Our guest today is Bobby O’Reilly, the straight-talking Irish investor-developer behind projects in Lisbon and the ‘Margem Sul’, who saw Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom and bust first-hand and is now sounding the alarm — and offering a practical solution — for Portugal’s growing housing crisis.
Bobby brings his hard-earned, Irish experience to Portugal, where he says the successful Golden Visa programme helped rebirth Lisbon and supercharge tourism, but also left a dangerous divide: those already on the property ladder versus a younger generation and working families priced out forever by rising costs, stagnant wages, high taxation, and chronic undersupply of affordable homes.
Now deeply invested in Portugal’s future, Bobby warns that the country risks widening inequality, accelerating the brain drain of its well-educated youth, and creating greater state dependency if nothing changes. He argues that Portugal must act “a little bit selfishly” and fast — before other European nations steal the market — because Europe has become the world’s most desirable safe haven amid global uncertainty.
Foreign direct investment should not just enrich the top end, he asserts. It must be channelled to fix the very problems earlier policies helped create.
In the conversation with Carl, Bobby lays out a detailed, ‘fiscally responsible’, “win-win” plan built around affordable housing schemes. It includes slashing construction taxes, offering income tax credits to first-time local buyers, and reducing social security contributions on both sides to put more money in workers’ pockets and encourage employers to raise wages.
The idea is that developers also keep their normal margins, while dramatically increasing supply, which should help stabilise or correct overheated prices.
At the heart of the proposal is rebranding the Golden Visa as a ‘Solidarity Visa’: lower the threshold to €350,000 but direct the investment into affordable rental housing. Within the vision, investors might enjoy a 10-year tax exemption on rental income (with rents fixed and indexed), boosting their net yield, while locals gain immediate access to quality homes and the government reducing its housing demand burden.
The plan also features government underwriting for value confidence, stealth taxes on luxury items rather than essentials, and pilot roll-outs in five high-demand ‘prototype’ cities.
Bobby stresses here the need for bipartisan collaboration, political stability, and courageous leadership that puts the bigger picture ahead of short-term politics. He believes this approach can reverse the resignation felt by many young Portuguese and position Portugal as the world’s most attractive residency destination — turning foreign investment into genuine social progress rather than exclusion.
Download Bobby’s ‘Solidarity Visa’ whitepaper here.
