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Program profile · Edition 1 research

Greece - Golden Visa

Three price zones for one program: an EUR 800,000 line across Athens and the marquee islands, EUR 400,000 everywhere else, and a EUR 250,000 nationwide carve-out for converted or restored buildings only. Presence requirement is zero - but Golden Visa years spent outside Greece do not count toward citizenship, which runs on its own seven-year clock. And of the open programs in this Index set, none has moved its rules as often: three severe changes since 2022. Verified against the statute text and law-firm briefings of the amending laws; every claim below carries its source, access date and status.

The threshold: three zones, not one price

Property value at or above EUR 800,000 qualifies in the entire Region of Attica (all of greater Athens including Piraeus), the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini (Thira), and every island with a population above 3,100. Everywhere else in Greece, the line is EUR 400,000. A nationwide EUR 250,000 carve-out exists only for two categories: buildings converted from non-residential use (offices, shops, hotels, warehouses, industrial premises where no industry has operated for five years - handicraft and workshop buildings are exempt from that waiting period) into residences, with the change of use completed before the application is filed; and listed or historic buildings undergoing full restoration, where transfer before completion of restoration is invalid. Confirmed - Enterprise Greece (the state investment-promotion agency) newsletter and two independent law-firm briefings quoting Law 5100/2024, cross-checked (accessed 15 July 2026).

A single property of at least 120 sqm is required for the 800k and 400k tiers; combining smaller properties to reach either threshold is no longer allowed. The 120 sqm minimum does not apply to the 250k conversion or restoration carve-outs. Confirmed - Watson Farley & Williams briefing (accessed 15 July 2026). The Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum's own English service page does not publish this tier table at all; it still references repealed statute article numbers and a EUR 250,000 figure inside a notary-certificate template, which is why the threshold facts rest on the state investment agency and law-firm sources rather than a ministry page. Unresolved - gazette PDF (FEK A′ 63-69/2024) not fetched directly.

What it costs

Purchase-price tax and fees are not included in the qualifying threshold. At the EUR 400,000 tier, an indicative round trip on a resale property with no agent runs roughly EUR 24,000-30,000, about 6-7.5% of purchase price. The largest single line is the property transfer tax on resale property, 3.09% of value - Reported, consistent across an Athens notary guide and multiple law-firm cost breakdowns, not re-verified against the AADE primary tax text. New-builds (permit issued after 1 January 2006, first use) carry 24% VAT where the developer is not under the VAT-suspension regime - Unresolved, current suspension status not re-verified this pass. Add notary (~0.8-1.5% plus VAT), land registry/cadastre (~0.5-0.7%) and a customary but non-mandatory lawyer fee (~1-1.5%), all Reported.

Government fees on the residence-permit side: the e-fee (paravolo) for the main applicant is EUR 2,000, confirmed for renewal by the ministry's own wording ("amounting to 2.000 euro"); the initial-application fee for the main applicant and dependants is not published on the English ministry page. Unresolved. Residence-card printing is EUR 16 per person, Confirmed. Private health insurance is a mandatory required document, market-priced. Confirmed. On exit, there is no exit tax tied to the permit, and capital gains tax on individual property sales remains suspended - Reported, not re-verified this pass.

Time to permit: the backlog, and a new statutory clock

No official SLA existed before 2026. The defining fact of the program for most of its recent history has been the backlog: it peaked at roughly 52,821 pending applications in April 2025, fell to 47,909 by July 2025 and 42,390 by November 2025 after processing was decentralized to regional offices in March 2025; wait times had previously reached 18 months. Reported - IMI Daily reporting, cross-dated across two articles (accessed 17 July 2026).

Law 5275/2026 (gazetted 6 February 2026) introduced a statutory 90-day processing deadline, and 2026 law-firm guides report roughly 3-4 months actual processing for new filings. Reported - the law's existence and gazette date are solid per two independent professional-services summaries, but attribution of the specific Golden Visa provisions (the 90-day deadline itself) rests on Greek law-firm guides rather than the gazette text directly. Unresolved at gazette level.

The same law ended backdating: permits were historically dated back to the application date, so a long wait ate into the five-year validity period. The five-year card period now runs from the date the residence card is issued, not the application date. This changes only the validity window on the card - it does not change how time is counted toward long-term residence or citizenship. Reported - consistent across Greek law-firm guides; gazette-level confirmation of the specific Golden Visa articles is pending. A blue-paper receipt (bevaiosi) issued on filing lets the applicant reside legally in Greece while the application is pending. Reported.

