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Greece to tighten Golden visa scheme with new changes

The Greek Government has put forward amendments to tighten the golden visa program regulations against abuse and money laundering.

Under the new amendments put forward in the Hellenic parliament,  the new rules will apply from Dec 24, 2018, according to GTP.

 

  • Full payment: Applicants must make full €250,000 payment either by bank check or transfer to bank in Greece. Installment payments will not be allowed
  • Resale: Resale of property within 5 years will not be allowed. Property sales will require documentation from immigration office if obtained under golden visa permit.
  • POS transactions: Point of Sale  (POS) retail transactions will be banned

 

Under the Greek golden visa scheme, foreign investors (non-eu) nationals qualify for permanent residence permit for 250,000 investment in Greece and the government has already proposed new options to expand the golden visa scheme such as bank deposits and government bonds.

 

The Greek golden visa scheme was launched in 2013 under the residence  Law 4251/2014, Government Gazette  1, no 80 for third country nationals. In 2013 only 21 golden visas issued .

 

In the year 2018 (until Nov), some 3629 golden visas issued to property owners and assuming 250,000 euros per property investor, this amounts to €2.26 billion euros entered Greece for property investment through golden visas.

 

Residence Permits to investors/property owners per year
YEAR PERMITS
2013 21
2014 444
2015 949
2016 1532
2017 2493
2018 3620
Total 9059
 Source: Ministry for Migration Policy (Nov 2018)

 

Golden visa statistics
Chinese, Turkish and Russians are the biggest markets for Greek golden visa scheme, according to Enterprise Greece report.

 

Properties sold in Greek cities under Golden visa scheme from 2013 to 2018
Prabhu Balakrishnan
Prabhu Balakrishnan
Founder of Citizenship by Investment News. Chief Editor with over 15 years experience in PR and News publishing. He Loves writing about citizenship, residency and wealth migration. CIP Journal is a Leading publication founded in 2017 bringing latest news from CBI/RBI market.

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