Greece’s Investor Visa Scheme Brings in €1.5b in Revenues in 2023

Greece’s investor visa scheme which grants five-year residency rights to third country nationals who purchase property in the country has so far generated 1.32 billion euros from the beginning of the year.

More specifically, the Immigration and Asylum Ministry is expecting the modified program, which now limits the purchase to a single property and doubles the investment cost from 250,000 euros to 500,000 euros, to generate 1.5 billion euros in total by the end of 2023.

In the January-November period, a total of 9,459 applications for the purchase of real estate for residence had been submitted marking a 117 percent rise over the same11-month period a year ago.

At the same time, the number of golden visas granted so far this year, rose by 112 percent to 5,302. Meanwhile, there are currently 8,461 investor visa applications still pending approval with 7,490 of these concerning property purchases in Attica. Indicative of the demand, in the May 2022-May 2023 period, a total of 8,351 investor visa applications were submitted to Greek authorities.

The majority of buyers this year were from China (45 percent), Russia (14 percent), Turkey (10 percent), and Egypt (5 percent). Real estate professionals are expecting investors from Israel to express interest in the coming period.

Photo source: European Parliament / © AdS/hamzeh

After two extensions to the deadline, Greece finally raised the golden visa limit to 500,000 euros last August applicable to properties in the central, northern and southern sectors of Attica (wider Athens), on Mykonos, Santorini and in Thessaloniki.

Another change to the scheme concerns designated heritage properties. The goal of the revision, according to the finance ministry, is to incentivize their restoration.

Greece is one of the most popular destinations in Europe to invest through its highly sought-after golden visa scheme and ranked 7^th on a list of countries expected to attract millionaires, according to residence and citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners. Since its launch nearly a decade ago, the Greek golden visa program has generated 3 billion euros in investments.