Golden Visa homes rented out
A total of 5.54 billion euros is estimated to have flowed into the real estate market and the economy in general through the Golden Visa program during its nearly 10 years of operation. Based on the latest data from the Migration Ministry, the total number of permanent investor permits issued (or to be issued in the coming months based on pending applications), amounts to 22,298.
Of course, it is estimated that the total amount is higher, as some investors did not limit themselves to acquiring only one property worth €250,000. On the contrary, as Vasilis Livadas, of housing development company Green Properties, said on Friday, “many of our clients proceeded to purchase other homes as well, as their goal was to secure high returns and income through exploitation.”
Livadas was among the participants in a discussion on the Golden Visa scheme in the context of the 1st Real Estate Conference this week.
About 99% of investors who buy properties in Greece, with the aim of securing a residence permit, rent them out, mainly long-term, noted Vangelis Kteniadis, president of real estate development and management company V2 Development. “Therefore, the Golden Visa is not responsible for the problem of closed properties,” he argued.
In 2023 alone, 4,231 new licenses were granted, a number that was almost 100% higher than in 2022. It is noteworthy that last year a total of 8,351 investor license requests were submitted, a number that surpassed any previous year, equivalent to real estate purchases with a total value of more than €2 billion.
Today, 7,596 applications are pending, a development that is certainly due to the overloading of services. As mentioned by Alexandros Risvas, managing partner of the company Risvas & Associates, “we have applications from our office on behalf of our clients, which have a submission date from March 2023, but they have not yet been approved, due to the large volume of requests that have accumulated.”
The explosion of applications is certainly due to the corresponding jump in the sales observed in 2023, due to the changes in the program.
