The Greek government will soon raise the threshold of 250 thousand euros for investment in real estate in order to obtain a five-year residence permit, known as the “golden visa”. This is reported by Ekathimerini.
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Golden visa will become more expensive
The publication notes that today the government is considering various scenarios, but seems to have settled on increasing the minimum amount of 250,000 euros to a higher level. The purpose of this step is to reduce demand for golden visas, as well as an attempt to curb the rise in real estate prices.
As Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis said last week at a conference on the Golden Visa program, “measures will be applied to limit it, the limits will be increased for larger investments, but an exception will be made for properties that are listed on the exchange, for which a lower minimum threshold will be applied in order to direct funds to the class of real estate that especially needs them.”
Read: Buying real estate in Portugal no longer grants visa rights
According to foreign analysts in the investment immigration sector, such as Astons, in the UK, the Greek program remains one of the most attractive in all of Europe, since it has the lowest threshold for foreign investors – i.e. 250,000 euros.
According to the Ministry of Immigration Policy, from January to November 2023, the number of permits granted to investors from the UK increased by 77.8% to 370 (from 208), and to Israelis by 77. 6% to 183 (from 103).
Read: Italy abolished “golden visas” for Russians and Belarusians
Remember
The Ministry of Finance wrote that in recent years the European Commission has called on EU member states to abolish such instruments for providing residence permits, considering them one of the means of legalizing financial transactions by foreigners.
