Portugal will use Golden Visa scheme to help migrants and build affordable homes

LISBON: Portugal plans to adapt its golden visa scheme to allow wealthy foreigners seeking residence rights to invest in affordable housing for locals or housing for expatriates, the cabinet affairs minister told Reuters on Tuesday.

Antonio Leitao Amaro said the scheme – called a “solidarity visa” – would complement an existing programme that, since 2012, grants non-EU citizens who have invested in Portugal the right to stay in the country.

The Golden Visa scheme has attracted more than 7.3 billion euros ($7.94 billion) since its launch. But critics say it has also exacerbated the housing crisis and has undergone several changes in recent years.

Buying real estate, once the preferred route for foreigners to obtain visas, is no longer an option, but they can still invest in funds, donate to cultural or research projects, and create jobs.

“We have not made any changes to the existing plan, but we have created two types of solidarity visas,” Leitão Amaro said in a phone interview, a day after the Portuguese government announced its new plan that will tighten some immigration rules.

He said one of the new modalities will encourage foreigners seeking residency rights to invest in affordable homes that locals can buy or rent, and another will be used to build housing for needy migrants or finance projects that promote integration.

Around 800,000 migrants live in Portugal, almost double the number a decade ago, according to the Migration Observatory, but although they contribute significantly to the economy, they are more likely to have precarious jobs and low wages.

Many have difficulty finding housing and are forced to live on the streets or in overcrowded flats, a problem made worse by high rents and selling prices, partly fuelled by a boom in tourism in cities such as Lisbon and Porto.

To be eligible for the existing Golden Visa scheme, applicants must transfer funds between 250,000 and 500,000 euros, depending on the type of investment they choose.

Leitao Amaro said the government has not yet set an investment amount for the new solidarity visa, but it would have to be lower than other methods to encourage investors to adopt it.

($1 = 0.9192 euros)

Disclaimer: This post is auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Reuters)