I am interested in the Golden Visa, (UK remainer) and was considering the investment route. I have very little knowledge with investing, and would only be doing this for the Visa, not looking for large returns. My main aim is to protect my capital, so the lower risk, lower reward the better.
I was hoping to find something like an index fund. It seems that the funds listed on the website, aimed at GV investors are mostly Venture Capital funds, which are usually high risk high reward. I am specifically looking at ones with a shorter minimum investment time, of 5/6/7 years.
Can anyone give me any advice on this? Or reccomendations
They are all venture capital funds by definition. Some are more conservative than others, a couple offer a “guarantee” that isn’t much of a guarantee. Read through the “portugal gv fund comparison” thread.
Thanks, I didnt realise this. I had originally imagined something low risk that would basically protect my capital for the sake of the Visa
Ive been reading through the thread you suggested and it seems many people are dubious about the various funds, and there is no real way to be sure you won’t lose a lot or all of your money. So I guess its back to the drawing board
I think the closest to what you want maybe Mercan/RAG project:
You invest €350,000, then they take care of the entire process (from tax number to application submission, and accompany you to your SEF appointment). For this project they pay a fixed 3% yield per year, and will buy back your unit (for €350,000) once you have your permanent residence permit in hand in 5-6 years (or you can hang on to your ownership for longer if you’d like).
Check out Thomas’ post here (scroll down to where he talks about Mercan/RAG)
@wkb thanks, I didnt actually see this as I had thought I would not go the property route, and it was in that section. Also in the big thread about funds, there are others looking for simple ways to preserve capital with low risk and get the GV, but they dont mention this.
Do you know why this is a lower risk option? I’m a bit confused about it. So you invest a small part of a big property they buy or own? And then after 5 years they buy it back off you. Why is this more of an assurance pot protecting capital than other routes
Hi, Alex: we went the “boring” route with Portugal Yield Fund (relatively low returns for a [supposedly] safer investment). So far, so good! We also looked at Mercan, and almost went that route. PM me if you’d like more details.
Hi
Im almost ready to pull trigger with Mercan. Why did you choose the fund route over mercan?
What funds did you invest in? how do the fees compare to mercan in the long run?
Thanks in advance.
It is difficult to draw those comparisons since they are two very different investments. Basically the fees are much lower with funds since you not have to pay IMT but you have more risk - “safe” when it comes to a fund is very much a relative, there are no guarantees, and returns in Portugal are low. Why this is, has been discussed extensively in the main fund thread -
Though now that many funds have started having setup fees of 3-5% the “savings” of funds is debatable and now it comes down to a fixed 3% (which is really less than that since you do not get 3% for the full 5 years) versus whatever returns you think the fund will actually pay (which may or may not be the same as what is promised).
The summary is:
You buy mercan because you want real estate and want something very safe and very easy and do not want to have to think and are willing to pay for that. You buy into funds because you can accept some risk and want lower fees. I almost did mercan, I almost did property. I did funds because of IMT and because at the time I did not have to pay setup fees and I thought the returns would be higher. Now, I might choose mercan just to get the lower 280k investment number. Neither is better. They are all different. You will not find a concrete answer. Do not seek comfort in “what other people are doing”. Only you know which works better for you.