Tax reductions will also be offered for the affordable rental regime and to promote the stability of the contracts.
The rental price will be limited for new contracts, which will be calculated taking into account values of previous contracts and updates under criteria linked to inflation.
4. Fight speculation
Portugal’s “golden visa” program, which offers European Union passports to non-EU citizens in exchange for investment, including real estate, and which has been criticized for driving up house prices and rents, is coming to an end said Costa.
The government indicated that the visas already granted will only be renewed if the real estate investments are dedicated to permanent housing for the investor himself or his descendants or if it is placed on the rental market on a lasting basis.
The device, which also exists in other European countries, such as Spain, has been revised. The latest modification excluded investments in Lisbon and Porto, in the north, to reduce the pressure on prices in the real estate sector.
The program has attracted €6.8 billion worth of investment since its launch in 2012, most of which has gone to the real estate sector.
Housing groups said the measures would mean little if the government continued to push other policies to attract wealthy foreigners, such as the “digital nomad visa” introduced in October, which gives foreigners with high monthly incomes from remote work to live and work from Portugal without paying local taxes.