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Why rich Brazilians are scooping up property in Portugal
Non-Europeans who invest in property worth more than 500,000 euros can get resident permits and pay a flat 20% income tax rate
Brazilian multimillionaire Ricardo Bellino lived more than 10 years in Miami before relocating to Portugal, which has emerged as a haven for affluent Brazilians.
Bellino, 53, who bought a home near Lisbon, will gain from a flat income-tax rate of 20 percent in Portugal, where he also may be eligible for a tax-free pension after he retires.
He told Bloomberg his relocation to Portugal from Miami enabled him to reside in “a tax haven that isn’t an island in the Caribbean.”
Brazilian buyers, whose native language is Portuguese, accounted for 19 percent of the homes in Portugal that foreign buyers acquired in 2017, according to Portugal’s Real Estate Professionals and Brokers Association. Only French buyers accounted for a larger share, 29 percent.
Brazilians are closing that gap, however. They already rank as the leading foreign buyers of property in Lisbon, the capital city in the south, and in Porto in northern Portugal.
In 2012, Portugal started to offer resident permits to non-European investors who acquired Portuguese real estate valued at more than 500,000 euros, or $560,000.
By 2017, the immigration incentives had contributed to the strongest growth in the Portuguese economy in nearly 20 years. [Bloomberg] – Mike Seemuth