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President Donald Trump's bid to lure wealthy immigrants to the U.S. with a "gold card" program could drive up home prices and worsen America's housing-affordability crisis, according to real estate experts and people who've studied similar immigration incentives in Europe.
Trump's proposed program would provide immigrants who invest at least $5 million in the U.S. with a path toward citizenship. Could home prices shoot up in a similar way in the U.S. with the introduction of Trump's gold-card program? Potentially, experts say.
Even if Trump's program is not specifically centered around real-estate investment, home prices could go up if it is implemented — because it's theoretically ultra-rich individuals who have the capacity to spend $5 million for the visa, Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of REALTORS®, told MarketWatch.
"I'm sure that if they can come up with $5 million, they probably have a little extra to buy real estate," he added. "So it will bring about more demand in the ultra-high end of the real-estate market."