Is Golden Visa losing shine?
Small decline in the number of investment-for-residence permit applications in January-June
The Golden Visa program that offers five-year residence permits to non-EU nationals who make sizable investments in Greece has started to show signs of decline.
It follows nearly two frantic years for buyers due to successive changes to the minimum investment threshold in order to secure the coveted permit.
Based on Ministry of Migration and Asylum data, from January to June 4,100 requests for residence permits were submitted. This figure lags that of last year by 3.3%, as in the first half of 2023 4,150 applications were submitted. It is the first sign that the property buying spree by investors who wanted to make the deadline for the cap changes, both last year and this year, is coming to an end.
Some months ago the government announced an increase in the investment threshold to 800,000 euros, for all of Attica, Thessaloniki and all islands with over 3,100 inhabitants. A window of a few months was given, until September 1, for the changes to take effect, resulting in a very high volume of buying and selling by foreign citizens from countries outside the EU wishing to secure a permit with either €250,000 or €500,000.
In the last 18 months, more than 10,000 applications have been submitted to secure a residence permit, causing significant delays in the process of granting the documents. Based on this year’s January-June data, the number of pending applications amounts to 9,407, of which 5,330 concern applications submitted in 2023, demonstrating the extent of the backlog.
Based on the number of pending permits, the total number of investors from non-EU countries who have received or are going to receive a Golden Visa in the near future will reach 26,370 since the start of the program in mid-2014. This figure translates into capital inflows of at least €6.6 billion, with property market players estimating the final figure to be higher as not all beneficiaries have just bought a €250,000 property but have also invested in other properties of higher value than the minimum required.
