Casais CEO in “domino effect” warning over NHR scrap

The CEO of developers Casais, António Rodrigues, has blasted the government’s decision this month to terminate the Non-Habitual Residents scheme that provides tax breaks for wealthy EU-based relocating investors.

He said that the ‘More Housing’ programme, which also axed the Portugal Golden Visa scheme, has not left a single segment of the real estate sector indifferent, a sector which has roundly denounced the measure as sending out a message that Portugal is not a welcoming environment for overseas investors.
“I think this will have a domino effect that won’t be positive and will have a multiplying effect beyond more than one impact”, he said in an interview with Jornal Económico, warning “some international investment could vanish, not just in the real estate market, but also in the industrial segment”.
“If there is less investment, there will be less projects to do and less apartments to sell”, he said over a decision that had already led to the cancelling of a real estate project worth €100 million in Lisbon.
On the other hand, the CEO argues that the Non-Habitual Residence scheme was attracting upper-middle class people who were praising Portugal as a place to live and who in turn often paid better salaries to those working in their companies and on their projects.
“I don’t know how anyone can imagine that by removing it (the NHR) that the (government, companies and the country) will be able to maintain higher salaries,” he said.
And the news has already had a damaging impact overseas. At Europe’s largest property fair, Expo Real in Munich, Germany, the talk was of nothing else after the Financial Times article announcing the end of the NHR scheme that week, appeared at the entrance of the fair as delegates walked in.
As a consequence, the Portuguese delegations and stand holders faced a lot of embarrassing questions from overseas colleagues and potential investors.