Investment in real estate, combined with the growing demand of North American citizens for Portugal as a tourist destination, reached historical records in Portugal.
Portugal has definitely entered the US route: trade relations, which include investment in real estate and tourist traffic (with North Americans being the nationality that grew the most between 2019 and 2022), reached historic numbers, according to the indicators pointed out at the conference ‘Tourism & Real Estate in the context of Portugal / USA relations’, which took place recently in Lisbon (and organized by the Pestana Hotel Group and the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal, AmCham. Lamares, Capela & Associados had already noted that US investors led the real estate market in Portugal through funds (Real Estate: North American investors lead business in Portugal)
Recently and within the scope of the conference, the conclusions of the same indicate that in real estate, an area generally associated with Golden Visas (Residence Authorization for Investment Activity, ARI), 12% of investment in real estate, carried out in Portugal in the last ten years, was raised through US citizens (to be added to investment funds). In simplified terms, these data symbolize that the attraction of foreign investment, specifically from the United States of America, reached historic values in Portugal.
According to António Martins da Costa, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal -AmCham- the confidence and degree of reliability that Portugal transmits to the Americans, led to the fact that in 2022, the United States of America would be classified as the largest international investor, surpassing the French. “The Americans are not only the source that is increasing the number of tourists and induced tourism expenditure in Portugal with the fastest growth, but in terms of real estate investment they are the ones with the greatest presence, having moved to first place”, he explained. António Martins da Costa, quoted by the Portuguese press.
Within the scope of this Conference, Patrícia Barão, director of the Residential Department at the JLL Portugal consultancy, underlined that investment in Portugal, in real estate by North American investors, has grown in recent years, culminating in historical values in 2022: “there was a great evolution in the last five to six years in commercial real estate investment. In total, in 2022, American investment was 1150 million euros, representing 33.7% of the total invested in the country in this sector”.
António da Costa Martins, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal – AmCham – stressed that “the United States of America has evolved into the main destination for Portuguese exports outside the Community space, and is today “an unavoidable partner, so that everything that is increasing this transatlantic relationship brings benefits to both sides”. AmCham’s indicators reveal that, in 2022, the transaction of goods and services in terms of exports from Portugal to the United States of America, reached values of 9 billion euros; on the other hand, in the opposite direction, a turnover of around 5200 million euros was recorded.
In addition to real estate investment, direct and indirect tourist revenues from the United States of America also registered growth in Portugal, in relation to available data for 2019, with 1.5 million North American tourists visiting Portugal during the year 2022, with around half staying in Lisbon.
The President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal – AmCham – highlighted that in 2021, the ranking of “investors arriving in Portugal through the Golden Visa Program was led by Brazilians, French and Americans, respectively. However, in 2022, citizens of American nationality led the table”.
