Bisnow: the future of EB-5 may hinge, in part, on posture toward immigration (IMHO, it's a government issue)

Here's What Could Happen To The EB-5 Program In A New Administration, Bisnow reported 10/21/20, quoting, of course, insiders involved inprofiting from the program:

“This program is an economic development program, but it’s painted with the brush of immigration,” said Aaron L. Grau, executive director of Invest in the USA, a trade group.

And “Immigration is really not being touched, because it’s politically a time bomb,” said Ronald Fieldstone, a partner with the law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr in Miami.

But EB-5 is not necessarily a "win-win-win-win" as pitched, since the big winners are the developers getting cheap capital, the middlemen who reap fees and interest, and then the investors getting visas for themselves and their families, while the required job creation is extremely dubious, as I've written.

So the issue is not merely allegations of fraud (too frequent) or the gerrymandering (since curtailed) of so-called Targeted Employment Areas to allow wealthy census tracts in major cities to claim to be part of a zone of high unemployment. 

Or that the minimum investment was recently raised--after decades of stagnation, unable to keep up with inflation--from $500,000 to $900,000. That's led to a decline in applications, which, combined with other factors, have led more wealthy visa-seekers to consider other countries' programs.

From immigration lens, a Joe Biden administration would presumably be more open to EB-5 than a Donald Trump administration. But the issue shouldn't be immigration, but rather good government.

Interest rates down?

From the article:

"Developers will still be interested in using EB-5 funds due to the extremely low rate of approximately 1%," said J.C. de Ona, Southeast Florida Division president of Centennial Bank. "With banks lending more conservatively nowadays, EB-5 funds can be used to bridge the capital gap required by a senior lender. If done correctly, it can be a win-win for everyone."

I'm not sure that the rate is actually 1%. But if it is, that means that the immigrant investors are getting zero or token interest, because the regional centers--the middlemen--typically cream off a few percentage points.