The Portuguese can no longer afford to live in Portugal

Canada has a well-developed and diversified economy. Portugal needs to import a lot from the world, but has very little to offer in exchange.

They found something: their real estate and city center spaces.

The country NEEDS this foreign income. It's not a self-sustainable economy and the world won't work for them for free. If the Portuguese want to solve this issue, one way is to study what else could they develop internally that would be attractive in the world trade market.

Also, foreigners are looking for the European passport, not for Portugal per se. If Portugal were to follow UK's path, demand for their Golden Visa would drop dramatically.

It doesn't benefit the rich, only. By raising real estate prices, it stimulates the construction business, which is labor intensive and has a long supply chain. It benefits the entire economy of the country.

> The government has taken desirable measures for foreigners, making it easier for them to get golden visas if someone invests a certain amount of money. My husband, who works in real estate, tells me countless stories of flats left uninhabited by some rich person who arrived at the building, bought two flats so that he could get a visa, and doesn’t even live there.

There are a bunch of restrictions on where and what types of properties qualify. You can no longer buy property in large cities and get the 'golden visa'.

I do not think that is the main driver in large cities. IF these price hikes are indeed driven by foreigners, it's probably other European Union residents.

> Nowadays, flats are being rented in Lisbon for four thousand euros

Yeap. Rented. So why did they bring up the visa thing? You can't qualify if you rent.

Also, housing prices have been increasing all around the globe at the same time economies are screwed up and inflation is rampant everywhere. Blaming foreigners seem... xenophobic? I didn't know Portugal was like that.

For starters, is there enough new construction to satisfy demand? If not, there's the answer.

> (...) And if Brazilians, who must be the largest source of Portuguese immigration, move here

Wait. I thought the problem was rich foreigners? There are rich people in Brazil sure, but I seriously doubt their numbers would even move the needle. The overwhelming majority of expats are _not_ millionaires. If you are that rich, you can have a pretty great quality of life and would only look to live in Portugal if you were really into Europe or something like that. Rich brazilians are more likely to want to have property in Miami.

> The Portuguese are becoming, nothing more and nothing less, the servants of big foreign millionaires

Back to the foreign millionaire thing.

Way back in 2012 I had the opportunity to live and work in Europe. I considered Portugal, but while the country is amazing and the food is good, the salaries were utterly terrible compared to the neighboring countries. It seems that things have not changed.

The government has said they're going to start tackling the issue of short term lets this month. I'll believe it when I see it.