Price hike of the residence permit in Latvia for purchasing property negatively affected demand of the Chinese citizens in autumn 2014, as Michael Parinov, head of the law firm of "Padva, Parinov and partners", said. Residents of China are turning away from Latvia and now prefer hoising in warm countries, as Cyprus and Greece, where the minimum investment threshold for obtaining a residence permit is similar to Latvian – €250,000. According to Parinov, approx. 80% of Chinese investors bought property in Latvia at the lowest price valid for a residence permit in the regions – for approx. €71,000, ee24.com informs citing baltic-course.com.
"They [the Chinese] were significant investors and recently ranked second place behind the Russians. However, the Chinese were buying property in Latvia for rent, and only a small part settled here. Perhaps we lost the Chinese investors forever", Michael Parinov said.
According to Parinov, the amendments to the Immigration Act which entered into force on September 1, 2014, also hurt the developers whose projects were confined to foreign investment. "Those, who develop the project with apartments in the price range from €145,000 to €170,000, do not know what to do with it, as these objects are too expensive for the local people, and non-residents are no longer interested in it", Parinov said.
Since the program had been launched in 2010, the "golden residence permit" was obtained by 13,843 investors and their family members from 44 countries. Besides the Russians (9,659 permits), Latvia residence permit was actively requested by the residents from China (1,059), Ukraine (1,027), Uzbekistan (567), Kazakhstan (515), Belarus (310), Azerbaijan (190), Israel (61), the United States (45), Kyrgyzstan (43), Georgia (38), Armenia (33), Syria (32), Lebanon (26) and India (22).
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