Family

The permit extends to the spouse or registered partner, unmarried children under 21 (the investor's own and the spouse's), and the parents of both spouses - one of the widest family scopes among Europe's residency-by-investment programs. Dependants receive permits co-terminous with the investor's. Children may convert to their own status permit up to age 24, after which other permit categories apply. Reported - consistent across law-firm briefings including an EY immigration alert; the English ministry service page does not restate the family article itself.

Presence

Zero. Article 100 of Law 5038/2023 states plainly that "periods of absence from the country do not constitute an obstacle to the renewal" of the permit, and the ministry's own renewal-document checklist imposes no stay evidence. Confirmed - statute text as reproduced verbatim by a Greek law firm (accessed 15 July 2026).

The precision that matters: Golden Visa years spent without physical residence in Greece do not count toward the seven years of genuine residence required for long-term residence or citizenship, which carry their own separate presence tests. A zero-presence investment permit and a residence-based path to citizenship are two different clocks running side by side. Reported.

Term and permanence: renewable, but with new strings attached

The permit runs five years, renewable indefinitely in equal five-year terms, for as long as the property remains in the investor's ownership and possession (or the qualifying lease stays in force). Confirmed - art. 100 statute text, corroborated by the ministry's own renewal checklist ("the leasing of immovable property remains in force"). Renewals are assessed at the threshold that applied when the permit was first issued, with no forced top-up to a higher current tier. Confirmed - law-firm briefing quoting the statute directly.

Acquisitions made after Law 5100/2024 carry new use restrictions: no short-term rental (sharing-economy platform listings) and no sublease, and converted-use properties cannot serve as a company's registered seat. Penalties reach EUR 50,000 for short-term letting or unauthorized business use and EUR 150,000 for failing to complete a restoration within the first five-year term, plus permit revocation. Confirmed - law-firm briefing quoting the law directly, corroborated by a second firm. The rental ban covers lettings under roughly 60 days without services; long-term leases to hotel-type tourism operators remain permitted if additional services are offered, and permits issued under earlier frameworks are not subject to these new prohibitions. Reported.

Rule stability: the fastest-moving rulebook in the open set

Mechanics have held steady - family scope and the zero-presence rule are unchanged since the program's 2013 introduction. Price has not. The threshold doubled from EUR 250,000 to EUR 500,000 in prime zones in December 2022 (effective mid-2023 after a Parliament-extended transitional deadline), then was fully re-tiered to EUR 800,000 / 400,000 / 250,000-carve-out in 2024, with the 120 sqm minimum, single-property rule and short-term-rental ban added at the same time. Two severe threshold changes in roughly 20 months, each preceded by a deposit-based transitional window that pulled forward demand - applications hit a record 9,289 in 2024, up 9.6% on the prior record. A third and more recent shift, procedural rather than pricing, arrived via Law 5275/2026 (backdating ended, 90-day statutory deadline) and a 2026 anti-fraud circular that tightened documentation and extended the Russia/Belarus suspension. Three severe rule changes since 2022 is the weakest stability record among the open programs in this Index set. Confirmed - see the Closed Routes Record for the contrast with programs that closed outright.

Nationality access: Russia and Belarus suspended, with a renewals nuance

Initial applications from Russian and Belarusian nationals have been suspended since April 2022, imposed following the invasion of Ukraine; Belarusian nationals were named in the suspension from the start. As of Circular 1/2026, the suspension explicitly extends to change-of-purpose applications filed under Article 12 of Law 5038/2023. Reported - no primary Greek government instrument for the suspension has been located; the 2022 announcement was administrative, and current status rests on industry reporting of the 2026 circular.

The nuance that gets lost in most summaries: renewals for existing Russian and Belarusian permit holders were un-suspended as early as April 2022, the same month the initial-application suspension began - so an already-issued permit could still be renewed even while new applications from those nationalities remained blocked. Reported - Fragomen coverage from April 2022 explicitly distinguishes lifted renewal suspension from continuing initial-application suspension.

Dual citizens holding a Russian or Belarusian passport alongside a non-restricted one may apply on the non-restricted passport. Reported - law-firm practice notes. For all applicants, funds must move through traceable banking channels, and EU sanctions make transfers from Russian banks largely impracticable in practice. Reported. No other nationality restrictions were found in the sources reviewed.