Europe’s ‘Golden Visa’ Programs Are Dying Out as Housing Costs Rise
Investment-for-residency plans face increased scrutiny, so buyers are rushing to get in while they can.
Grândola.
Photographer: Luís Filipe Catarino for Bloomberg Businessweek
On a sunny Tuesday morning in the town of Grândola, an hour and a half south of Lisbon, Sandy Chen steps out of an Uber and braces herself for the five home viewings she’s lined up for the day. As Chen walks down a quiet street in the town of 14,000, dogs bark and elderly residents, alerted by the noise, emerge from their homes to check out the visitor. “If I buy a house here, I might be the only Chinese person in town,” she says.
Chen, a retiree originally from Tianjin in northern China, is racing to find a property before Portugal slams the door on a program offering residency and a path to citizenship to foreigners willing to invest in the country. In 2021, Portugal narrowed the restrictions on its 11-year-old “golden visa” scheme for people who invest €350,000 ($383,000)—simply buying a home counts—and spend at least seven days per year in the country.