New law sparks Golden Visa rush

After six years of arranging viewings on an almost daily basis for fellow Chinese nationals coming to Greece in search of good property deals, Peter Chang had to hang up his realtor’s hat three years ago, when the pandemic brought business to a halt.

Despite continued restrictions on travel, however, the past couple of months have seen a surge in fresh interest from the Asian market and his phone has started ringing again with calls from realtors and lawyers looking for help to speed up the process. Why? Because of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ announcement at the Thessaloniki International Fair in September that the cost of acquiring a Golden Visa – a special visa with greater privileges linked to real estate investments and the main reason for Chinese interest in Greek real estate – would rise from 250,000 to 500,000 euros.

“It allows them to travel to Europe without the hassle and restrictions of a regular visa. You can’t even buy a parking space for 250,000 euros in Beijing, so it’s worthwhile as an investment, which is why everyone is rushing now,” says Chang.

He is already in touch with 30 lawyers and a similar number of realtors. Most do business with Chinese clients, if not exclusively then mainly, and client numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Back then, of course, Chang would organize every aspect of the clients’ visit: booking tickets and hotel rooms, recommending restaurants (only Chinese ones) for meals and providing a car and a Chinese chauffeur to drive them around. It’s a well-known fact, after all, that investors from that country expect their destination to be “China ready” ahead of their visit. Most of the business is now carried out by Facetime: the client in China and Chang translating for the realtor giving a virtual tour of the property in question.

From 2014 to August 2022, Greek authorities issued 5,945 Golden Visas to Chinese nationals, and Chang has some stories to tell. He remembers a time when real estate companies would send out teams of scouts on motorcycles to look for sales signs, take them down and communicate directly with the seller, promising to get the property off their hands immediately. “It goes without saying that many homes were sold way above their actual value. I know Chinese people who later learned that the property they bought for 250,000 euros had been standing empty for months even though the going price back then was much lower,” he recalls. Chang believes that the planned change will not curb interest from China and is the right thing to do for the Greeks, “so they can find homes at more reasonable prices.”

The actual framework is due to be announced within the coming weeks. If it raises the limit to €500,000 but allows investors to make that sum with two or more smaller purchases, the government will fail at securing the desired result of increasing the number of more affordable properties available to local buyers. Kathimerini understands that all the different facets of the issue are still under discussion.

‘You can’t even buy a parking space for 250,000 euros in Beijing, so it’s worthwhile as an investment’

The full package

Lebanese lawyer Estelle Ramy has lived in Greece for the past four years and her main occupation is helping people back home, but also from Iraq and Egypt, get a Golden Visa. Her clients are also in a rush to close a deal before the new limit is introduced.

Ramy had lived in Iraq for a few years and one of her jobs was validating powers of attorney and authorizations for various embassies – including the Greek one. She saw how the Greek Golden Visa program was one of the strongest in Europe and decided to move to Greece and create a network of associates, such as realtors, insurance brokers, drivers and travel agents. This has allowed her to offer clients the whole package: They are met at the airport, shown three or four houses that they’ve already approved from photographs and then do a spot of tourism. She takes them to restaurants and gives them shopping tips, and almost all of them ask for an outing to a bouzouki club.

When the economic crisis struck Lebanon, many of her clients decided to move to Greece permanently. She helps them make the transition, pick a school for their children and even to open a business – one of her clients, in fact, is just about to open a beauty salon in the hip Athens district of Koukaki. Ramy is with them every step of the way, especially for the sales transaction.

“I can’t leave anything to chance because I had a lot of strange experiences in the early days,” she tells Kathimerini. “Mediators suddenly turning up and asking for a cut hours before the contracts were to be signed, not to mention learning at the last minute that the property had already been sold through some other realtor dealing directly with the seller.”

Interest from Turkey

A Turkish realtor working in Greece can also confirm the fresh surge in interest and the scramble to buy since the prime minister made his announcement. Some Turkish media had even reported that the measure would have retroactive effect, leading to a barrage of phone calls. Having lived in Greece since 2017 and knowing the slow pace of the Greek state, she tried to reassure potential clients that the change was not imminent.

Her firm estimates that there has been a 50% rise in contracts since the announcement was made in September and an even greater increase in expressions of interest. Nevertheless, the firm, which she declined to name as she did not want to disclose her own name, is extremely cautious about who it does business with. “If we don’t know the client from a referral, we tell them we’re too busy to help. We don’t want to waste time on people who aren’t genuinely interested,” she says.

There is, however, another reason why she – and another two Turkish realtors Kathimerini reached out to – is so cautious. “Obviously we’re not doing anything illegal, but there is a sense of ‘you never know.’ Some people are even being persecuted for a comment they made on Facebook,” she says, referring to the crackdown on dissent in her native Turkey.

The situation in her country after the attempted 2016 coup is actually one of the main reasons why Turks started buying property in Greece (585 up until August of this year). She doesn’t think interest will wane if the Golden Visa level is raised and believes that her clients will turn to the upscale Athens suburbs of Kolonaki and Glyfada once more, which is where earlier interest from Turks was almost exclusively concentrated.