Portugal’s Golden Visa’s Best Month—€126 Million Inflow from Investment Immigrants in Oct 2014
Data released by the Portuguese Confederation of Construction and Property has shown that October 2014 was the best month for Portugal’s Golden Visa program. The program, which offers long-term residence to foreign individuals investing in Portugal, attracted investment in excess of €126 million in October alone.
Under the program, investors have the option of investing their funds in Portugal or using the same to purchase property in the country. The latter option accounted for 86% of all inflows under the Golden Visa program in October 2014. In all, the Portuguese property market saw inflow of more than €108 million from investors seeking Portugal’s Golden Visa.
Since its launch in 2013, the program has attracted more than €1.075 billion from foreign investors. 90% of the funds received, worth around €972 million, were invested by visa seekers in the property market in Portugal.
Discussing ways to attract even more foreign investment into Portugal, the Confederation of Construction and Property called for changes in the non-resident taxation rules in Portugal. The Confederation called for implementation of steps to improve the attractiveness of urban rehabilitation and investment in inland regions of Portugal for foreign investors.
The Confederation was of the view that the state budget must include the above-mentioned measures along with a comprehensive public investment policy to improve FDI in Portugal. Pointing out that Portugal was yet to fully implement its €3.8 billion Community Strategic Investment Program, which involved allocation of €2 billion towards infrastructure development in Portugal.
The Golden Visa program is viewed as a useful tool to improve Portugal’s investment levels, which have been, in the past, criticized by the European Commission for being unsustainably low.
Source: theportugalnews.com