Greece Golden Visa Thresholds in 2026: The €800,000 and €400,000 Rules Explained
Greece Golden Visa Thresholds in 2026: The €800,000 and €400,000 Rules Explained
If you want a Greece Golden Visa through property, the entry price is now €800,000 in the country's prime zones and €400,000 almost everywhere else. Those figures come from Law 5100/2024, which parliament passed in March 2024 and which took effect for the property route on 1 September 2024. The old flat €250,000 minimum that made Greece the cheapest golden visa in Europe is gone for standard purchases.
Here is the part most listings pages skip. The two tiers are not about price bands you get to choose. They are tied to geography, and the law draws the line precisely.
Where the €800,000 tier applies
The higher €800,000 minimum covers the entire Region of Attica (all of greater Athens), the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, the islands of Mykonos and Santorini (Thira), and every island with a registered population above 3,100 inhabitants. In practice that captures the places foreign buyers actually want: central Athens, the southern Athenian Riviera, Thessaloniki, and the popular Cyclades.
Everywhere else, the threshold is €400,000. That includes most of the mainland, the Peloponnese, and the smaller, less populated islands.
The 120 square metre single-property rule
Under Law 5100/2024 the qualifying investment must be a single property of at least 120 square metres. You can no longer assemble the minimum from several small apartments across different buildings. This closed a common structuring tactic where investors bought a cluster of studios to hit the old €250,000 mark.
There is one surviving low-entry route. A €250,000 investment still qualifies if it involves converting a commercial property to residential use, or restoring a listed (protected) building. These carry their own documentation burden and completion deadlines, and the conversion must be genuine, not cosmetic.
The short-term rental ban
This is the change that catches investors by surprise. Property acquired for the Golden Visa cannot be let out on short-term platforms such as Airbnb, and it cannot be used as the registered seat of a company. If your investment thesis was buy in Athens, list on Airbnb, and let the yield cover the holding cost, that model no longer works for a Golden Visa property. Breaching the restriction can put the residence permit itself at risk.
Why the change happened
The thresholds did not move by accident. Between 2013 and 2023 the €250,000 minimum turned Greece into the entry point of choice for the European golden visa market, and a heavy concentration of that money landed in central Athens and the popular islands. Local rents rose, inventory tightened, and the government responded by pricing the programme out of the neighbourhoods under the most pressure while keeping it open in regions that want the investment. That is the logic behind the geographic split: push capital away from saturated prime zones and toward everywhere else at half the price.
What the permit still gives you
The core benefits are unchanged. A Greece Golden Visa grants a five-year renewable residence permit for the investor and immediate family (spouse, children up to 21, and dependent parents), visa-free travel across the Schengen Area, and no minimum-stay requirement to keep the permit alive. Greece remains one of the few programmes where you are not required to physically live in the country. Citizenship is a separate and much longer track, requiring seven years of residence and actual physical presence, which a pure investment permit does not build toward on its own.
The due diligence gap
The threshold rules are public. What buyers rarely check is who they are buying from. A large share of foreign purchases in Athens and the islands are off-plan or newly built units sold by developers whose delivery record is impossible to see from a glossy brochure. A developer that has slipped on handover dates or delivered below spec on previous projects is a real risk when your residence permit depends on completing a compliant, registered purchase. Platforms like Bektu (https://bektu.com) let you check a developer's actual delivery history before you commit capital, which matters more now that the minimum ticket has tripled in prime areas.
Practical sequence for a compliant purchase
Get a Greek tax number (AFM) and open a Greek bank account, both of which non-residents can arrange through a lawyer with power of attorney. Transfer the funds through the banking system so the source is documented, because the migration authorities will want a clean paper trail. Complete the purchase before a notary, register the deed, then file the residence application with proof that the qualifying amount was actually paid, not merely contracted. The permit is issued against completed, registered investment, not a signed reservation.
The €400,000 and €800,000 figures are the headline, but the 120 square metre rule, the rental ban, and the geographic zoning are what decide whether a specific property actually qualifies. Read the law, not the sales deck.
Sources
- Law 5100/2024: Key Points and Implications (Watson Farley & Williams)
- Greek Golden Visa Regime: conditions for qualifying property become stricter (Zepos & Yannopoulos)
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