Portugal launched its ARI Golden visa scheme on Oct 8, 2012 offering residence permits to property investors in Portugal. ARI means authorization of residence for investment activity.
Since Q4 2012 to Q3 2018, in six years, Portugal received some €84 billion real estate investment (700,000 properties sold), of which only €3.6 billion received through golden visas during the same period. This represents Golden visas added only 4.2% to real estate investments in Portugal property market, according to latest house sales report by INE.
Half of the property sales (€39 billion) invested in the Lisbon area and €10 billion in Algarve during the same period. In 2017, Portugal investment from property sales hit €19 billion euros highest of any year.
| Portugal Real Estate Investment in Billions | |||
| Portugal | Lisbon | Algarve | |
| 2013 | 8.3 | 3.4 | 1 |
| 2014 | 9.5 | 4.3 | 1.2 |
| 2015 | 12.4 | 5.7 | 1.6 |
| 2016 | 14.8 | 6.9 | 1.7 |
| 2017 | 19.3 | 9.3 | 2.2 |
| Q3 2018 | 17.8 | 8.7 | 1.9 |
Housing sales in Portugal
Includes new and existing homes/dwellings
| Portugal | Lisbon | Algarve | |
| 2013 | 99878 | 29985 | 9777 |
| 2014 | 84215 | 26938 | 8558 |
| 2015 | 107302 | 35317 | 11391 |
| 2016 | 127106 | 44311 | 12361 |
| 2017 | 153292 | 53662 | 14406 |
| 2018 | 132270 | 47067 | 11750 |
Golden visa
| Country | Golden visa |
| China | 4073 |
| Brazil | 653 |
| Turkey | 295 |
| South Africa | 275 |
| Russia | 243 |
Chinese alone have invested approximately some €2.3 billion euros in Portugal, almost a half of golden visa investment in Portugal followed by brazilians and turkish
Average property price
Another significant difference is average property investment per golden visa €585,000 which is well above the minimum requirement of €500,000 (in Lisbon) and €350,000 (refurbished properties outside Lisbon)
The average property price of all the property sales in Portugal during the above period is only €120,000. This also shows golden visa buyers are buying properties five times the average minimum.
Falling House prices
The housing prices are beginning to fall in Q3 2018 from peaking in Q1 2018
