The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has sent back to the Assembly a legislation named ‘More Housing’, which amongst others, would terminate the country’s Golden Visa route by property investment.
In a letter sent to the Assembly together with the bill, the President has asked for more modifications to be made, before the legislation is brough again in front of him for final approval.
The President has criticised the measures foreseen to be taken through this legislation, claiming that it is unclear how the promised results will be achieved, and calling it a “poor initial response to a need that time has made dramatic, crucial, and extremely urgent.”
He has raised six problems, with the first being the promised housing construction, pointing out that aside from a limited extent and with European funds, the State will not directly assume responsibility for building new homes.
“Support given to cooperatives or the use of vacant public buildings, or privately acquired or contracted properties for affordable rentals, involve slow bureaucracy and reliance on entities overwhelmed with other tasks, such as the Development Bank, or lacking the necessary means, such as IHRU,” the President has said, listing this problem as the second one in the More Housing Bill.
Further, he has noted that making some rentals compulsory would be very time-consuming and a limited practice, that, in turn, would have very poor results and a high political cost. According to him, even the intended accommodation regime will doubtfully achieve the intended effects.
As a result, the President has asked the Parliament to modify the bill, in order to address the struggle faced by many families due to the burden of interest rate increases and, in numerous cases, rent hikes.
“…this present decree is not sufficiently credible for its short-term implementation…it fails to inspire mobilization for the challenge faced by all its indispensable protagonists – public, private, social, and above all, the Portuguese people in general,” he has said.
While the President has not mentioned the Golden Visa scheme in his letter, the More Housing Bill intends to terminate one of its most famous routes, the one granting residence permits to buyers of properties in Portugal.
In the final version of this legislation presented to the President, the Assembly wanted to scrap two pathways for a Portuguese Golden Visa – that of property purchase and capital transfer of at least €1 million in a Portuguese bank account.
And though the bill has been returned to the Parliament for more changes, it is unclear whether the Golden Visa part will go through any modifications at all.
Data by the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service (SEF) a total of 861 golden visas were granted in the first half of 2023, 475 in the second quarter of which in the second quarter. During the same period €7,157,485,864.42 in accumulated terms were invested in Portugal through this program.
