The numbers show a 24% drop when compared to the previous month, when 57.6 million euro were invested. In September, the purchase of real estate assets alone represented a total 39.4 million euro, 5.6 million euro of which were invested on rehabilitation projects.
In total, 78 visas were issued, 70 of which through the acquisition of real estate assets, including 16 investments on urban renewal, and 8 through capital transfers.
According to news agency Lusa and based on SEF’s (Portuguese Foreigners and Borders Service) statistics, in September, 19 visas were issued to Chinese citizens, 9 to Vietnamese, 6 to South Africans, 5 to Brazilians and another 5 to American citizens.
The issuance of golden visas has attracted a total of 540 million euro this year, 10% less than last year during the same period, this amount corresponds to 993 visas issued.
Since the beginning of the program in 2012, more than 5.500 million euro were invested, 90% of which through the acquisition of real estate. But this might soon change, since the Government intends to suspend the issue of ARIs in the Lisbon, Porto and Coastal areas until the end of this year.
According to APPII, this measure will dictate the end of the program, since investors will not be able to invest in the areas they are most interested in, and might choose to invest in other countries which have similar regimes without this type of restrictions.