This Week in Investment Migration - Mar 4, 2023

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Singapore’s Economic Development Board has decided to sharply raise the minimum investment required to qualify for permanent residency in the city-state through its Global Investor Program. The threshold will rise from investments of SGD 10m and SGD 25m in categories A and B, both of which have hitherto demanded a minimum investment of only SGD 2.5m. Even under the previous thresholds, interest was limited: By the government’s own count, the program has averaged 60 approvals a year since 2020.

Property developers, industry associations, and the governor of semi-autonomous Madeira all expressed their vehement opposition to Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa’s intention to close the country’s golden visa program. Accusing the government’s housing policy of being more “ideological than logical”, they warned the state’s moves would tarnish the country’s reputation, cause an unnecessary loss of sorely-needed foreign capital, and remove Portugal’s competitive advantages.

Madalena Monteiro, a lawyer specializing in Italy’s “Dolce Visa”, said during an appearance on our Mobility Standard Podcast that there was a “99% chance” the Senate would introduce a real estate option for the program in the coming weeks. As golden visa options in the EU dwindle following the recent closure of Ireland’s IIP and the heralded end of Portugal’s golden visa, the Italian alternative has been the subject of renewed interest. The lack of a property investment option has thus far prevented the Dolce Visa from garnering the application volume of its southern European peers.

In an impassioned opinion piece, Martin St-Hilaire and Philippe May May argue that Vanuatu might as well give up on meeting the EU’s ever-shifting standards for citizenship by investment programs to retain visa-free travel to Schengen. Instead, they propose the pacific nation target the mid-market, focusing on citizenship investors motivated by factors unrelated to travel to Europe. Specifically, they propose reducing the program’s asking price from $130,000 to somewhere between $75,000 and $95,000.

Stephane Tajick, another IMI columnist, asks whether there’s still hope for investment migration in the EU and whether the industry itself could have done more to avert Brussels' ongoing - and recently successful - anti-RCBI campaign.