Portugal considers sweetening incentives for Golden Visa program

Less than two months after Spain scrapped its golden visa due to concerns about its effect on the housing market, Portugal is considering whether to sweeten its golden visa program and make a special tax regime for expatriates even more attractive.

Minister of the Presidency Antonio Leitao Amaro said in an interview that the measures being discussed would aim to bolster foreign investment and lure global talent to Portugal’s economy.

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While declining to provide specifics, he said the goal was to burnish Portugal’s image as an “investment destination.”

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Portugal’s golden visa, among the most popular in Europe, offers non-Europeans a fast-track to residency through options including a minimum €500,000 ($572,780) investment in eligible funds. New Portuguese residents may also be eligible for a 20% flat tax on local income and a ten year exemption on most foreign income.

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Referring to the golden visa and tax programs, Amaro said that the government is looking into organizing them in “a more effective and economically efficient way” while ensuring that any changes are “economically and socially fair.”

Portugal’s approach stands in contrast to not only Spain, which scrapped its golden visa program in April over complaints that it was driving up housing prices, but also to other European nations. Malta, Ireland, the Netherlands and Greece have all either ended or tightened the rules around their golden visa or equivalent programs in recent years.

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Demand has risen for Portugal’s golden visa, which only requires participants to spend about a week per year in the country. Golden visa approvals also rose 72% last year to a record 4,987 from the previous year, according to the country’s immigration agency AIMA. Since the program launched in 2012, Americans have been among the top three recipients of golden visas along with Chinese and Brazilian nationals.

Amaro, whose center-right government won a second mandate in an early election last month, said there were no plans to scrap or “demonize” the golden visa. That’s a reversal from the previous socialist government, which removed real estate investment as a basis for golden visa eligibility in 2023 as a way to fight speculation in the housing market, where prices have surged to record highs. It previously threatened to scrap the program entirely.

��There’s no plan to end it. It’s not on the table,” said Amaro. He said AIMA is working on clearing a backlog of almost 45,000 golden visas applications currently awaiting review.

“We expect that by the end of the year this process will be largely taken care of,” he added.