Commercial real estate sales revitalises GV program
Portugal’s Golden Visa (GV) investors are increasingly focusing on commercial real estate in the country an industry report has stated.
According to Lisbon-based Portuguese daily Público, in the first four months of this year, 382 “golden visas” were granted, an increase of 17 percent compared to 2021, driven by investments in participation units to capitalise companies, which offset the decline in real estate.
Changes to the law have been in effect since the beginning of the year, but the country’s Foreigners and Borders Service - SEF (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras) is still dispatching applications for 2021, the report indicates.
Currently there are fewer Golden Visas granted for the purchase of properties worth €500,000 or more. It has been determined that there were 131 Golden Visas issued between January and April of this year and 215 in the same period last year. Conversely, the number of visas delivered through property purchases of €350,000, or more, for rehabilitation, doubled in one year from twenty-eight GVs to a whopping fifty-six GVs.
382 Golden Visas were granted in Portugal , equating to an increase of 17% compared to the same time in 2021.
Many investors are circumventing the new rules by investing in commercial real estate, which is not covered by the new rules, the report warns quoting reliable industry sources. The report even specifies the industry segments that are attracting a lot of interest from foreign investors, namely offices and logistics.
It may be recalled that the country’s new law that took effect on 1 January 2022 restricting the ‘qualifying’ areas for real estate investment within Portugal, as well as making investment options more expensive. The report is precisely a stark reminder that the amendments to the law only allows the granting of Golden Visas, in the case of investment in real estate, to properties costing more than 500,000 euros but located exclusively in the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira or in the interior of mainland Portugal.
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