“Resist vicious competition and firmly oppose any form of false advertising and price fraud……” Ms. Zhang Li, General Manager of the Shanghai branch of Visas Consulting Group, read the Chinese version of the “Shanghai Declaration” in the presence of hundreds of attendees. Subsequently, a representative from an authoritative Cypriot law firm solemnly led numerous European exhibitors in reciting the English version of the “Shanghai Declaration” in unison. This scene took place at the opening forum of the Shanghai Property Expo on the morning of March 15.
Since 2012, European property investment migration programs have entered the Chinese market strongly. The method of rapidly obtaining permanent residency status that grants global access through the purchase of freehold property has quickly been recognized and favored by Chinese investors. In just the last year, thousands of Chinese families obtained permanent residence visas for Cyprus. Portugal, a major Western European power that introduced its property investment migration policy at the end of last year, saw the policy trigger a boom in the domestic immigration market as soon as it was launched.
However, as the wave of European property investment migration has swept across the country, major property expos and online advertisements are full of alluring slogans such as “Direct sales from property developers, saving intermediate links,” “Buy property and get an EU Green Card,” “No service fees,” “No attorney fees,” and “Immigration handled on your behalf,” all designed to attract public attention. Chinese investors often lack sufficient experience in overseas investment, making it difficult to avoid investment traps and risks.
In order to create a sound investment environment for investors and promote the healthy and orderly development of the Cyprus property investment migration market, and acting with a responsible attitude toward investors, Visas Consulting Group, as the sole organizer of the European Pavilion at the Shanghai Property Expo and host of this forum, joined all exhibitors of the European Pavilion in issuing the Shanghai Integrity Declaration, committing to providing standardized, high-quality property and immigration services to Chinese investors.
Visas Consulting Group has focused on investment migration for 16 years, always adhering to the principle of integrity and prioritizing the interests of our clients. Since Chinese citizens are achieving immigration and rational asset allocation overseas through investment, any problem in any link of this process will affect the lifelong happiness of the investors and their families. Therefore, on the occasion of March 15, we proposed an integrity service initiative to regulate the market and improve services. We reached a consensus with the participating developers and lawyers and jointly issued the “Shanghai Declaration” to protect the property investment migration journey of our investors.
The European Pavilion exhibitors participating in the pledge are leaders in the European real estate industry. Taking Cyprus as an example, they include member units of the land developers association, famous developers that were among the first to enter the Chinese market, and influential developers from the four major hot-selling property regions of Paphos, Limassol, Larnaca, and Ayia Napa. While providing high-quality properties and services, they also shoulder the responsibility of leading the industry toward healthy and benign development. This joint declaration of integrity also sounded a call for integrity across the entire industry.
This initiative received unanimous recognition from guests on-site and widespread attention from the media. Guests including the Ambassador of the Portuguese Embassy in China, members of the Cypriot Parliament, representatives of the Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade, and representatives of CGP, Portugal’s largest state-owned bank, along with hundreds of investors, witnessed the entire process. More than ten media outlets, including Shanghai Education Radio and the 21st Century Business Herald, reported on the event live.
