Ignoring the row over reported numbers of successful Golden Visa applicants, Portugal’s real estate association has applauded the Government for the recent rise.
Luís Lima, president of the Association of Real Estate Agents (APEMIP), in a well-timed press release noted that the process of granting Golden Visas "finally is normalised" and salutes "the effort made" by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (pictured), who "fulfilled the order to resume the pace of processing applicants."
Last month, 144 Golden Visa were granted, the largest number since November 2014 and over twice the number cleared in January this year.
APEMIP stated that these figures confirm the recovery of the Golden Visa programme for investment activities, i.e. for those buying properties for over the €500,000 minimum, earning APEMIP members €25,000 a go.
Lima refers to a period of stagnation “which greatly damaged the perception of the credibility of this program beyond our borders." What damaged the perception of the Golden Visa programme was not stagnation, but the shameless actions of up to 17 officials and businessmen who took full advantage of the slack rules to benefit themselves.
The association's leader, in a winning bid for ‘brown nose of the month’, highlights the efforts made by the current government, "including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, who fulfilled the objective of resuming the speed of delivery" of the programme, stressing that "this is also a recognition of the importance of this programme where investment that can not only benefit the real estate market, but also for the general economy "
From the start date in October 2014, up to February 29th, 2016 some 2,997 Golden Visa have been granted, of which 2,833 were gained through the applicant buying a qualifying property.
In terms of total ‘investment’ since its inception, the programme has turned over €1.8 billion, €1.6 billion of which was from people buying properties to the benefit of Portugal’s real estate agencies.
Lima says this figure is an ‘investment for Portugal" but these properties anyway would have been sold sooner or later.
The minister of whom Lima speaks in such glowing terms has not yet explained why he reported to parliament that a task force had cleared more than 850 Golden Visas from the backlog of around 3,500. This figure is at odds with the one issued yesterday by the Foreigners and Borders Service which announced that staff had processed 209 Golden Visa applications this year to the end of February.
See also 'Minister 'confused' over Golden Visa numbers'
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/8325-minister-confused-over-golden-visa-numbers
