The new rules for granting Golden Visas in Portugal came into force on January 1, which restrict the granting of visas in areas such as Lisbon or Porto. Investors from Hong Kong or Macau rushed to get visas by the end of December.
This is what emigration consultants in these regions guarantee to Lusa, such as Jeff Yen Li Wei, a partner at the Macau law firm Nuno Simões e Associados, who guarantees that from an average of 10 cases per year, it rose to 20 requests in the second half alone. 2021, mainly from mainland China.
John Hu, founder and principal consultant of John Hu Migration Consulting in Hong Kong, explained that some clients tried to start the process “just before Christmas”, anticipating the entry into force of the new decree law.
As of January, the rules prevent obtaining a Gold Visa through the purchase of a residential property in the Metropolitan Areas of Lisbon and Porto and in most coastal regions, with the aim of relocating the investment to the interior of the country.
At the moment, Jeff Yen claims to have no new clients in his portfolio, but believes that “those who were interested will continue to be interested”, quotes RTP. But he argues that it will be more difficult to convince investors to buy real estate in other parts of the country.
John Hu predicts that the transfer of at least €1 million in capital could become the most popular choice for Hong Kong investors.
On the other hand, British consultant Jason Gillott is more optimistic about the investment prospects of clients in the UK, USA or Turkey: «many clients already have a good idea of where they want to invest», he guarantees.