State is enemy Nº1 for overseas investors

When it comes to attracting overseas investors, the Portuguese State is the biggest obstacle according to the Portuguese Association of Real Estate Developers and Investors.

So says the association’s vice-president, Hugo Santos Ferreira, who has criticised the State and government over high taxes and scrapping certain aspects of the Golden Visa programme which will from next year remove Lisbon, Porto and much of the Algarve from overseas investors buying residency in return for property purchases.
This, despite forecasts from analysts and real estate consultants that 2021 (like 2020 and 2019 had been) will be a good year for the Portuguese real estate investment market with an expected €2.6Bn.
But the failure of the government to develop Portugal’s housing offer for the middle classes (this will change thanks to EU cash) coupled with the restrictions on the Golden Visa are the two red flag alerts from real estate specialists who have confirmed that international investors have “fled” the State and municipal councils.
“It worries and scares us that we have got a State that wants to be more than just a state, that it wants to occupy the role of companies in the economy,” said Hugo Santos Ferreira of the APPII during a conference on trends and the future of real estate for 2021.
The man who speaks for real estate investors also stated that: “The latest measures” that have been decreed, “particularly on the issue of housing,” have put the pandemic on the back burner and that public policies have “scared off investors.
“The main enemy of international investors is the State and it is from the State that investors have fled from,” he remarked.
The APPII vice-president says on the question of both central government and municipal councils, that it is concerning to see the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) or at the Long-Term Strategy for Building Renovation (ELPRE) is being 100% controlled by the State and its policies and public sector entities with “zero for the private sector”.
Hugo Santos Ferreira also slammed the measures that have been decreed regarding shopping centres, as well as the suspension of fixed rents as “illegal, unconstitutional measures” which is “really serious” he said.