In March, the investment resulting from the Residence Permit for Investment Activity (ARI), also known as gold visas, reached €103,343,928.34, down 46 percent from the same month last year (€192,493,840.26).
Compared to February, investment increased by 13 percent.
Of the total amount raised in March, most is related to real estate purchases (€92,719,248.13), with capital transfer raising €10,624,680.21.
Last month, 174 residence visas were awarded under the scheme, of which 163 were granted following property purchases.
Capital transfer accounted for 10 gold visas, with the requirement of creating at least 10 jobs.
In the first quarter of the year, investments related to the gold visa scheme amounted to €293,894,642.10, or a 32 percent decrease compared to the €433,257,163.00 recorded in the same period of 2017.
In cumulative terms - since gold visas began to be granted on 8 October, 2012, until March of this year - the total investment raised was €3,705,160,484.49, of which €347,687,174.20 were related to capital transfer and €3,357,473,310.29 for the purchase of real estate.
Since the creation of the scheme with a view to attracting investments 6,050 residence visas have been granted: two in 2012, 494 in 2013, 1,526 in 2014, 766 in 2015, 1,414 in 2016, 1,351 in 2017 and 497 in 2018.
In cumulative terms, from its launch until 5 March, 5,716 visas have been granted for property purchases, 324 for capital transfers, and 10 for the creation of at least 10 jobs.
China leads the list of residency permits offered under ARI (3,771 until March), followed by Brazil (522), South Africa (242), Russia (211) and Turkey (188).
The new rules for obtaining ‘gold visas,’ which extended the investment criteria for citizens outside the European Union (EU) to areas such as urban rehabilitation and science, among others, came into force on 3 September 2015.
Since 2013, 10,181 residence permits have been allocated to regrouped family members: 576 in 2013, 2,395 in 2014, 1,322 in 2015, 2,344 in 2016, 2,678 in 2017 and 866 in 2018.