Golden visas singe hasty investors

Hua, 47, flew from Shanghai to Lisbon in 2013. In less than a week after her arrival, she agreed to buy a home for 500,000 euros before moving to Portugal with her husband and daughter.

Bracketed by an interpreter on one side and a real estate agent on the other, Hua visited dozens of homes in two days before agreeing to buy a house at the Arrabida Resort and Golf Academy, about 40 kilometers south of Lisbon.

"While none of the houses that I visited pleased me, the seller insisted the price was very low and that in two years it would rise to 1 million euros," Hua said in an e-mailed statement. "I agreed to buy the house and returned to China feeling happy because I thought I had made an excellent deal."

A few months later, while browsing the Internet, Hua learned that some of the homes in the same resort were on sale online for less than half the price she had paid.

"I saw that houses in the same area were valued at 210,000 euros to 250,000 euros while my home was sold for more than twice that value," said Hua. "I'm truly upset by all this."

Several online real estate listings show prices for similar three-bedroom properties in the same resort ranging from 220,000 euros to 515,000 euros.

Pelicano-Investimento Imobiliario SA, the company that owned the house Hua agreed to buy, denies that it sold the property at above market prices.

Some properties are being sold at lower prices because they have been repossessed by banks or belong to individuals looking to repay debts, Pelicano said on Feb 10.

"The Arrabida Resort and Golf Academy has more than 1,000 residential units, most of which have been bought by foreign clients with different nationalities who are totally satisfied with the acquisition," the Lisbon-based company said. Pelicano has "total legitimacy and liberty to define its price policy and the potential buyers are free to decide whether or not to buy these properties".

Sergio Martins, director-general of the Portuguese-Chinese Business Chamber of Commerce, is aware of complaints by some Chinese of overpaying for properties in Portugal.

"This happens because some unusual mediators tend to be involved in these transactions, emigration agencies and more than one real estate agency in Portugal and China, plus lawyers and other consultancy services," Martins said on Feb 10. "Commissions can sometimes rise to as much as 25 percent of the real estate transaction."