The opportunity to acquire residency or other related opportunities alongside a property purchase or investment has been gaining in popularity over the past year.
Spain and Portugal are probably the best known examples to property buyers and investors from Southeast Asia, however they’re not the only countries to offer incentives alongside property.
In its Prime Residential Retreats report published this week, real estate agency Savills looked at what is on offer to property buyers and investors in some parts of the world.
Yolande Barnes of Savills World Research wrote: “Countries employing ‘golden visas’ are actively turning depressed real estate markets to their advantage. Many are also making a direct link, explicitly or implicitly, between the propensities for those investing in a country’s real estate to also invest in other areas of its economy.
“Real estate investor visa programmes, or ‘golden visas’, are now a key strategy in reviving residential markets and building broader economic recovery in countries including Spain, Greece and Portugal.
“These schemes work by investors making a minimum investment in residential real estate being granted a visa providing residency rights or, in some cases, citizenship and consequently valuable access to other European Schengen Area countries.
“Portugal has been among the most successful in the golden visa initiative, with its €500,000 minimum investment scheme enjoying strong traction with the Chinese, who accounted for 78 percent of the 318 visas that were issued in 2013. Russians, Angolans and Brazilians have been the next biggest recipients.
“Spain, Cyprus and Greece have since followed suit with their own schemes, while a number of Caribbean islands offer particularly generous programmes, summarised in the table below. In both Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis, no visit is even required.”
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Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group,
wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
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