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Golden Visas issued to foreign investors triple in Portugal in October

Xinhua, November 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

More than three times the number of residency permits were issued to foreign investors in October totalling 41.6 million euros (45.16 million U.S. dollars) in investments in Portugal, the Foreigners and Frontiers Service (SEF) said Wednesday.

This is in contrast to just 37 Residence Authorizations for Investment activity (ARI), known as "golden visas", which were issued in September totalling 21.1 million euros in investments.

Of the 119 visas issued last month, 112 were issued for investment in property. A golden visa for investment property is issued for a minimum investment of 500,000 euros.

The other seven golden visas were issued for transfer of capital. Transfer capital visas have a minimum investment of 1 million euros.

Portugal has issued 599 golden visas so far this year, much less than the 1,526 issued in 2014.

The golden visa scheme was first introduced in October 2012 with a total of 2,621 visas issued since then.

Investment in property makes up the majority of visas issued in Portugal. Transfer of capital is the second largest visas issued, while just three job creation visas have been issued in the last three years.

The cumulative total of investment entering the country as a result is 1.588 billion euros, of which 1.435 billion was for investment in property.

A "golden visa" is an accelerated residency permit for major investors.

Since February this year, new rules allow the government to issue golden visas within several new fields, such as urban rehabilitation, science and culture, however, it was suspended five months later due to a lack of legislation.

The government has resumed the issue early September. (1 euro=1.087 U.S. dollars) Enditem