With rising real estate prices in Spain furthering the public’s demand for more affordable housing, the European country looks to be following Portugal’s lead with respect to its Golden Visa policy. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that his government will initiate the process of eliminating the real estate component of Spain’s Golden Visa, adding, “we are going to take the necessary measures to ensure that housing is a right and not a mere speculative business” during a social housing event in the municipality of Dos Hermanos.
Pivoting Like Portugal
Spain’s current Golden Visa policy has been in place since 2013 and a component of it allows foreigners who invest a minimum of €500,000 in a home in Spain to obtain residence permits. Portugal’s Golden Visa contained a very similar real estate category when introduced in 2012, but the country chose to eliminate real estate from its policy last year. Instead, Portugal has increased its focus on research-backed entrepreneurial business immigration, such as the HQA Visa Program.
“Empowered Startups has been planning for this change in Spain for some time based on indications from our connected networks combined with our experience of operating programs in multiple countries,” revealed Chris Lennon, President of Empowered Startups.
Chris Lennon, President of Empowered Startups“Much like Portugal did last year and Canada did ten years ago, Spain is going through a similar shift away from passive investment in real estate in favour of immigration mechanisms that create more widespread direct benefits for its citizens. Our HQA Visa Program is an excellent example of an immigration pathway that delivers immediate benefits to domestic researchers, Masters and PhD students, scientists, universities, and the small centres outside Lisbon in which so many of our partner research institutions reside. Our R&D startup models for transnational business migrants fuel innovation that results in direct benefits and rewards for Portugal and its people.”
Given this development, Spain stands to benefit from Empowered Startups’ passionate pursuit of R&D backed startup models for business/investor immigration in much the same way as Portugal. Empowered Startups’ vision is to be the most sought-after organization in the world by governments and high net worth investor-entrepreneurs to facilitate business class immigration.
HQA Visa ProgramTM Growing
With meaningful public support from the Portuguese government, Empowered Startups has transformed the HQA Visa Program into an impactful immigration pathway that supports the country’s stated vision for territorial cohesion. Recent announcements at the Polytechnic Institutute of Guarda demonstrate the increasing popularity of the program among international businesspeople and Portugal’s innovation sector, including a growing number of higher education institutions. Empowered Startups has already brought nearly 70 entrepreneurs and well over €3 million of investment to Portugal through its HQA Visa Program as part of its commitment to facilitate 250 internationally funded projects to at least 10 universities and polytechnics throughout the country over the course of three years.
