What this guide covers
This guide helps you decide what to verify before buying a property for a Greece Golden Visa application. Start with three separate questions: can your household use the residence route, does the exact property meet its conditions, and can you afford the full purchase and ownership costs? A property price alone answers none of them.
The route table and checklists below concern a new property-led application. Earlier acquisitions and transitional cases need a review of their own dates and records. This is an editorial planning guide, not a property approval or a personal legal assessment.
What is the Greece Golden Visa in 2026?
The property-investor permit, type B.5, is a renewable Greek residence permit generally issued for five years under the applicable conditions. It is not citizenship and does not automatically grant the right to work elsewhere in Europe. Keeping the qualifying investment and meeting renewal requirements matter throughout ownership, not only when the first application is filed.
Use the Ministry’s Circular 1/2026 for the current property-rule clarifications. Do not rely on an older advertisement that treats every €250,000 apartment as eligible.
Who is eligible: investor, family, dependents
Have an immigration lawyer review the applicant’s nationality, lawful-entry position, public-order requirements, insurance and proposed investment before payment. Where nationality restrictions or sanctions may apply, obtain current advice on the actual applicant and payment chain; a second passport is not an automatic clearance.
Eligible family categories include a spouse or qualifying partner, unmarried children under 21 subject to the relevant relationship and custody conditions, and direct ascendants. The 2026 amendment also provides a specific category for adult children lacking legal capacity, with residence, support and evidence conditions. Family members require their own applications and permits; sharing an investment does not mean sharing one application.
Read the family eligibility and document-planning guide before reserving a home. Source: Law 5275/2026, Article 29.
Investment routes and minimum thresholds
| Decision | What to check |
|---|---|
| Standard purchase: €800,000 | Attica, the Thessaloniki Regional Unit, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with more than 3,100 inhabitants under the applicable census. Verify the exact administrative location. |
| Standard purchase: €400,000 | Other qualifying locations. For standard built-property purchases, the investment concerns one property with at least 120 m² of main spaces; marketing floor area is not sufficient evidence. |
| Change of use: €250,000 | One property whose main spaces change to residential use under the applicable conditions. Conversion must be completed before the residence application. The standard 120 m² minimum does not apply. |
| Listed property: €250,000 | One qualifying listed property subject to restoration/reconstruction obligations. Completion matters for the first renewal; transfer before required completion is restricted. |
These are minimum investment amounts, not all-in prices or approval guarantees. Confirm the legal unit, purchase terms, payment evidence and route-specific documents. The special routes are not ordinary low-price apartments. See the conversion-property checklist and the detailed investment-budget guide.
Startup and other capital-investment residence routes have different legal conditions. Do not apply the property table to them or assume a fund subscription and an apartment purchase have the same risks. Review any non-property route separately with a qualified adviser.
Total cost beyond the property price
Separate the qualifying investment from money needed to complete and hold the purchase. Request written quotations with taxes, exclusions and payment dates. An unknown cost should remain unknown, not appear as zero.
| Decision | What to check |
|---|---|
| Acquisition | Exact-unit price, applicable transaction tax, notary, registration, legal and technical checks, and any agreed agency fee. |
| Residence applications | Charges for each applicant, card issuance, insurance, translations, legalisation where required and immigration professional fees. |
| Handover and ownership | Unfinished works, furnishing, utilities, building charges, ENFIA, maintenance and a reserve for periods without rent. |
Illustration only: if a buyer enters €250,000 for the unit, €20,000 for separately estimated transaction/application costs and €15,000 for setup/reserve, the planning total is €285,000. Those extra figures are invented inputs to demonstrate addition, not market fee estimates or an assurance that €285,000 is enough. Replace every input with your own quotations using the purchase-budget worksheet.
Step-by-step process and timeline
Agree a written sequence with the professionals responsible: applicant review → exact-property legal and technical checks → payment and contract arrangements → completion of route-specific conditions → application → required appointments and decision. Some work can run in parallel, but the application depends on the required evidence being ready.
Track property delivery separately from residence processing. A renovation handover date is not a permit date. Ask who owns each outstanding action, which evidence closes it and what happens if it is delayed. Request a case-specific estimate that states which stages it covers and the assumptions behind it.
