Residency Through Property in Greece

These values are read from the current Greece Country Passport. Any fact marked under review remains visibly pending and is never presented as a confirmed immigration rule.

No. A foreigner can own Greek property without holding a Golden Visa. A qualifying investor permit is a separate application under Article 100 of the Greek Migration Code and its implementing rules.

Property ownership ≠ automatic residency, and property price alone ≠ Golden Visa eligibility.

The property-investor route is designed for third-country nationals. EU citizens already have residence rights under the EU free-movement framework and do not need a Golden Visa on that basis.

The current investor permit is issued for five years and can be renewed while the qualifying investment and other legal conditions remain satisfied.

There is no single national minimum. The current Passport structure is Current Golden Visa thresholds are €800,000 in the listed high-threshold areas and islands, €400,000 elsewhere, with separate €250,000 change-of-use and listed-building routes subject to their own conditions.Verified.

The geography and route conditions come from the current statutory and circular framework; OwnASea does not replace the Passport with a simplified city list.

For the standard route, the qualifying investment concerns one property. Where the built-property rule applies, the main spaces must reach at least 120 m²; auxiliary spaces do not count. An unbuilt property does not use the 120 m² test.

These are Golden Visa eligibility conditions, not general limits on how many properties a foreigner may own in Greece.

A qualifying change-of-use property can support the €250,000 route when its main spaces are legally converted to residential use. The route concerns one property and has no 120 m² minimum.

• the investor must hold full ownership and possession;
• the legal change to residential use must be completed after 5 April 2024 and before the application, subject to transitional rules;
• an engineer's technical report and route-specific evidence are required;
• relevant industrial buildings have an additional condition concerning industrial activity during the statutory period.

This is not a shortcut for buying an old office and calling it residential: the legal change of use must be documented.

Primary procedure: Mitos — change-of-use Golden Visa procedure ↗.

A separate €250,000 route covers qualifying listed buildings, parts of listed buildings or property containing a listed building where restoration or reconstruction is required.

This is not an ordinary €250,000 resale-apartment route. The listed status, technical feasibility, restoration obligations and renewal implications must be verified before relying on it.

Threshold ≠ total project cost. Restoration, planning and technical works are separate from the €250,000 investment threshold.

The current policy restricts properties acquired under the newer qualifying Golden Visa property-investment regime from short-term rental through the sharing-economy framework.

This restriction is attached to the qualifying Golden Visa property. It does not mean short-term rental is prohibited throughout Greece, and it does not automatically apply identically to every property acquired under an earlier regime or transitional provision.

Long-term rental is not automatically caught by this specific prohibition, but the route, deed, use, building rules and current rental law still need to be checked. See the Greece Passport renting section →.

For maintaining the property-investor permit, the current Passport rule is No minimum annual stay is required to maintain/renew the property-investor permit; periods of absence do not prevent renewal, provided the investment and other permit conditions remain satisfied.Verified.

This does not mean that no visit to Greece is ever required. Biometrics, powers of attorney and other procedural steps can create separate presence requirements.

Depending on the route, official procedures can require a travel document, lawful-entry/status evidence, notarial property documentation, proof of payment, Land Registry/Cadastre registration, insurance, E9 and route-specific technical evidence.

Payment is not “any method”. Current procedures require traceable channels such as a crossed bank cheque to an eligible account, credit transfer or qualifying POS/card payment, subject to the prescribed conditions. Specified payments by a spouse or qualifying relative can be permitted under the statutory kinship rules.

Digital filing or an authorised proxy can allow the process to start before the applicant enters Greece in specified circumstances. Subsequent biometrics or other steps may still require the applicant's involvement.

See the Mitos change-of-use procedure ↗ and Mitos listed-building procedure ↗ for route-specific evidence and fees.

Company ownership is possible only under the statutory conditions. The qualifying investor must satisfy the required ownership interest in the legal entity; a company structure does not remove the need to trace the investment back to the investor.

Family residence status is available conditionally under the current statutory definition and supporting-document requirements. The investor threshold is not simply multiplied because derivative permits are issued to qualifying family members.

The investor residence permit does not establish an unrestricted right to ordinary employment as an employee. Other business, shareholder or investment interests are separate questions.

Yes. The qualifying property or investment must remain in place for renewal.

Resale can result in revocation of the seller's investor permit unless the applicable route and replacement conditions are satisfied. The permit is not an entry ticket that can simply be sold while residence continues unaffected.

Current Mitos procedures publish an estimated administrative completion time of approximately 50–60 days. This is an official administrative estimate, not a guaranteed end-to-end investor timeline.

These are immigration procedure fees, separate from purchase taxes, professional costs, restoration and financing.

The Article 100 investor permit is renewable and has five-year validity. It should not be marketed as an unconditional EU permanent-residence right; separate long-term statuses have their own residence and integration conditions.

No. Property ownership is not citizenship by investment, and holding a Golden Visa for five years does not automatically produce Greek citizenship.

Ordinary naturalisation is a separate process with lawful-residence, language, civic-knowledge and integration requirements. An investor who spends little or no time living in Greece should not assume that holding the permit satisfies those substantive requirements.

• Current Golden Visa thresholds are €800,000 in the listed high-threshold areas and islands, €400,000 elsewhere, with separate €250,000 change-of-use and listed-building routes subject to their own conditions.Verified is the current threshold structure; €250,000 is limited to special routes.
• The standard route is one property, with the 120 m² rule scoped to the relevant built-property route.
• Golden Visa eligibility is separate from ordinary property ownership and from citizenship.
• The newer qualifying Golden Visa property STR restriction is conditional and transitional, not a national STR ban.
• No minimum annual stay is required to maintain/renew the property-investor permit; periods of absence do not prevent renewal, provided the investment and other permit conditions remain satisfied.Verified Procedural visits can still be required.
• Work rights are restricted and the qualifying investment must be maintained.

Use the Greece Country Passport for the current threshold, condition and verification status.

General information: Eligibility depends on the investor, exact property, location, transaction date, legal use, payment method and the version of the immigration rules applicable to the investment.