Statistics show that many North Americans have arrived in Portugal on golden visas, but most opt for the D7, a visa that grants residence permits to retirees, passive income holders and citizens who intend to work in the country. In this context, the end of the ARI (Residence Permit for Investment Activity, as golden visas are officially called), a hypothesis put forward by Prime Minister António Costa a few days ago, will not make a major dent in North American residential investment. That’s right, say the real estate networks.
The D7 visa, which “grants residence in Portugal based on proof of passive income that is very affordable for the North American reality, has also been a strong option,” said Patrícia Clímaco, CEO of Castelhana. In fact, Ricardo Sousa, CEO of Century 21, underlines that “the majority of North American clients are seeking the D7 visa.” And Patrícia Barão, in charge of JLL’s residential division, says most US purchases are “independent of the golden visa regime”.
Data from Confidencial Imobiliário (CI) regarding the acquisition of housing in the ARU of Lisbon confirms these statements. In the first six months of this year, North Americans spent 48.3 million euros buying a home in the capital (statistics exclude the Parque das Nações, Laranjeiras and Alta de Lisboa areas), a period in which the city was not became more eligible to obtain golden visas. It should be remembered that the changes in the regime, which excluded the purchase of real estate on the coast, entered into force on January 1. In this first semester, the Americans were responsible for 90 operations, accounting for 12% of the total international investment in these months in the metropolis. For Ricardo Guimarães, director of CI, “It is not for the golden visas that Americans invest in Lisbon, however much they can benefit from this regime. The city has established itself on the international radar, it is a very attractive market for the living conditions and the price of real estate”.
dollar strength
Century 21 began to feel an “intensified interest from North American customers since the end of 2020”, and this year they became the network’s No. 1 international customer, Ricardo Sousa points out. Of the 2,710 transactions Century 21 has completed with foreign buyers since January, more than 400 were with Americans, who favored apartments and villas with large areas in Lisbon, the North and the Algarve. The reality at JLL and Castelhana is no different. According to Patrícia Barão, “this nationality grew by 65% compared to last year in terms of real estate demand and is currently number 1, next to the Brazilian”. This year, JLL has already sold some 150 homes to North Americans, from apartments to multi-million dollar villas in Cascais, for a global value of more than $100 million.
Life choices have dropped to Cascais, Lisbon, Porto, Comporta and the Algarve. Patrícia Clímaco emphasizes that Americans are currently “the third nationality to visit the Castilian website the most, after the Portuguese and just behind the Brazilians” and, together with Brazil, are “the most important foreign nationality to acquire real estate in Portugal” in agency .
Until now, Portugal’s attractiveness has focused on its lifestyle, safety, accessibility of the health system, value of health insurance, the price of real estate compared to the main cities of the US, the infrastructure of mobility and communication, Ricardo Sousa describes. But with the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis, a new phenomenon has emerged that adds to the dynamism of US investment. As emphasized by the three real estate experts contacted by DN/Dinheiro Vivo, the parity between the euro and the dollar is the icing on the cake for Americans. It is therefore expected that this dynamic, largely based on citizens coming to work or enjoying their retirement, will continue in the near future.
investment doubled
But the golden visas did not lose their power. In three years, the capital invested in this scheme from the US has almost doubled. And the pandemic acted as an accelerator of interest from these investors. Since 2020 and until September this year, they have spent 183.5 million euros, 66% of the total invested by this nationality since the start of the program, in October 2012. Attention to the country will also have been aroused because Madonna in Lisbon lived , following in the footsteps of John Malkovich, Monica Belluci and Christian Louboutin, or even because there were rumors that George Clooney was going to build a house in Comporta. And the media coverage of the Web Summit and the installation of dozens of technologies in the country cannot be separated from this hunger. Whatever the reasons, there is no denying that Portugal is chosen as the destination to live in and that Lisbon is the center of attention.
In the first nine months of this year, they invested 82.6 million euros to obtain the golden visa, 31 million more than the amount spent in the total of 2021, the year in which they rose to second place on the podium of the nationalities that most applied for this permit residence, data from the Immigration and Border Service (SEF). The year is not yet over, with the allocation of more ARIs expected in December, and a 90% increase has already been registered compared to the 43.5 million invested in 2019. From that year onwards, North Americans started in the top five of the nationalities with the most gold visas go straight to fourth place and have since moved up one position annually. In 2022 and through September, SEF data shows they have dethroned China’s leadership. Since the beginning of this regime, the SEF has made 277.5 million investments from the US to obtain 483 golden visas, with the vast majority of this volume, exactly 213.8 million, invested in real estate.
Source: DN
