The tide is turning among Europe’s golden visa programs.
A wave of more restrictive policies, more expensive minimum thresholds, and outright eliminations of programs has swept across the Continent in recent months.
Ireland eliminated its Immigrant Investor Program in 2023.
Portugal made the real estate investment option of its golden visa program—previously Europe’s most popular—more restrictive and expensive before eventually abolishing it (also last year).
Greece is one of the latest countries to follow suit. After weeks of vague statements and speculation about changes to its highly coveted golden visa program, the Ministry of Finance confirmed the new policies on March 21.
The main takeaway is that the minimum thresholds for real estate investment have gone up. Specifically, they have increased from 500,000 to 800,000 euros for homes in Greece’s most popular and populated zones and from 250,000 to 400,000 euros everywhere else.
A handful of lower-cost real estate investment options remains available. If you buy a property that has been converted from commercial to residential or buy and restore a listed building, the minimum threshold remains at 250,000 euros.
These changes took effect on March 31, but the government is providing a transition period that lasts until September 30. If you pay a 10% deposit on property in Greece before September 30, you can qualify for a golden visa under the current, less-expensive thresholds.
Does this mean that you should rush over to Greece and put down a deposit on a home in the next six months if you’re interested in living there?
Not in my opinion.
A Greek golden visa investment only makes sense in a handful of specific cases (if you’re from a country that does not enjoy visa-free travel to the EU or if you’re looking to gain residency without becoming a tax resident in Greece).
If you’re just interested in property investment in Greece, you don’t need to use its golden visa program. You can buy the property that best suits your objectives or has the most investment potential, free of the location and price restrictions that the golden visa program imposes.
If you’re interested in gaining residency in Greece, there are simpler, more affordable alternatives, such as the Financially Independent Persons Visa (a “self-sufficiency” visa) and the digital nomad visa.
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What if you’re interested in gaining citizenship in Greece?
I recently replied to a reader who was seeking a Greek golden visa to gain the ability to live in any Schengen country.
She believed that the golden visa program would grant her this ability. She was mistaken, however, because a Greek golden visa would only grant her EU residency.
The right to free movement in the Schengen Area is reserved for EU citizens. It’s a massive benefit, enabling EU citizens to travel, work, and live in any other EU country without administrative formalities.
EU citizenship amplifies the number of options you have available to you, and options are among the world’s most valuable commodities.
The best way to get EU citizenship through Greece, assuming you’re not born or marrying into Greek citizenship, is by putting in the time as a legal resident.
Greece, like many European countries, grants citizenship through naturalization to those who have lived there with legal residency for a certain number of years.
The number of years varies from country to country. In Greece’s case, it’s seven years.
It does not matter if you’ve gained residency through a golden visa program or one of the simpler, more affordable residency alternatives I mentioned.
Despite the hype surrounding Greece’s golden visa program, it does not offer much benefit when it comes to gaining citizenship specifically.
As part of your citizenship application, you’ll have to pass a Greek language test and have been a tax resident in the country during those seven years.
This nullifies one of the main benefits that the Greek golden visa touts: that it doesn’t impose a physical presence requirement (and therefore tax residency). In other words, as long as you invest in a golden visa, you can maintain Greek residency status without ever even visiting the country.
But if you want to use that golden visa to eventually qualify for citizenship, you’ll need to spend 183 days per year in the country anyway, just as you would if you’d applied for residency using the Financially Independent Persons Visa.
Keep in mind that the financial threshold you need to meet to qualify for the latter is 2,000 euros per month (versus a minimum of 250,000 euros for a Greek golden visa).
Despite the fact that I think the program only makes sense in a small number of cases, the changes highlight an important point that I make often: you should act quickly if you’re interested in a particular opportunity overseas.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
Editor´s Note: This article was first featured in Forbes.
