A golden visa to Europe: Investing in Portugal’s real estate

Transcript

The Golden Visa, offering access to Europe for investors and their families, has cropped up in a number of EU states over the last few years. Portugal’s scheme stands out in particular. Tiago Camara and David Machado from PT Golden Visa explain the simplest route: investing €280,000 in Portuguese real estate. Most investors aren’t seeking to move, they explain, but simply securing a passport to freedom for their future generations. Portuguese real estate is a thriving market, and investing not only offers the potential for significant returns, but guarantees Portuguese citizenship after six years.

World Finance: The Golden Visa, offering access to Europe for investors and their families, has cropped up in a number of EU states over the last few years. Portugal’s scheme stands out in particular. Here to explain why: Tiago Camara and David Machado from PT Golden Visa.

Tiago, talk to me about the different ways that investors can participate in this scheme.

Tiago Camara: It’s very simple for investors to participate and to apply to this programme. They just have to come to Portugal, and invest €280,000 in real estate in Portugal, and they’re ready to apply.

World Finance: What kind of investors are exploring this?

Tiago Camara: Our investors normally are regular individuals who are in a comfortable financial situation: looking for the comfort of their future generations, but not looking to relocate at the moment. They’re just looking for a path to freedom; an opportunity for them to relocate if they need to. And our programme allows them to have this access.

In our programme we have the capacity of giving them the opportunity of living, working, and studying, in any country in the Schengen area. After six years they are ready to apply for citizenship and get a Portuguese passport.

World Finance: There are other golden visas available, so how competitive is Portugal’s?

Tiago Camara: The Portuguese authorities managed to launch a very simple and attractive programme, compared to others. I do think – and I defend – that it’s the best one in the market.

First of all, it doesn’t require investors to live in Portugal. They just have to be there for seven days, spend some vacations in a beautiful country like ours, and the requirement is done.

The second one is the real estate market. The real estate market is booming, providing investors high levels of return on their investments, so that’s another good reason for them to invest in our country.

The third reason – and for me, one of the most important – our programme has no grey areas. If you invest, you get. So there’s no discrimination on nationalities, no discrimination on religions. There’s no evaluation of investors’ profiles through interviews. If you invest, you get the residence permits.

Last but not least, Portugal is a very safe country – politically and economically very stable. You can speak English throughout the country. And it’s a country that has been awarded for the last years as the best tourist destination in all of Europe.

World Finance: So David, tell me more about Portugal’s real estate market.

David Machado: The market now is booming, mainly for four reasons. One of the reasons is there’s a lot of foreign investors coming for the golden visa programme. The second reason is because we have an unusual residence programme, with tax benefits that is making Europeans relocate to Portugal.

The third reason is mostly because the Portuguese are moving their money out of the banks to invest in properties to rent out and get high yields. And the fourth reason, basically, is because developers are still in post-trauma, after the experiences since 2008, when the market was not so easy, and still not developing.

So these four reasons combined mean that there is a very high demand for the real estate market, and very little supply. So we’ve seen prices going up very, very fast.

World Finance: So give me some examples of the real estate opportunities available, and the returns that investors are receiving.

David Machado: These days, the picture is very clear. There are very few times in business where you can see the future in such a clear way.

If you are an individual real estate investor, we recommend to buy residential properties. The reason is, you can put these properties on the short-term market, and get very high yields.

If you are an international real estate fund, you want to go for bigger projects that you can develop, you can refurbish, or you can even do a property trading system. The market is so fast these days, if you trade three times a year, you generate returns over 30 percent.

World Finance: So if viewers want to know more, they have questions: what do they do?

David Machado: So it’s very easy. You can go to www.ptgoldenvisa.com. You either email us or call us. We will guide you through the whole process. We will prepare the real estate tour with the best real estate investment opportunities, and at the same time you will be guaranteed to get your golden visa.