Iām genuinely curious how it is that people came to believe that everything is fine, when the text of the pending law is not fine. @cj807 and @joelvogel were doing their best to follow the proceedings and warn people about what was happening. Yes, at some point some minister told the media, āok we wonāt make any harmful retroactive changesā, and did so anyway. A media interview does not have the same force of law as a published diploma.
1 Like
I think that equity investments related to the real estate industry are also in a murky gray area.
Absolutely - weāve raised this before, but itās been a little lost in the discussion. āReal estate investment fundsā are struck out as eligible ARI investments in the Article 3 definitions, but are not ārescuedā by Article 42 and 43, so they fall into legal limbo. Iāve heard no-one able to explain what happens to them. Perhaps Regulations will address this, but who knows?
In fairness, a lot of lawyers have been assuring their clients that nothing will change for existing applicants, so the natural thing is just to accept that. Youāre paying a lawyer to understand the law for you. And in a few months time, once the Regs are in place and new SEF/AIMA practice has been established, whoās to say these lawyers are wrong?
People arenāt concerned because lawyers have advised that itās sloppy drafting. If itās not and they attempt to change your rights, youāll have grounds to file a case. And that will apply to 1000s of people. No way thatās going to happen. Itās utterly illogical that they would for some bizarre reason apply retroactive rules to one group of applicants whilst allowing the GV to continue for others.
Iām in a fund invested in real estate, and am not worried. Worst case is a bit of a delay whilst it gets sorted out. I donāt think itāll be a long delay though if a bunch of legal cases land on their deskā¦
4 Likes
The new law takes effect the day after itās published, which will be a few days after promulgation, which must be within eight days of the Assembly notifying the President itās been passed. Thatās written into the bill.
2 Likes
A bit of delay is a very interesting topic in Portugal. Usually it takes a lot of time!
Just hope that they wil extend our permits once more into 2024.
However, I have seen the cases where e.g. naturalization process was stopped until the applicant renews his permit. So extention did not work in that case
Did this Assembly meeting happen? Iāve been seeing the 21st of Sep timeline but havenāt heard any news.
Yes, the Assembly discussed the bill yesterday, and is voting today on a raft of opposition amendments
Regardless of the bill, the devil is in the details (aka regulations). Does anyone have a good handle on how regulations are issued in Portugal?
My understanding is they donāt go through the Assembly - theyāre issued by the Government, approved by the Council of Ministers and subject to Presidential veto. In the past, when the ARI law has been amended, new Regulations have generally been issued within 3-6 months or so. Unclear of the timing in this case though.
2 Likes
The Housing Bill has been approved again, overriding the Presidential veto:
āAfter the veto of the President of the Republic, the More Housing package was again approved this Friday in the Assembly of the Republic with only the votes in favor of the PS, abstention of the Free and PAN and votes against of the other opposition parties, that is, PSD, Chega, Iniciativa Liberal, PCP and Bloco de Esquerda. Reconfirmation thus forces the promulgation by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.ā
2 Likes
I asked that question of Iberis Capital (their Portugal Yield Fund and Portugal Yield Fund II invest in commercial properties under long-term lease) and their view was this type of investment using GV funds would no longer be permitted.
Per Mercan:
As per initially scheduled following the ConferĆŖncia de LĆderes, we would like to inform you, that the Parliament has just reconfirmed the āMais HabitaĆ§Ć£oā law with the votes in favor of 119 deputies from PS (Government party) and against 87 deputies, which means all opposition ā both left and right-wing. Following this approval, the law is expected to be sent to the President within the next 5 to 7 business days. Upon receiving the law, the President has an 8-day deadline to ask for it to be published. However, given that the law is quite controversial, this deadline may not be complied with.
What are the other legal processes to prevent or delay this bill from becoming law/published? Can the President refer this bill to a court to check if itās constitutional?
No, Marcelo had this option, but choose not to use it. Now other actors may ask constitutional court to check it (23 deputies or organizations), and they probably do it. But it is another procedure and only laws in force could be checked under this procedure. So it will not be postponed, but rather revoked if the court finds anything against constitution.
1 Like
Sadly they reported thr GV changes wrong.