Portugal’s Golden Visa program – where people can become citizens by investing in property – is expected to spike this year, research from Astons has found.
The program raised €647m in Portugal in 2020, a reduction of -12.8%, but is expected to rebound by 10.5% to over €715m this year.
Arthur Sarkisian, managing director of Astons, said: “It won’t just be British holidaymakers who are heading to Portugal this summer, we’ve seen a substantial increase in demand for Portuguese residency and we expect this to bring a considerable boost to the overall sum invested into the nation in 2021 via the residency migration program.
“Covid has certainly caused the super-wealthy to reevaluate the driving factors behind their investment choices and, as a result, many are now putting a far greater emphasis on the wider benefit to their family and not just the benefit to their professional endeavours.
“Portugal has become particularly popular as a result, with the ability to invest in the real estate market not only helping to lay strong foundations for family life but also granting residency to family members and dependent children.”
The Portuguese capital of Lisbon has the most choice, where 84% of all current real estate listed for sale is priced at, or above, the minimum investment threshold of €280,000.
Porto also ranks high with 71% of all stock qualifying, as does Portalegre (67%). Faro (65%), Setúbal (60%), Beja (57%), Braga (56%), Évora (54%) and Viana do Castelo (50%) also provide a good variety of properties with half or more of current real estate stock priced at the minimum investment threshold or above.
