“Golden Visa”: A new regime is coming from 1/9

As long as the low limit of 250,000 euros for the purchase of property and the acquisition of the Golden Visa by foreign nationals, owners and builders is still valid they rush to close deals mostly on forgotten propertieshalf-finished buildings, old detached houses, but also for larger properties that want to withdraw them from the leases due to age.

In ten days, the Golden Visa program becomes more expensive as the threshold for acquiring property in many areas of Attica, Thessaloniki and some tourist islands is 800,000 euros, making the purchase of property largely unprofitable.

The “game” of the transitional period moved and moves on two fronts: those who had or still have, ready for use, real estate worth less than the current limit of 250,000 euros, are trying to sell higher through mainly real estate agencies, to interested Chinese, Turks, Israelis, Americans and others. These are mainly freelancers who live in Greece or have obtained a residence permit through Golden Visa and are engaged in the search for almost ready properties to resell to third parties who want the “golden visa”.

The second case concerns semi-finished properties or others in need of work and renovationand the owners are looking for construction companies to complete them and then make them available through Golden Visa themselves. Here the procedures are more complex and costly, as yes the owner wants to sell above the 250,000 euro limit, but the builders avoid the specific properties due to the burdens arising beyond the market (finishing works, supply of the foreign broker with which they cooperate with (in the case of China it reaches 20%), VAT, other taxes, etc.).

The new regime

In the direction of normalizing the housing problem, the government has legislated since last spring a new regime for the granting of a 5-year residence permit to citizens of third countries (Golden Visa). According to this:

• In Region of Attica, the Regional Units of Thessaloniki, Mykonos and Santorini and on the islands with a population of over 3,100 inhabitants, the value of the real estate that the interested party must own increases to 800,000 euros.
• In the rest of the country the value of the real estate is 400,000 euros. In any case, the investment must be made in one property (not in several properties of lesser value) of at least 120 sq.m. It is allowed to purchase a percentage of a property in undivided co-ownership, the minimum value of which is respectively 800,000 and 400,000 euros.
• For buildings that currently have a different use and are being converted into residencesthe minimum investment amounts to 250,000 euros. The conversion of use must be completed before submitting the request for the residence permit.
• The limit is also set at 250,000 euros if it is an investment in a listed building which is to be restored. It should be noted that for changes of use, i.e. from e.g. industrial to residential, etc., as for listed properties, no minimum square footage limits are provided for properties for sale.

The “golden visa” program is expected to set a new record this yearwith the amount of investments hovering over 3 billion euros. Last year funds inflows from abroad topped 2.54 billion euros from 1.3 billion euros in 2022, with submitted applications reaching 8,516 and final approvals for the program standing at 1,802.