The Big Investment Migration Stories of 2021: IMI’s 10 Most-Read Articles This Year

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Among our ten most-read stories in 2021, half concerned Portugal’s golden visa, half were written by outside contributors, and two were (skilfully crafted) sponsored features.

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#10 – Italy Halves Minimum Investment of “La Dolce Visa” to EUR 250,000 – But Will Investors Bite?

The final article on our list has displayed remarkable longevity, dating as it does from May 2020, no doubt an effect of Italy’s strong nation brand. It’s also the first article in which we coined the program’s affectionate nickname, “La Dolce Visa,” which we’re pleased to see is catching on. 

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#9 – Whatever Happens After Brexit, Irish Passports Will Have a Unique Advantage

What is, perhaps, most remarkable about Marie Ekberg Padilla’s article on the special position in which Ireland finds itself in the wake of Brexit is that the article is two and a half years old and still made it to the top 10 most read articles on IMI in 2021. It goes to show the staying power of helpful, well-written content.

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#8 – Warren Newfield Responds to PM Mitchell’s Claims in Exclusive Interview With IMI

Grave accusations from both sides characterized the public spat between Kawana Bay developer Warren Newfield and the Grenada government in May this year. In this long-form interview, we gave Newfield the opportunity to answer some of the charges levied against him, leaving the audience to judge whether he did so adequately.

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#7 – Portugal’s Golden Visa After 2021: The Market’s Next Growth Areas

One of two sponsored features to make an appearance on our top 10 most read articles list this year, this article was written by Optylon Krea’s head honcho, Hakan Kodal. The same author who predicted the precipitous rise in Portugal’s fund option in 2017 this year gave us his read of which options applicants will favor after the reforms take effect in January. His prediction? Golden visa investment will be distributed evenly across three options: Funds, hospitality property, and rural residential property.

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#6 – How to Choose the Right Fund for the Portugal Golden Visa

Though fund investments have been an option under Portugal’s golden visa since 2018, it has taken some time to gather steam and take market share from the various real estate options. In this sponsored feature, Get Golden Visa’s Charles Taylor Harris provided a comprehensive checklist of matters to keep in mind when picking from among dozens of golden visa-suited funds.

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#5 – Portugal Approves 10,000th Golden Visa, Has Raised Nearly €600,000 Per Application

Of our ten most-read articles this year, no fewer than six related to Portugal’s golden visa. That may be because we tend to write a lot about the program (it provides the most detailed and frequent statistics) or because interest in it, globally, remains sky-high, despite the severe delays in processing this year. This particular article was widely cited for remarking on the program’s landmark 10,000th golden visa approval. 

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#4 – How Portugal’s Real Estate Market Has Performed During the Pandemic So Far

Global Citizen Solutions CEO Patricia Casaburi provided an extremely helpful analysis of how Portugal’s real estate market had fared during the first year of the pandemic. The official figures she analyzed revealed surprising conclusions; though the conventional wisdom in real estate is that central, prime property typically do better at maintaining their values in a market downturn, the numbers in Portugal hinted at the pandemic having the opposite effect in Portugal. We hope Patricia provides us with the same analysis once more in early 2022, to see how prices developed in 2021.

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#3 – New MM2H Rules Will Drive Mass Exodus of Foreigners – That’s Intentional, Say Observers

Though changes to the long-frozen MM2H program were expected, few had anticipated that the government would quadruple the monthly income requirements and septuple the amount required for fixed deposits. Program stakeholders reacted with disbelief and postulated that the government wasn’t merely tone-deaf but actually wanted to freeze out foreigners.

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#2 – Slovakia to Grant Citizenship by Descent up to 3rd Generation: 800,000 Americans Could Qualify

2021 was the year IMI first delved into the captivating world of citizenship by descent policies. It all started with Parviz Malakouti’s article on Slovakia, the popularity of which showed us that a tremendous amount of latent demand for this type of avenue to EU citizenship existed. This realization prompted us to set up a separate page on IMI with a complete list and map of EU citizenship by descent policies.

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#1 – Portugal Publishes New Golden Visa Minimums – Fund, Deposit Routes Costlier From Jan. ’22

Probably the biggest known unknown in the investment migration market earlier this year was Portugal’s new rules and pricing for its golden visa program. This article provided a detailed map of the different eligibility zones in the country, as well as an overview of the reformed minimum investment amounts, on the very same day that the Portuguese government published the details. Interest in the topic was intense; nearly 20,000 people read this article within the first five days of its publication.

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2022 has many exciting developments in store for the investment migration market. A number of programs are changing their prices and policies, demand for IM services in the rich world is unmistakably on the upswing, and we are expecting a handful of brand new programs as well, including CBI programs about which we are not able to reveal more at this time.

From our team to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

PS: Starting next year, we are raising the prices of our promotional services, which have remained unchanged since 2017. If you’re interested in sponsored features, banner ads, or other marketing campaigns in IMI next year, now is the time to reach out and lock in a deal at our old prices.