LISBON, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's investment through the golden visa program for foreign investors from outside the European Union totalled 52.8 million euros (61.8 million U.S. dollars) in June, up 34.6 percent from the previous year, the Foreigners and Borders Service announced Thursday.
Of total investment in June, the vast bulk was again through property purchases, reaching 49.75 million euros (58.2 million dollars), while capital transfers totalled just under 3.1 million euros (3.6 million dollars).
Compared with May, investment in June through the officially known Residence Authorization for Investment (ARI) was down 28 percent.
Last month 90 ARI permits were issued, of which 87 were for property purchases. Of these, four were granted for urban rehabilitation, in which less money was invested.
Since July 2016, when the urban rehabilitation clause was introduced, a total of 164 residence permits have been issued for this type of investment.
ARIs are available to non-European Union residents who either buy real estate in Portugal worth 500,000 euros (585,000 dollars), or 350,000 euros (409,000 dollars) if the property is 30 years old, or make a capital transfer of 1 million euros (1.2 million dollars), less if certain cultural or commercial investment criteria is fulfilled.
Since the golden visa program was introduced in October 2012, Portugal has obtained a total investment of 3.895 billion euros (4.556 billion dollars), of which 3.529 billion euros (4.128 billion dollars) is for property purchases.
In total, 6,369 permits have been issued over the last five and a half years.
Chinese investors have been granted 3,890 golden visas so far. That is followed by Brazil with 561, South Africa with 254, Turkey with 224 and Russia with 222.
