From the time Portugal opened its Golden Visa program in 2012 up until the end of 2016, Chinese applicants accounted for an absolute majority of golden visas in Portugal, reaching a peak of 81% of the total in 2014; and dropping every year since then. In 2020, only one in four investors came from China.

Q1 of 2021 is different, however, with Portugal witnessing a significant rebound; 44% of approved applicants so far in 2021 were from China.

The SEF approved 81 new main applicants and 117 of their family members in March, a slight decline from the 100 main applicants approved in February but a notable improvement on the 55 approvals recorded during the same month last year.

The five biggest sources of golden visa investment over the last month were:

• Chinese (31 main applicant approvals)
• Brazilians (6)
• Americans (6)
• Turks (5)
• Russians (4)

Americans, notably, have featured in the top five during each of the last nine monthly reports, with the exception of December, and are quickly becoming a regular fixture on that list.

The program saw capital inflows amounting to nearly EUR 40 million in March, down from EUR 52 million in February. About two-thirds of that FDI were real estate purchase focused, with fund options accounting for some 23% of March investments.

Source: imidaily.com
Published: 8 April 2021