Chinese investor's share of Golden Visa investments in the first quarter hit a record high since 2016
Chinese investor's share in the Portugal Golden visa program hits a record high since 2016 in the first quarter of 2021, giving a renewed hope for a spike in the number of investments this year.
After the Golden Visa Program launch in 2012, Chinese nationals dominated the program, hitting a record 81% of the total investment by 2014.
However, in the following years, the number of approved Chinese investors kept declining to a record low in 2020 as the global pandemic reached its peak.
In 2020, only one out of four approved investors were Chinese nationals. While many experts attributed the drastic decline to the ballooning number of Chinese investors preferring other countries, Portugal's Golden Visa has proven to be one of the most attractive and profitable golden visas in Europe, drawing thousands of international investors.
In the first quarter of 2021, statistics show a significant rebound in Chinese participation in the investment scheme. According to the first quarter statistical analysis of the Golden visa program, Chinese nationals constituted 44% of the total investment approval, taking the lead in the program by nearly half the total number of the approved investors.
In March 2021, the SEF approved 81 new main Chinese investors and 117 of their family members. Even though this was a drop from the 100 main applicants in February, it was an incredible improvement, making it 55% higher than the number recorded in the same month last year (2020).
As Chinese nationals are taking an active role in the program, the Americans have also shown a significant interest in recent years, featuring them in the top five sources of the golden visa investment for the past ten months, except for December 2020.
The remarkable program's capital flow saw significant growth, with approximately EUR 40 Million invested in march. About two-thirds of the investments made came through the EUR 500,000 real estate, followed by EUR 350,000 rejuvenated real estate investment, which accounted for 23%. Also, six investors (about 8% of the 2021 investment) opted for the fund investment option.
With more than 34% of investors picking other investment options other than the popular real estate, the overall investment volume shows impressive growth in the alternative investment compared to the conventional EUR 500,000 in 2021, resulting in a total EUR 145 million for the program so far.