Foreigners provoked a record increase in housing prices in Portugal

Foreigners provoked a record increase in housing prices in Portugal


House prices in Portugal rose by 18.7% in 2022, the highest annual increase in more than 30 years. The agency reports Bloomberg with reference to the data of the analytical company Confidencial Imobiliario (CI).

The increase in house prices was driven by growing demand from foreign buyers who flocked to Portugal, attracted by the comfortable climate, low cost of living, and the existence of a golden visa program. Obtaining such visas, granted in exchange for investment in real estate or the economy of the country, allows the investor to eventually obtain Portuguese citizenship and a passport. The program has been operating in Portugal since 2012, and has already brought more than €6.8 billion to the country's economy. In 2022, €654 million was invested under the program, which is 42% more than in 2021. The main investors were citizens of the United States and China.

Foreign investors are willing to pay twice as much as local buyers for housing, for example, in Lisbon. This has affected the affordability of housing in Portugal, and many Portuguese, according to Bloomberg, are confident that a housing crisis is unfolding in the country. Polls conducted by the newspaper Expresso show that more than half of those polled want the government to scale back programs for foreigners, including the golden visa program.

Meanwhile, CI data shows that house price growth in Portugal has slowed somewhat by the end of 2022. In the first quarter it was 5.5%, in the second - 5%, in the third - 3.7%, and in the fourth - only 3.2%.

Alena Miklashevskaya



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