Fresh Golden Visa concerns
Real estate professionals, foreign investors and homeowners have been concerned in the past few days over the precise changes being planned to the Golden Visa program.
One common theme in the opinions expressed to Kathimerini is that if the minimum amount of the investment is set at 800,000 euros in the whole of Attica and Thessaloniki, the program will lose its competitiveness and most investors will turn to other countries, where the cost of securing a residence permit in exchange for the investment is lower. For example, in Cyprus, the threshold is at €300,000 and in Spain at €500,000.
If, however, a middle-ground solution is chosen, so that there are areas in Attica where the minimum limit will start at €400,000, it is estimated that purchasing interest may continue, but without the excess of the recent past, therefore decompressing prices.
However, in that case investors will turn almost exclusively to newly built properties, especially if they are in areas without high demand, such as the western suburbs of Athens or other peripheral markets of Attica. But what everyone wishes to avoid is a repeat of last year’s phenomenon of a spike in demand, precisely because of the changes made to the program. The doubling of the threshold from €250,000 to €500,000 in the most popular parts of Attica (center, northern and southern suburbs), had the effect of multiplying sales, as investors wanted to make a move before the changes went into effect.
Then, as there continued to be areas where the limit was at €250,000, they turned toward them, with the result that in this case too there was a sharp rise in prices, creating a distortion in the housing market.
The example of Piraeus is the most characteristic, with the Spitogatos online classifieds network on Tuesday publishing an analysis of the evolution of sale and rental prices for houses in the wider area.
It found that in 2023 alone, the average asking price increased by 15.9% in the center of Piraeus, while in its suburbs the increase reached 19.5%, so that rates reached €2,00 per square meter and €1,653 euros/sq.m. respectively.
