Nearly €5.54 million have been estimated to enter the Greek real estate market through the Golden Visa Program over its nearly ten years of operation.
The data from the Migration Ministry of Greece also revealed that the total number of permanent investor permits issued or to be issued soon based on pending applications reached 22,298.
However, a report from Ekathimerini indicates that the total amount is higher after some investors did not limit themselves to acquiring property worth €250,000.
According to Ekathimerini, Vasilis Livadas, of housing development company Green Properties, “many of our clients proceeded to purchase other homes as well, as their goal was to secure high returns and income through exploitation.”
The President of real estate development and management company V2 Development, Vangelis Kteniadis, said that nearly 99 per cent of investors who buy properties in the Hellenic Republic with the aim of securing a residence permit rent them out, mainly long term.
Therefore, the Golden Visa is not responsible for the problem of closed properties.
Greece’s Golden Visa Program permits internationals to acquire residency in exchange for financial investment.
Last year alone, a total of 4,231 new licenses were granted, nearly double the number issued in 2022.
The figures from the Immigration and Asylum Ministry of Greece revealed that last year, the scheme brought to the country a total of €1.32 billion.
In spite of significantly contributing to the country’s economy, the program has led to a shortage of apartments for residents of Greece. Under the same concerns, last month, Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), called on the government to put an end to this scheme.
Androulakis urged the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, not to operate his office as an estate agency, calling on him to put an end to the Golden Visa Program.
In order to increase the affordability of real estate for citizens of Greece, in August last year, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the minimum amount required from foreigners for investment in the Golden Visa Program was increased from €250,000 to €500,000 in some parts of the country.
However, Androulakis didn’t consider such a decision an effective way to deal with the challenges the Greek housing market is facing.
The government thinks it is dealing with the problem by raising the golden visa threshold to €500,000 in Athens while leaving, for example, the limit at €250,000 in Piraeus. Is there anything in downtown Athens that hasn’t been bought?
The leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) said that he would initiate a campaign against the Residency by Investment scheme.
