Portugal Reapproves the More Housing Bill 

Portugal reapproves the More Housing bill, this comes after Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Portugals President, decided to originally reject the proposal.  

This new decision from the Portuguese Parliament now means the end of the real estate by investment of the Golden Visa scheme, part of the More Housing Bill, which allowed investments of €280,000 upwards. The Golden Visa scheme in Portugal allowed investors to get a residency permit if they met certain criteria and put financial investments into the country. 

Back in July, the Portuguese Government approved amendments to the More Housing Bill. These changes included the eradication of new residence permits for property investments and the option to put a minimum of €1.5 million into a bank account based in Portugal under the Golden Visa scheme. 

However, this bill needed to be approved by the Portuguese President. The President had 20 days to consider the matter and in August he released his decision to reject the proposal. This meant that the bill needed to go through some changes in Parliament before it was allowed to be passed.  

It seems though that Portugal has reapproved the More Housing Bill. On the 24th of September, a report was released showing that the opposition parties represented over 320 of the proposed changes for voting in the plenary session. The socialist party rejected all these proposals as did some other parliamentary groups in some of the cases. But the bill has now passed with no changes to the original proposal.  

Despite this new bill, it has been reported that the opportunity to renew current authorisations will not be affected and shall remain valid. Also considering those who are awaiting prior control procedures in municipal councils once the law comes into effect. 

Last month alone, more than €32 million was brought into the country through the Golden Visa residency by investment scheme. Although the figure is 12.5% lower than the year before, it is still a significant amount of money. From January to August this year the scheme has brought €493 million to Portugal which was 24% more than last year for the same time frame. Having been introduced in an attempt to aid the housing crisis and the real estate market, the More Housing Bill seems to have been doing its job and comes as a shock to many to hear that the Government in Portugal no longer want to welcome the program.  

Even with this new update, Portugal continues to issue other types of visas. If you are an expat in Portugal or looking to relocate to Portugal, please contact one of our Wealth Managers today for more information.