Portugal shut down the most likely path to his story recently (actually just today), as they decided it created "lack of affordable housing" for their own population. This is another one of those cases of "just be born before the ladders are pulled away and you can do like me."

No, I didn’t do a golden visa - rather, a retirement visa - residency is easy if you have even only a moderate income of €1,200 a month or so or assets. It also handily comes with a ten year exemption on overseas income, which I don’t feel too bad about as I avail myself of no state services beyond those which I do pay for through other taxes, and I’ve made some substantial investments in local businesses.

The golden visa was a much abused scheme largely for absentee landlords who want EU residency, and it has indeed jacked up property prices in the major population centres to an unsustainable degree - many properties have been priced to the visa threshold, and then sit vacant, unrented, often dilapidating. I’m glad to see the back of it, as it gives estrangeiros a bad rap.