Greece’s national economy minister, Kostis Hatzidakis, said that raising the minimum investment of the Greek golden visa might be imminent.
Hatzidakis did not specify the areas where the hike would apply. However, he said the investment might be doubled to €500,000, the current threshold in the country’s most popular areas.
“It seems that the doubling of the limit is possible in the two large urban centers of Athens and Thessaloniki,” says Konitsioti Rizou, attorney.
Konitsioti Rizou adds that the measure could extend to other areas where the impact of the golden visa has been found to cause housing pricing issues.
If the threshold is hiked, the only exception would be listed buildings; infrastructure of architectural or historic significance that often requires a considerable investment in renovation or maintenance.
“Only in the case of listed buildings will the investment threshold be kept low,” the attorney says. “Although no official figures are available on the total number and condition of listed buildings that are abandoned, the problem in Greek cities is evident and affects entire neighborhoods.”
However, as seen elsewhere in Europe, increased housing prices are often blamed on golden visas. Such was the case in Portugal, which scrapped its golden visa real estate route in 2023 under this guise and replaced it with investing in investment funds.
In Greece, the opposition figure Nikos Androulakis has recently vowed to launch a campaign to end the golden visa, citing increased housing prices.
Moreover, the lawyer questions why such views are targeting a program that has been incredibly beneficial to the Greek economy. Also many experts question why the program is being attacked while it has provided thousands of work opportunities across industries that have had very difficult years in the wake of the financial crisis achieving more thank 25,000 golden visa applications made since the program launched, yet the number isn’t large enough to dramatically impact housing prices. In fact, the golden visa program has stimulated the real estate market when it was severely underperforming.
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