‘Golden’ travel visas lure non-EU house buyers

When Edward Hu bought a holiday home in Portugal’s most popular tourist spot in September, the Chinese agricultural entrepreneur got a Europe-wide family travel permit thrown in for as long as he owns it.

“It’s one of the biggest advantages of investing in Portugal,” says Hu, 33, from Chengdu in southwest China, who paid €560,000 for a semi-detached property near the beach in the southern Algarve.

The beaches were once enough to lure buyers to southern Europe. A shattering economic crisis later, Spain and Portugal are trying to resurrect their moribund property markets by offering “golden” residence permits to home buyers from outside the EU.