Golden Visa: Rush to sell before limits go up – 2024-08-23 01:21:56

New rules will enter the Golden Visa program from September 1st that will change the map of the real estate market.

As long as the low limit of 250,000 euros for the purchase of property and the acquisition of the Golden Visa by foreign nationals is still valid, owners and builders are rushing to close deals mainly for forgotten properties, half-finished buildings, old single-family houses, but also for larger properties that want to withdraw them from the leases due to age.

In a ten-day period, the Golden Visa program becomes more expensive as the limit for acquiring property in many areas of Attica, Thessaloniki and some tourist islands, goes to 800,000 euros, making the purchase of property largely unprofitable.

The “game” of the transitional period moved and is moving on two fronts according to the ERT report:

1. Those who had or still have, ready for use, real estate worth less than the current limit of 250,000 euros, try to sell higher through mainly real estate agencies, to interested Chinese, Turks, Israelis, Americans and others. These are mainly freelancers who live in Greece or have obtained a residence permit through Golden Visa and are engaged in the search for almost ready properties to resell to third parties who want the “golden visa”.
2. The second case involves half-finished properties or others that need work and renovation, and the owners are looking for construction companies to complete them and then themselves make them available through Golden Visa. Here the procedures are more complex and costly, as yes the owner wants to sell above the 250,000 euro limit, but the builders avoid the specific properties due to the burdens arising beyond the market (finishing works, supply of the foreign broker with which they cooperate with (in the case of China it reaches 20%), VAT, other taxes, etc.).

The new regime

In the direction of normalizing the housing problem, the government has legislated since last spring a new regime for the granting of a 5-year residence permit to citizens of third countries (Golden Visa). According to this:

• In the Region of Attica, the Regional Units of Thessaloniki, Mykonos and Santorini and on the islands with a population of over 3,100 inhabitants, the value of the real estate that the interested party must own increases to 800,000 euros.
  In the rest of the country, the value of real estate is 400,000 euros. In any case, the investment must be made in one property (not in several properties of lesser value) of at least 120 sq.m. It is allowed to purchase a percentage of a property in undivided co-ownership, the minimum value of which is respectively 800,000 and 400,000 euros.
• For buildings that currently have a different use and are converted into residences, the minimum investment amount is 250,000 euros. The conversion of use must be completed before submitting the request for the residence permit.
• The limit is also set at 250,000 euros if it is an investment in a listed building that is to be restored. It should be noted that for changes of use, i.e. from e.g. industrial to residential, etc., as for listed properties, no minimum square footage limits are provided for properties for sale.

The Golden Visa program is expected to set a new record this year, with the amount of investments moving above 3 billion euros. Last year, funds flowed in from abroad topped 2.54 billion euros, up from 1.3 billion euros in 2022, with applications submitted reaching 8,516 and final approvals for the program standing at 1,802.