Foreigners have invested millions in Latvian real estate

The opportunity to obtain temporary residence through investments was used by a total of 1,956 foreigners who invested almost LVL 123 million.

Similar to last year, foreigners were the most concerned about the possibility of obtaining a Latvian residence permit by buying real estate in Latvia this year - a total of 1,549 foreigners applied for a residence permit on the basis that they or their family members had bought real estate Discount in Latvia for at least LVL 100,000 or 50,000.

The activity of foreigners was recorded mainly from apartments in Riga and Jūrmala, where they bought 325 and 225 properties, respectively. Statistics collected by the Office for Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) show that foreigners have invested LVL 95.8 million in real estate in Latvia.

A much smaller amount, LVL 24.4 million, was invested this year in the subordinated capital of banks, which also allow foreigners to apply for a residence permit in Latvia. The OCMA statistics also show that the possibility of obtaining a residence permit has not significantly stimulated the interest of foreigners to invest in the fixed capital of companies, since in the year in question LVL 2.7 million was invested in the fixed capital of only 53 became companies, on the basis of which 114 people applied for a residence permit.

It has already been announced that on July 1, 2010, the amendments to the Immigration Act came into force, which, among other things, provide for the possibility for foreigners to obtain a temporary residence permit if they have bought real estate in Latvia for a certain amount and invested in subordinated capital by banks or in the investment capital of companies.

Within a year and a half since the amendments to the Immigration Law came into effect, 2,257 investors and their family members who invested LVL 142.5 million in the Latvian economy have applied for residence permits in Latvia.