After the voting that took place today at the Parliament, we can announce that we have just received the final version of the “Mais Habitação” law, approved by the Parliament.

As already announced in our last communication, the Portuguese Golden Visa program will continue. Moreover, the bill's final version does not contemplate the continuity of the ARI regime under the investment-related categories of real estate for residential purposes and rehabilitation, as well as bank deposits.

Despite the end of the program for these categories, it is made clear in the final version that all applications submitted until the entering into force of the new law will be fully processed according to the existing rules and regulations, and renewal rights will be fully assured for investors and family members.

The next step in this process is to send the “Mais Habitação” law to the President of the Republic. Here three scenarios may take place:

i) Direct ratification, and in this case, the proposal will come into force on the day after the publication;

ii) The President of the Republic does not accept the proposal as it is and returns it to the Parliament for revision; or

iii) The President of the Republic does not issue an opinion on the document but requests its evaluation by the Constitutional Court.

In any case, it is unreasonable to expect that, even if option i) takes place – direct ratification, the law comes into force before the middle/end of September. Our assumption is based on the package's complexity – which will require extensive analysis- and the current holiday period, which will certainly add time to the current process.

For further clarity, below you can find the detailed timeline of the process moving forward.

Our advice to all our clients is to move forward as soon as possible with their investments. The current timelines will allow investors to start and submit their process before the potential end of the Golden Visa program.

In this sense, it is essential that we make our investors aware that the current average time to conclude the investment, with IAS, is around one week, which – under current timing, provides enough time to invest still and be part of the Portuguese investment program.

We will continue to monitor the situation as closely as possible, keeping investors and partners informed of any developments while remaining available for any clarifications needed.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.