The entity states that the end of the ARI (Residence Permit for Investment, better known as golden visas) "for tourist units, in particular, is an erroneous and extemporaneous measure that appears just one year after the last review and barely three or four months after it was passed in parliament".

According to the entity, this measure, included in the Government's Mais Habitação plan, could lead to "the immediate suspension of investments of more than 600 million euros and, consequently, the creation of more than 1,000 jobs, which some of the associates of the APR had forecast for the next two years".

At the same time, according to the APR, the measure could generate the "loss of the contribution of each new foreign investor in the Portuguese economy, which, after 5 years, is about 6 times the value of its initial investment".

According to data released by the association, last year, when "it was already impossible to invest in ARI for housing in urban centers, 534 million euros of investment were raised, that is, a potential of more than three billion euros to five years", they highlighted, guaranteeing that "this is equivalent to 1.3% of the national GDP [Gross Domestic Product]" and 18% of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

Disconnected with reality

The APR understands that "the complete extinction of the ARI would be a measure with serious economic and credibility impacts" for the country, "disconnected from the reality of the country and its regions, and extemporaneous", adding that "worse would be to end suddenly and completely with the ARI".

"We would potentially be hitting, in a potentially irreparable way, essential sectors for Portugal that need foreign private investment - tourism, energy, health, logistics, among others - in the medium term, since the State does not have the capacity to respond, not even with the PRR".

At the same time, "taking into account how recent the last changes to the regime are, the overwhelming majority of the investments that have been carried out since its entry into force are still in the development and/or construction phase", and the introduction of immediate change would "make it unfeasible or at least imply a high loss of income in many of these projects still under development".


Last week, Pedro Fontainhas, executive director of APR, told Lusa that the organisation disagrees with the announced end of golden visas and asked the Government for "reflection" to carry out studies.