Banning sales to foreigners would “wreck Portugal”

 In News, Real Estate

The banning of property sales to foreigners that don’t reside in Portugal for tax purposes would “wreck” Portugal’s economy according to the CEO of estate agency Porta da Frente.

Rafael Ascenso slammed the measure as “hypocritical” and added that Portugal’s situation is completely different to that of Canada which has banned property sales to non-residents in a bid to cool that country’s overheated and speculative property market.
“It would be a hypocritical, populist measure that would by and large wreck (the economy)” said the CEO of Porta da Frente – Christie’s Real Estate in response to a proposal from the left-wing party Bloco de Esquerda to stop the sales of properties to citizens or companies who are permanently registered overseas.
“In the 27 years that we have been in the market we have never seen such a populist measure. We’re not Canada; on the contrary we have in recent years lived on the revenues that have come from property sales to overseas buyers”, he said at a press conference to present the estate agency’s results for 2022 which took place on February 1.
The left-wing party has delivered a proposal to parliament for a law whose aim would be to “stem the rising cost of property” but would not be “applied to Portuguese citizens whose own permanent residence was outside Portugal” or “asylum seekers or immigrants with permanent residency rights in Portugal”.
“When a foreigner buys a house, for example to the value of €1 million, they pay 7.5% property tax, stamp duty, IMI municipal property tax annually, air tickets from TAP, and hotels until they’ve found a property, they buy a car and eat in restaurants. In other words they are of value to the economy beyond the simple purchase of the property and stimulate the economy”, said the CEO of the estate agency.