Portugal is floating a new budget proposal to end golden visa investment in Lisbon and Porto and shift these investments into the inside of the country, away from metropolitan areas.
The proposal was put forward by Ana Catarina Mendes of socialist party, to remove pressure on the real estate market from metropolitan areas, reported Observador.
The idea is to encourage investment in inland areas by restricting the granting of gold visas in inter-municipal communities in the interior and in the autonomous regions and for investment that creates jobs.
Ana Catarina Mendes refuses to say this measure could scare investors away from Portugal: “We do not want to alienate investors but to attract them to other areas of the country”.
All golden visas awarded until June 2018 were in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, said the Portuguese daily.
The average golden visa investment currently stands close to €550,000 euros according to statistics.
Since 2012, the program has raised 4.5 billion euros till 2019 mostly to chinese, brazilians and turkish nationals and over 8000 residence permits issued so far.
The proposal if approved, it will come into force by end of 2020. This will end thriving golden visa market in Lisbon and Porto, that led to the success of the golden visa scheme.
Another change proposed is making changes to tax pensioners under non-habitual tax regime
In 2019, the average value of housing bank appraisals was €1,286 per square meter, up by 7.9% when compared with the result observed in the previous year, according to statistics office. The bank appraisals reached price for all dwellings of €1,639 in Lisbon.
A home appraisal by bank is an unbiased estimate of the true (or fair market) value of what a home is worth. All lenders order an appraisal during the mortgage loan process
The data published by Statistics Portugal in Jan 2020, show the housing prices is at record high in Portugal. The prices have recovered from historic lows in 2013 since inception of golden visa (ARI) scheme in Oct 2012.
Portugal also faces stiff competition from other european countries such as Greece and Spain for golden visa investments.
