After more than year and a half that Portugal offers a residence permit buyers of expensive housing, the country has managed to gain almost €1 billion. The exact amount is €817 million, according to ee24.com citing Portugal News.
1,360 "golden visas" were issued during the last 20 months. Applicants for residency in Portugal noticeably intensified activity in that year: a preferential program runs from October of 2012, but half from the above number of applications were filled in the period from January to July of 2014.
As for national composition, citizens of China are still leading amounting to about 75% of those willing to get a residency in Portugal. There are also many citizens of Angola and Brazil among applicants, but the Russians and Ukrainians are in no hurry to move to the West: until recently conditions of getting of Latvian residence permit were more attractive for them.