Residence permits for foreigners scheme brings in €53.8M in May

  • Lusa
  • 14 June 2022

Compared to April (59.7 million euros), the investment raised through the residence permit for investment (ARI) programme fell 9.8%.

Investment obtained through ‘gold’ residence permits for foreigners grew 94% in May, compared to the same month in 2021, to 53.8 million euros, according to data from the immigration and borders service, SEF.

Compared to April (59.7 million euros), the investment raised through the residence permit for investment (ARI) programme fell 9.8%.

In May 112 ‘gold’ permits were granted (94 in January, 94 in February, 73 in March and 121 in April), of which 93 were for the purchase of real estate (48 for urban rehabilitation) and 19 via the capital transfer criterion.

Investment in the purchase of real estate totalled 44.9 million Euros in April, 16.8 million of which in urban rehabilitation, while the capital transfer value was 8.8 million Euros.

Last month 17 ‘golden’ permits were granted to China, 16 to the United States, 10 to Brazil, eight to Lebanon and seven to India.

In this period, 138 residence permits were granted to reunited family members, totalling 531 for the year.

In the first five months of the year, the investment attracted totalled more than 238 million Euros.

Since the ARI granting programme was launched in October 2012, €6,338,112,974.07 has been raised via this instrument. Of this amount, most corresponds to the purchase of real estate, which totalled last month €5,697,568,048.36, with acquisition for urban rehabilitation amounting to €434,363,153.14.

The investment resulting from the capital transfer is 640,544,925.71 euros.

Since the creation of this instrument, which aims to attract foreign investment, 10,748 ARI have been assigned: two in 2012, 494 in 2013, 1,526 in 2014, 766 in 2015, 1,414 in 2016, 1,351 in 2017, 1,409 in 2018, 1,245 in 2019, 1,182 in 2020, 865 in 2021 and 494 in 2022.

In over nine years, 9,965 permits have been issued for the purchase of property, of which 1,213 are for urban regeneration.

There were 763 permits granted for capital transfers and 20 for job creation.

Since the beginning of the programme 17,752 residence permits have been granted to regrouped family members, of which 531 in 2022.