1- WHICH ARE THE MOST POPULAR GOLDEN VISAS?
According to the 2021 Best citizenship ranking , the top 5 investment visas are in Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy.
Among them, the Portuguese Golden Visa (GV) is today one of the most popular and reputable visas that guarantees access and residence in Europe. But what are the reasons that make it number one and how does it differ from the Spanish Golden Visa?
The Portuguese GV was launched in 2013 and nowadays it allows you to obtain residence in Portugal through
- the purchase of real estate for a minimum amount of 350,000 euros or, applying 20%, for an amount of 280,000 euros if it is a property over 30 years of construction that is to be rehabilitated or located in a low population density area or area to be rehabilitated.
- The acquisition of capital for 1 million euros,
- The subscription of Portuguese investment funds for 350,000 euros,
- The creation of companies with 10 employees,
- Donations in National Heritage (250,000 euros),
- Donations in Research and Development (350,000 euros).
2- MORE SIMILARITIES THAN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PORTUGUESE GV AND THE SPANISH GV
As we are going to see below, both programmes have many more similarities than differences, in fact, all the points in common of both programmes are striking.
In general terms, Portugal launched its programme in 2012 and Spain in 2013.
The approximate number of visas issued until 2019 is 4,300 in Spain and 10,000 in Portugal. These visas would have attracted foreign capital investment of €2 billion in Spain and €5.5 billion in Portugal, the latter data being from 2019.
In the table below we show a comparison of the two visas:
| Spain | Portugal | |
| Minimum value of the property | 500.000 euro | 350.000 euro 280.000 (with conditions) |
| Possibility of acquiring one or more properties | Yes | Yes |
| Minimum annual stay | N/A | 7 days per year (x2) 7 days per year renewals (x3 years) |
| Free access to Schengen countries | Yes | Yes |
| Access to nationality | No (except in specific cases of 5 years | Yes After year 5 |
| Access to permanent residence | Yes. After year 5 | Yes. After year 5 |
| Passport access to countries | 188 | 186 |
| Initial residence granted | 2 years renewables up to 5 | 2 years renewables up to 5 |
| Residence for partner | Yes | Yes |
| Residence for LGBT couple | Yes | Yes |
| Residence for family | Yes | Yes |
| Possibility to work | Yes | Yes |
| Possibility to study | Yes | Yes |
| Private health insurance | Yes | Yes |
| Tax Status possible | Tax non resident | Tax non residente |
As we can see, the difference lies in the investment threshold established by the Portuguese Government and the possibility of acquiring nationality from the 5th year of residence.
3- CHANGES IN PORTUGUESE LEGISLATION AS OF 1 JANUARY 2022
We have recently learned that the golden programme in Portugal will be modified, tightening its conditions from 1 January 2022. Some of the main changes are as follows:
- Increase in the amount of investment in residential housing to 500,000 euros or 350,000 euros if the property is over 30 years old or located in a rehabilitation area and includes rehabilitation work (applying the 20% discount).
- Delimitation of the possible areas in which to carry out the investment Intermunicipal (CIMs, inland communities).
- Lisbon, Porto and saturated tourist areas are excluded from the programme.
- Possibility to invest in Azores and Madeira with the above thresholds.
Thresholds will also be increased for other forms of investment:
- Capital transfer is increased to EUR 1.5 million (until end-December EUR 1 million).
4- CONCLUSION
It seems that the Portuguese GV, through its insurmountable minimum investment thresholds, achieved the double objective of attracting foreign capital and giving a small boost to the Portuguese miracle and its recovery from the previous economic crisis.
Likewise, the fact of being able to become a Portuguese citizen regardless of nationality after the fifth year of residence has been a policy of attracting certain nationalities.
At this link you can see the country’s annual official statistics, with the number of visas issued and nationalities.
Spain, the following year, practically replicated the same programme, also achieving success in terms of the constant number of visas granted (in general terms, Spain issues 600 GVs per year compared to the 1,000 issued by Portugal), with a higher economic threshold.
It will be interesting to see whether the changes that will come into force on 1 January 2022 will cause it to lose its top position to other countries that are not modifying access to this type of visa (Ireland, Greece, Spain) or restricting the areas of investment.
In particular, the real estate investment threshold is on a par with that of Spain. We will follow with interest the numbers that the statistics will show from 2022 onwards.