Confirm personal attendance and biometric arrangements for each applicant before booking travel. Representation can be possible for parts of the process; neither remote filing nor a power of attorney guarantees that everything can be completed in one trip. Ask your lawyer for the current applicant-specific document list.
Where to buy: Athens and other priority areas
Compare locations against the use of the home: daily living, permitted letting or occasional stays. Test the actual journey to schools, work and transport; inspect light, noise, lift access and building condition. A neighbourhood name cannot establish investment eligibility or future rental demand.
Use our Athens area comparison to prepare viewings. For each unit, collect its asking price, documented main area, condition, route evidence and running costs. Do not substitute a city-wide yield estimate for a calculation on the property you are considering.
How to compare property proposals in 2026
A useful property comparison is an evidence log. For each proposal, mark the unit identity, price, legal route, permit records, remaining works and handover terms as received, missing or awaiting professional review. A seller’s statement and an adviser’s verified conclusion are different entries.
If a seller claims a return, ask for its rent, vacancy, expense and tax assumptions. Compare those assumptions using the rental-return planning guide; do not treat an example as a forecast.
Benefits, trade-offs, and the risk reality
A Greek residence permit can support residence in Greece and short visits to other Schengen states under the applicable travel rules, generally 90 days in any 180 outside the issuing state. It does not grant unrestricted residence or employment in every EU country. See the European Commission’s explanation.
The property-investor route does not itself provide an employment authorisation. Check each family member’s actual permit category, especially after a change to an autonomous status. Health insurance is an application requirement; do not assume the permit alone creates unrestricted free public-healthcare entitlement.
Selling the qualifying property can trigger revocation of the seller’s permit; the consequence is not merely failure at the next renewal. Obtain advice before sale, replacement or a change in the investment. Also check the additional transfer restrictions for listed-property cases.
Greek tax residence and special tax regimes are separate assessments. Citizenship is a separate procedure under the Citizenship Code, with residence and other requirements; holding an investment for seven years is not a passport entitlement, and a tax-residence day count is not a complete citizenship test.
Greece vs alternatives in 2026
If comparing Greece with another programme, use the same questions for each: what investment is actually accepted, what residence it grants, whether employment is allowed, who in the family can apply, what must be maintained and what the exit consequences are. Verify these against the destination authority’s current rules.
Avoid comparing a Greek property purchase with a foreign fund minimum as if both totals cover fees and provide identical rights. For each alternative, confirm whether direct real estate is accepted and distinguish the authority’s published processing information from a provider’s sales estimate.
Common mistakes first-time applicants make
| Decision | What to check |
|---|---|
| “€250,000 means eligible” | Identify the specific exception and the records that establish it. |
| “The brochure says 120 m²” | Have the engineer distinguish main spaces from auxiliary areas where the requirement applies. |
| “Family included means no extra filing” | Prepare an individual application plan and cost list for each eligible person. |
| “We can cover the costs with holiday rentals” | Check the acquisition regime and intended letting arrangement first. Current-rule properties have short-term letting/subletting restrictions; earlier and transitional cases need separate review. |
| “A bank transfer is enough” | Agree the permitted payment method, source-of-funds evidence and required records with the lawyer and relevant banks. |
| “We can sell and keep the permit until renewal” | Get advice on revocation and any restoration-related transfer restrictions before a sale. |
Rental restrictions are not confined to the €400,000/€800,000 routes. Conversion cases also have business-headquarters/branch restrictions. Circular 1/2026, clarification 7 distinguishes current-rule acquisitions from earlier and qualifying transitional cases; simply choosing a different rental label is not a compliance check.
What to do next
If you are still exploring, prepare your all-in budget, intended use, family requirements and preferred areas. If you already have a unit in mind, add its identifier, advertised price, proposed route and documents received.
Discuss my Golden Visa property search with mamaXO, or compare the project catalogue. Tell us whether you need a family home, a property for permitted letting or ownership support from abroad. You do not need to send passports or financial documents in an initial enquiry.
mamaXO can discuss property options and ownership needs. Independent legal and technical professionals should confirm your personal eligibility and the exact property’s status before you commit.
Before you reserve a property
Before paying a reservation, you should know the proposed route, the exact property, the unresolved checks, the full budget and who is responsible for each next step. Keep unresolved items visible rather than accepting a general assurance that the project is “Golden Visa ready”.
