The Golden Visa (GV) program was initially launched in 2012 by the Portuguese government to attract foreign investors. The program has been a huge success bringing in over 6 billion euros since it was initially launched. Portugal’s GV is an immigrant investor program that grants non-EU citizens residency in Portugal as long as they meet the financial or investment requirements. This is also a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship after just five years, which is the shortest time requirement compared to other European countries offering a golden visa.

Applicants granted golden visas will be eligible for Portugal’s healthcare system, can benefit from tax incentive programs such as the NHR tax regime, and can travel visa-free to all Schengen countries. We will be referring exclusively to the real estate investment route for the GV since this is the most popular choice with over 95% of the Golden Visa applicants using this route.

To be eligible for Portugal’s GV you must:

• Be either non-EU, non-Swiss, or non-EEA.

• Minimum investment starts at a threshold of  €280,000 (when going the real-estate route) depending on the area. Check out our interactive map showing you all the GV eligible areas in Portugal. 

• Have a clean criminal record

• Spend a minimum of seven days in Portugal for the first year, then no less than 14 days each subsequent two-year period.

• You must have private health insurance in Portugal

Real Estate Investment and different thresholds:
In case you were picturing a pied-a-terre in Lisbon or Porto for your GV property, let’s stop you right there. As of 2022, new applicants are no longer able to acquire residential property in major cities like Lisbon, Porto, and some coastal areas, which unfortunately is most of the Algarve. Buying commercial property in these areas are still allowed, but we are only referring to residential properties in this post. 

For the real estate property to be considered a GV investment, you will need to purchase the Portugal (inclusive of the Madeira and Azores Islands) property within certain thresholds. In our next post, we will talk about these thresholds as they can be quite complex. Stay tuned!

Até já,

Mia and Rafael