Over 105 thousand Brazilians live in Portugal, according to information on the report published by the Immigration and Border Service (SEF). Since 2012, this is the highest number of legalized Brazilians in the European country, with a rise of 23% between 2017 and 2018.
The great demand for residency in Portugal is caused by the economic crisis that Brazil has been undergoing in these last years, and made our country the leader in residency permits last year: 28210 issued – a number higher than the sum of the next three countries in the list: 6989 for Italians, 5306 for the French, and 5079 for the English – making Brazil represent 21% of the country’s immigrants (approximately one in every 5 foreigners is Brazilian). And those who wish to start a new life on the Old Continent are in a good position to start a new undertaking in Portugal.
According to Datafolha, this number will continue to rise. A research conducted by the organ pointed out that nearly 70 thousand Brazilians over the age of 16 intend to move to Portugal. Attracted by the security and the migratory benefits, with reduced bureaucracy for entrepreneurs, the profile expected to grow the most is that of Residency for the activity of Investment (ARI), also known as the Golden Visa. In 2018, 148.6 million euros injected into the Portuguese economy were of Brazilian origin, second only to the Chinese. This year alone, between January and April, it amounted to 50.5 million euros from ARI/Golden Visa.
The Residency visa for Investment activity/Golden Visa attracts foreigners that invest mainly in real estate: with a five-year temporary residency, the Golden Visa permits working in Portugal and free circulation in the Schengen space, which includes, besides Portugal, 25 other European countries. After the first five years, the foreigner can apply for Portuguese citizenship, both for the investor and for his family.
It’s worth noting that Portuguese banks facilitate the financing of real estate – a residence may have 70% made feasible by the bank, which made real estate sales break records in the country in 2018, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE): 16.6% higher than in 2017, with a total of 178691 transactions. What can explain this growth? Portugal has the largest return on real estate investments in Western Europe.
