Low salaries, a red-hot property market, policies encouraging wealthy foreigners to invest and a tourism-dependent economy have for years made it hard for locals to rent or buy, housing groups have said. Portugal's 8.3% inflation rate has exacerbated the problem.
Nomad Capitalist also relied on data from the World Happiness Report and Human Development Index to determine how each country was perceived, but Jovana Vojinovac, the director of operations and sales, said the bottom line is 'Will someone bother you at the airport as being a citizen of that country?'
According to Vojinovac, more retirees are seeking to move to countries that have better health care systems and personal freedom, noting to CNBC: 'Freedom is ... going to be highlighted in the next couple of years, especially in the industry, as we see massive immigration waves from certain countries. If you adored this article therefore you would like to get more info regarding golden visa portugal generously visit the internet site. '
In Nomad Capitalists' analysis, the most weight was put on the availability of visa-free travel but it also put emphasis on how much citizens are taxed, the perception of the country, the availability of dual citizenship and personal freedoms that residents enjoy.
It would be foolish to do the same and expect a different result than in the past.
It assigned the lowest scores to counties that tax citizens no matter where they live — like the United States, and gave countries that allow citizens to relocate to avoid taxes scores of 20 to 30, countries that do not tax foreign incomes scores of 40 and countries with zero taxes scores of 50.
Housing groups said the measures would mean little if the government continued to promote other policies to attract wealthy foreigners to Portugal, such as the "Digital Nomads Visa" introduced in October, which gives foreigners with high monthly income from remote work to live and work from Portugal without paying local taxes.
Rents and house prices have skyrocketed in Portugal, which is among the poorest countries in Western Europe. Last year, more than 50% of workers earned less than 1,000 euros per month while in Lisbon alone, rents jumped 37% in 2022.
Portugal will end its golden visa programme, which offers residency rights to non-EU nationals in return for investments including in real estate and has been criticised for boosting house prices and rents. Successful applicants can apply to obtain a passport after five years.
But the influx of immigrants to Portugal has caused a housing crisis in the country with soaring rental and home prices. In February, the government was forced to announce that it was ending its Golden Visa program to help stabilize costs.
That is a noticeable change from just a few years ago, Vojinovac said, when her clients would say '"I'm not sure how safe it is," or "We heard some things about their laws," referring that it is a dominantly Muslim country.'
LISBON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Portugal announced on Thursday a hefty package of measures to tackle a housing crisis, including the end of its controversial "Golden Visa" scheme and a ban on new licenses for Airbnbs and other short-term holiday rentals.
Now, many Canadians are moving to Costa Rica, Vojinovac said, while more Americans are moving to Portugal — which is also popular among wealthy people who want to live in the European Union, digital nomads, retirees and families.
Nomad Capitalist, a tax and immigration consultancy firm, ranked the value of nearly 200 countries' passports based on five factors: the availability of visa-free travel, the taxation on residents living in foreign countries, perception, the availability of dual citizenship and personal freedom.