Golden Visa turns 10 – and what a decade it’s been
Kathimerini speaks to people familiar with the scheme designed to lure property investors with a European Union residence permit
It was a networking lunch at a modern taverna in the downtown Athens district of Kolonos, bringing together a building contractor, two buyers, an architect, a journalist and an intermediary, from Lebanon, Syria and Sweden, while also including two Greeks. “Forget Kolonaki,” one of the Greeks resonded to a comment by one of his fellow diners, a Syrian looking to buy a property that would secure him a Golden Visa, referring to the upscale Athenian neighborhood. “Kolonos is on the rise and you can find all sorts of good opportunities here.” “It’s 500,000 euros for the city center, but €250,000 for Piraeus or the Riviera,” added the Lebanese realtor, referring to the market name for Athens’ southern coast.
T., the Syrian – who watched his business turn to rubble in August 2020 – represents a new wave of Golden Visa clients. These are individuals from places such as Syria, Lebanon, Iran or Egypt looking for a safe place to settle with their families after fleeing war and/or social and economic strife.
Greece seems like a good choice not just because of its geographical proximity to their own countries but also because of the cultural similarities. Israelis have also been coming in droves, seeing opportunities for big investments and buying up multiple units, from office spaces on Syngrou Avenue to villas and maisonettes with a sea view, which they renovate and then resell or rent out.
Athens-Beirut
“This category [of investors] has very different characteristics to the Chinese, who came to Greece for other reasons too, but also with a lot less money. And they all say that Athens reminds them of Beirut, of the East,” Maher Abillama, the Lebanese real estate investor and consultant – and beneficiary of the Golden Visa program – told Kathimerini a few days later.
“I’ve been seeing a lot of people these days as we’re putting together a new project,” he says of the family business that has branches in 20 countries and expanded to Greece over a year ago.
“When we first started out, we arranged sales in the €250,000 range, but not anymore. We are aiming for a much more selective audience now, so only businesses like ours would benefit if the Golden Visa threshold were to be raised to €800,000,” he adds, referring to speculation about further increases in the threshold, which has already gone up to €500,000 in certain areas. [Editor’s note: In fact it was announced this week, after this article was written, that the government is set to move ahead with changes to the Golden Visa program, including raising the minimum investment to €800,000 in certain areas.]
“There are a lot of islands in Greece where you can invest. We’re looking at those close to Athens nowadays, like Kea, because our clients want to feel the safety of having a hospital and an airport nearby. Most of our clients are older, you see. We’re also looking at the Athenian Riviera, another very attractive destination,” added Abillama.
One of the terms for acquiring a residence permit via the Golden Visa program, in fact, requires beneficiaries to have private health insurance or to be able to prove that they are in a position to cover any healthcare costs that may arise.
Good neighbors
Turks also rank high among Golden Visa beneficiaries, having found a good opportunity close to home. One such case is that of S. She and her husband are in the tourism business and decided to invest in the Greek Golden Visa program a year-and-a-half ago, buying a 100-square meter apartment in the central Athens district of Neos Kosmos for roughly €500,000.
“We saw an investment opportunity. We’ve been visiting Greece for years and love it. We like the people – they are always kind and friendly – the climate and the food. Athens and the islands offer all sorts of great opportunities,” she told Kathimerini.
They stay in their apartment when they’re in Athens and rent it out through short-term rental platforms when they’re not.
Greece seems like a good choice not just because of its geographical proximity to their own countries but also because of the cultural similarities
“We didn’t get the visa so we could travel in the Schengen zone, because we can get a visa to anywhere. But we had some money put aside and saw a smart way to invest in another country and open a new window of opportunity. We travel a lot anyway,” explained S., of the reasons why they applied for the Golden Visa.
“The experience was pretty good, but the paperwork took a long time. There’s so much bureaucracy,” she said.
Despite the interest from Turkey, the list of Golden Visa investors is steadily topped by China, figures from the Migration Ministry show.
Russians were also high on the list until the European Union imposed sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine in 2021, while a significant rise in interest has also been noted in 2021-2023 from the United Kingdom after Brexit and the United States, in addition to the Middle East.
“Before the pandemic, I always felt like I could travel to any country I wanted, even with my Chinese passport. In 2022, we had a very strict lockdown in Shanghai. They initially told us it would only be for four days, but it was for 60. By the second week of the lockdown, I started to feel really trapped and began to think, like in a movie, how I would escape,” K., an educator from China, told Kathimerini, looking back on the days when she started dreaming of Greece. With so much time on her hands during the lockdown, she began searching the internet until she came across several ads for agencies that helped Chinese nationals get Golden Visas in the European Union’s cheapest destination for the scheme.
“I started talking to two agents and they’d show me apartments in videos and photographs. Most of them were a mess, but I didn’t mind that much because securing a visa was my priority,” said K., who eventually ended up finding an apartment through an architect friend of a friend.
K. is among the 10,302 Chinese nationals who have invested in a Greek Golden Visa, and even though the rules of the program require that beneficiaries spend at least six months of the year in Greece, she rarely visits. Indeed, many Chinese Golden Visa beneficiaries use their properties only as a way to generate revenue, a fact that has caused a lot of reactions in Greece.
“I came to Athens after spending 10 days in Paris and London, to see the apartment. I had already rented it out to a young man for €680. It’s a renovated apartment of 102 square meters, near Solomou Street in the city center. I admit I was shocked when I saw the neighborhood. There were three drug addicts shooting up in the building’s entrance. It’s a scene that’s stayed with me. It’s so different from China, where we are protected from such things,” K. told Kathimerini.
Central Park to Paros
Interest from China has ebbed since 2023 and is expected to wane further from such “traditional” markets since the Golden Visa limit was raised from €250,000 to €500,000 for specific areas. In the meantime, though, activity has been increasing among Americans, who are 11th on the list.
“I’m a retired banker from New York. I’ve traveled all over the world for my job and also lived in Greece for a while as a young girl. When I retired, I wanted to work with refugees, which is something I had done in college, and decided to come to Greece for two weeks as a volunteer. That was in March 2016 and I basically ended up staying to help in any way I could,” N. told Kathimerini, with a good deal of hesitation.
“I ended up buying one of the oldest houses on Paros. It’s 500 years old, in a village with a church. I even renovated the church and now all the ladies in black – I call them ‘the widows’ – love me,” she added, going on to explain how she became interested in the Golden Visa scheme.
“It’s a really good investment in every respect, because property prices have, unfortunately, skyrocketed and opportunities for a Golden Visa are drying up in other countries. The house I wanted was owned by many different members of the same family, who didn’t necessarily get on well together, so it was really difficult, but we eventually sorted out the titles of ownership and I got it,” she said.
“What I realized is that Greek realtors don’t help as much as they should, so the notary and lawyer you hire really need to know their stuff,” she added.
N. owns properties all over the world and does not believe that the Golden Visa scheme is what’s causing problems in the Greek property market, but the proliferation of short-term rentals. “I see it on Paros, where workers, teachers, have nowhere to stay. It’s terrible.”
As for the possibility of the Golden Visa threshold being raised to €800,000, N. believes it is a move designed to attract bigger investments, especially on the islands, and to get away from the “nickel-and-dimers.”
“There’s also a lot of pressure because of corruption and money laundering. The goal in the EU is for sales to be carried out through companies, with more transparency. After all, it always comes down to money,” said the retired banker.
