden visa applications can be filed electronically still, SEF will assign appointments from July 1 giving equal treatment to applicants in chronological order.
The latest figures from SEF show, 55 investor residence permits were approved in March 2020, of these 51 for real estate and 4 for capital transfers. This brings a total 8,413 residence permits were issued so far collecting €5.1 billion in total investments
Source: Portugal Resident
