In order not to block the market and in particular construction companies that have purchased with 250,000 euros properties that are already being built or renovated, the government is gearing up for a long transition period to tighten the Golden Visa limits.

Following the revelation of the regulation by Proto Thema, requests from developers and property owners to the government began to “rain down” in order to give sufficient time for houses, plots of land, industrial properties and anything else that has been purchased in areas where the Golden Visa limit is currently set at 250,000 euros.

This is because building permits have already been issued at 250,000 euros, reconstruction work has begun elsewhere and is being completed elsewhere, in order to make these properties available to foreign investors who want to acquire the “Golden Visa”. In other words, the residence permit and free movement in the Schengen countries without restrictions.

The request has reportedly been accepted and one scenario envisages a long transitional period until 30 September when the old limits will apply.

It is possible that the two regimes will run in parallel: The old limits for “routed” properties and the new limits for new purchases.

However, the new limits are expected to be announced today and will provide for the following:

– Investors will have to buy with 800,000 or 400,000 euros (depending on the region) a property that will also have to be 120 sqm or larger.

– An investment of 800,000 euros for the purchase of a property in the Region of Attica, the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, Mykonos and Santorini and islands with a population of more than 3,000 inhabitants

– Investment of EUR 400 000 for the purchase of property in the rest of Greece.

The current low investment threshold of 250,000 euros remains for only two cases, which effectively “premiumise” certain properties, regardless of the region in which they are located:

-Restored properties to be restored.
-Restored properties that will be renovated to make them habitable.

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The reconstructions must be done by the investor and certified by the State to qualify the property for the low purchase threshold.

To date, approximately 20,000 investor permanent residence permits have been issued for an equivalent number of properties.

And it is estimated that the approximately 10 construction companies interested in the Golden Visa program in Greece have already purchased dozens of plots of land, apartment buildings, closed and old properties that they are preparing for Chinese, Turkish and Israeli investors.

Once these are made available then the future of the programme with the new and stricter limits will become clear.

What is certain, however, is that in areas with a severe housing problem, buying property through Golden Visa will not be advantageous and the method of buying more small houses to “catch” the program’s limit cannot be applied from now on, while in practice the possibilities of using the larger properties will be mainly for owner-occupation and not for exploitation through Airbnb.