Mauritius may soon be only one of a handful of countries left to offer residence-by-investments

Mauritius is currently one of the least expensive options for South Africans seeking to obtain permanent residence by investment in another country - and if the European Commission has its way, the country may soon be one of only a handful left where they can do so at all.

Portugal, which has been one of the most popular residence-by-investment destinations in Europe, has announced that it is closing its "golden visa" programme in its entirety and will not be accepting any new applications at all.

This follows Ireland's decision to close its golden visa programme, and other European countries may well follow suit soon under increased pressure from the European Commission to shut down these schemes, which it has repeatedly stated raise inherent security, money laundering, tax evasion and corruption risks for the member states and for the EU as a whole.

Meanwhile, it is possible for non-citizens of Mauritius to obtain immediate permanent residence by investing a minimum of $375 000 (about R6.8 million at the time of article) in certain types of property - the well-known IRS, RES and PDS developments as well as Smart Cities and Ground+2 apartment developments.

This amount is equivalent to the lowest property investment requirements among those European Union countries that do still offer residence-by-investment, and substantially less than the most expensive "golden visas". However, in Mauritius, there are now also options to gain ordinary residence as an investor, self-employed person, professional or retired non-citizen.