According to Portuguese Immigration service SEF, the amount of investment garnered by the ‘Golden Visas’ grew by 132 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2016.
This must be welcome news after investment in the permits fell last year to half of what was registered in 2014.
SEF figures show that since the ‘Golden Visas’ were first introduced in October 2012, a total of 3,715 have been issued. Last month alone 106 of the permits were granted, of which 104 were for buying property, one for capital transfer and another one for creating a minimum of ten jobs.
In September last year new regulations were introduced to expand investment criteria for applying for one of the permits to citizens from outside the EU to include urban rehabilitation and science.
Last month the first Golden Visa under the new regulations was issued following the purchase of buildings to be renovated.
Under the new rules, now in force for almost a year, permits can be issued upon “the acquisition of real estate property whose construction was completed at least 30 years ago or is located in an urban regeneration area and requires rehabilitation works to a total amount of not less than €350,000.”
The three former criteria stipulate that Golden Visas can be granted upon “the acquisition of real estate to a value of half a million euros or more; the transfer of capital to an amount not less than one million euros, or the creation of at least 10 jobs.”
More new accessibility rules include the transfer of capital to an amount of not less than €250 million euros in investment or in support of artistic production; the renovation or maintenance of national cultural heritage; and the transfer of capital to the amount of or above half a million euros for the purchase of units in investment funds or venture capital geared to the capitalisation of small and medium-size businesses.