Greece Sees High Investment Interest Through Golden Visa Program

Photo source: @Athens Attica

Greece’s golden visa program, which grants five-year residency rights to investors who purchase property valued at a minimum of 250,000 euros, is attracting more buyers due to political and economic instability in their countries, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports.

Residents of Turkey, Lebanon, India, Iran and Russia are looking to buy property in Greece and benefit from access rights to the EU.

Indicatively, according to Greece’s migration and asylum ministry, a total of 576 permits were granted to Russian buyers in 2021 up by 79 percent year on year, 304 permits to Lebanese investors up by 71 percent, and 605 to buyers from Turkey, up by 15.5 percent. In 2021, Greek authorities issued 478 new permits to Chinese investors marking an 8 percent increase over 2020.

Thanks to its strategic position and proximity to the Mediterranean and Europe, Greece is winning over investors at a time when currencies in their countries are losing ground.

According to experts cited by Kathimerini, buyers from India are also looking to buy in Greece, seeking easy access to EU and Schengen countries provided by the investor visa scheme.

The new markets are expected to mitigate losses incurred by the Covid-19 pandemic which put a stop to purchases by the Chinese who were among the top property buyers in 2019 and are now unable to travel due to coronavirus restrictions.