Portugal Adapts Golden Visa to Support Affordable Housing

June 6, 2024

Portugal is going to change its “golden visa” system by adding a new “solidarity visa.” This is a flexible way to direct foreign investments into areas that are better for society, like providing affordable homes for locals and a place for migrants to stay. Minister of Cabinet Affairs, says that these changes are meant to improve the current program, which has brought more than €7.3 billion into the country since it began in 2012.

What is the Golden Visa Scheme?

The golden visa program was created to get people from outside the EU to invest in Portugal by giving them the right to live there. Buying real estate, putting money into certain funds, and giving to cultural or research projects that create jobs in the area have long been ways to invest. However, recent complaints about how the plan affected the housing market have led to big changes, most notably making it harder to buy homes.

What is a Solidarity Visa?

The new idea for a solidarity visa is to help solve social problems by opening up two new business streams. The first one promotes investment in projects that build affordable homes for people in the area. The second stream is all about finding housing options for migrants or giving money to projects that help them fit in with Portuguese society. In a country where the number of migrants has grown a lot, this move is meant to help the poor and help people become more integrated into society.

Investment Requirements and Impact

For the standard golden visa, you need to pay between €250,000 and €500,000. For the solidarity visa, the exact investment requirements are still being thought over. The government thinks that the amount of money needed for the solidarity visa could be less than what is needed for other choices. This would make it more appealing to people who want to invest. The goal of this price strategy is to get investors to focus on businesses that do more good for society.

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