The Portuguese Government intends to compete with Spain for property buyers. To attract foreign investors, the authorities launched a new website (livinginportugal.com) in six languages, which tells about residence permit, taxes, housing prices, schools, and why Portugal is a great place to live, according to aplaceinthesun.com.
"We have 40 times less housing inventories than in Spain: 5,000 units compared to 200,000. We sell around 5,000 houses per year at an average cost of € 200,000, but we want to double it," said Diogo Gaspar, President of the Portuguese Resorts Association.
Portugal has introduced tax incentives (in particular, the tariff rate of 20% for foreign citizens) and a new residence permit. In addition, there is also the privatization of airports and railways. "Strategic reforms" should make the country more attractive to foreign investors.