Portugal completes Golden Visa Program, after Ireland and before Spain
One of Europe's most popular Golden Visa programs, which granted Portuguese citizenship to non-Europeans in exchange for the purchase of real estate and other investments in the country, has officially been discontinued. The decision to stop issuing gold visas in exchange for investment was announced on February 16 by Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa. The government will stop issuing new golden visas to "fight against speculation in the real estate market".
The Golden Visa programs
The Golden Visa programs, which are used around the world to attract foreign investment and are offered by various countries in Europe seeking to attract capital and boost tourism, allow wealthy foreigners to "virtually 'buy' the right to stay - sometimes without even having to live in the country," as explained on Euronews. With their growing popularity has come controversy, as well as increased efforts by the European Union to restrict these programs because of their "security risks, allowing money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing, corruption and infiltration of organized crime, which is incompatible with EU norms." The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties called the programs "ethically, legally and economically unacceptable." Governments are also facing internal protests as property prices, especially in the most popular locations, continue to rise, pushing locals out while foreigners buy houses and apartments to rent through services such as Airbnb.
Portugal's decision to end the program was prompted by concerns over rising house prices, which is causing many locals to have difficulty finding suitable accommodation, especially in Lisbon and Porto, the largest cities, the Financial Times reported. The termination of the Golden Visa program in Portugal is one of the measures aimed at easing the housing crisis and includes a ban on issuing new licenses for Airbnb and other short-term rentals, except for remote locations. "Rental prices and housing costs are soaring in Portugal and it is one of the poorest countries in Western Europe," says Reuters. "Last year, more than 50 percent of workers earned less than 1,000 euros a month, and in Lisbon alone, rents rose 37 percent in 2022.
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The termination of the program is expected to cost the country at least 900 million euros ($962 million). Since the program's launch in 2012, Portugal has received 6.8 billion euros in investment, most of it in real estate. The prime minister said the decision would be approved next month.
Ireland and Spain
After Ireland, Portugal followed suit by canceling its Golden Visa program, which offered residency in exchange for investment. Ireland has already suspended the program for Russian citizens in March 2022 due to sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. Since its launch 11 years ago, the program, which mainly attracted wealthy Russian and Chinese investors, has attracted 1.25 billion euros.
In Spain, the controversy surrounding the Golden Visa program is also growing, and a bill has been introduced in Congress to abolish it. Spain's center-left political party Más País wants to abolish the scheme for foreigners to obtain residency through real estate investments because of its impact on housing prices, pushing locals out of the market, especially in major cities and popular tourist destinations. The program was introduced in Spain in 2013 and allows foreigners to obtain a Spanish residence permit by purchasing a property worth at least 500,000 euros in the country, SchengenVisaInfo.com.
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