Investors are rushing to buy properties in Greece before the country increases the threshold for the Golden Visa program on September 1st.
Earlier this year, Greece’s government decided to significantly raise the threshold of minimum investments for non-European Union nationals hoping to acquire a Golden Visa.
Speaking at a debate on the housing crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of Greeks last spring, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the Golden Visa requirement would be raised to up to 800,000 euros ($890,000) for real estate investments in the most popular parts of the country.
Up until 2023, Greece offered one of the most appealing Golden Visa schemes in the EU. The threshold for property investments was as low as 250,000 euros (278,000 USD). However, this led to thousands of properties being taken off the market, significantly raising prices for ordinary Greeks.
The conservative government raised the program’s minimum investment threshold from 250,000 euro to 500,000 euro in certain areas in 2023, as well. The increased threshold applies to real estate investments in specific sought-after municipalities of the metropolitan areas of Athens and Thessaloniki.
The same applies to the islands of Mykonos and Santorini, as well as islands with a permanent population of more than 3,100 inhabitants. The rest of the country will see the threshold set at 400,000 euros (445,000 USD).
Additionally, there is now a requirement for the surface area of the properties. All properties sold must be at least 120 square meters, and only a single property can be bought to reach the mandated threshold.
Properties that are not currently used as homes will have a threshold of 250,000 euros, the same for listed properties that require restoration.
Greece’s Golden Visa program under scrutiny
Golden visas and relevant passports have been contested in the European Union the last few years, as many people accuse the system of injustice in the real estate market, pushing permanent residents away from their cities.
According to Immigration and Asylum Ministry data, Greece’s Golden Visa program boosted the economy by almost one billion euros in the first five months of 2023. However, this is something that normally happens at the expense of an ever-reducing housing market. This pushes sale and rent prices even higher for ordinary people, who struggle to afford housing costs.
Greece is not alone in implementing a Golden Visa program. More than 60 countries operate similar schemes, including several EU member-states.
Nonetheless, the EU Commission has looked into allegations that these schemes are being abused by organized crime syndicates and corrupt officials.
For the European Commission, it’s “undemocratic” to enable wealthy foreigners to “buy” the right to residency in the EU—sometimes without even so much as a requirement to live in the country.
Ireland, Cyprus, and the Netherlands have already done away with their VIP visa schemes, while Portugal reformed its program in October 2023. All EU states tightened their visa rules for Russian and Belarusian nationals in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.