Golden Visa: Greece raises its thresholds in sought-after areas

The residence permit for investors — the Greek Golden Visa — is governed by article 100 of the migration code, law 5038/2023. What has changed comes down to one article of a later law: article 64 of law 5100/2024, which raised the real estate investment thresholds.

The government's housing policy portal presents the measure as a response to pressure on the housing market: the aim is less to close the programme than to move it away from the areas where it fuels rising prices.

In the Attica region, the Thessaloniki district, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with a population of more than more than 3,100¹, the threshold rises from from €500,000² to €800,000³.

In the rest of the country, it rises from from €250,000⁴ to from €400,000⁵.

The effect is not just a general increase. Before the reform, the gap between high-demand areas and the rest of the country was a factor of two; it still is, but on doubled amounts. An investor who targeted Athens for the low threshold must now commit nearly twice what a mainland region requires.

The island criterion deserves careful reading: it is the island's population that determines the applicable threshold, not its fame as a tourist destination. A sparsely populated island falls under the low threshold, whatever the value of its market.

The scheme is aimed at third-country nationals investing in Greek real estate, and gives them a permanent investor residence permit, which can be extended to family members. It does not in itself confer tax residency or citizenship: these are three separate questions, and confusing them is the most common mistake.

For a taxpayer who is also interested in a Greek tax regime, the flat-rate taxation programme for wealthy individuals is governed by separate texts, with its own thresholds and its own duration requirements.

The high-net-worth regime requires proof of an investment in Greece of at least €500,000⁶ and involves payment of an annual flat tax of €100,000⁷ covering foreign-source income. It is reserved for those who have not been Greek tax residents for seven of the previous eight years.

A second, separate regime targets foreign retirees: it applies a flat rate of 7%⁸ to all foreign-source income, for a period of 15 years⁹.

The thresholds for the residence permit and those for the tax regimes are therefore not the same, and meeting one does not mean meeting the other. These are three schemes, with three different prior-residence conditions.

1. First determine the area: the applicable threshold depends on the property's exact location and, for an island, on its population;
2. check the transitional arrangements before signing a preliminary contract: a transaction begun under the old threshold is not necessarily subject to the new one, but this depends on the implementing provisions;
3. do not reason on the purchase price alone: duties, fees and holding taxes come on top and are not covered by the threshold;
4. deal separately with the question of tax residency, which the residence permit does not settle.

The precise date on which the new thresholds took effect and the transitional arrangements for transactions begun before the reform do not appear on the government page consulted on 26 September 2026. This point is decisive for an application in progress: it must be checked in the text of law 5100/2024 and its implementing provisions.

A reduced threshold is mentioned for properties undergoing a change of use or listed properties, as well as a minimum floor area for certain properties. The page consulted does not document them, so we do not quantify them here.

Finally, restrictions have been introduced on the use of properties acquired through this route, particularly with regard to short-term letting. They are governed by separate texts and must be examined before any rental yield calculation.