As Greek government is preparing to launch a new citizenship by investment program in the first quarter of 2020, new details emerge on the conditions for acquiring Greek citizenship by real estate investment.
According to latest Greek media reports, the eligibility conditions implemented for Greek citizenship by investment (GCBI) scheme are as follows:
- Greek passports will be available third-country nationals who acquire real estate in Greece of at least EUR 2 million euros.
- The number of naturalizations will be limited to 200 per year (limited quota)
- Investors become a resident of Greece before being granted citizenship
- Investors must buy a home with a market value of EUR 500,000 euros and pay at least 50,000 euros annually for maintenance costs of the residential property.
- The property can also be acquired through legal entities
One of the safeguards implemented to protect the real estate investments, investors have to pay the full EUR 2 million when signing the contract. This scheme will be designed, similar to that of investment scheme of Cyprus. In addition to this, citizenship investors are required to open a bank account supervised by Bank of Greece to buy a real estate and undergo background checks done by banks.
The Greek Citizenship by investment (GCBI) scheme is expected to heavily compete with Malta, Cyprus and Montenegro.
The Greek Citizenship scheme will inject EUR 400m annually into the property sector, in addition to golden visa investments. Malta, Cyprus have significantly benefited from the CBI scheme, raising billions of euros, ending up with surplus and positive growth in the economy.
Greece currently has the most popular golden visa scheme in Europe, requiring just EUR 250K (quarter of a million euro) to secure permanent residency in Greece. As of August over 5,500 golden visas issued to property investors in Greece, mainly to Chinese, Russians and Turks, pumping already EUR 1.3bn into the Greek real estate ector
Greece still has lowest property prices in Europe, makes it extremely attractive for citizenship investors, with growth in tourism and economy steering towards positive GDP growth.
The newly elected Greek government, is planning to offer more incentives to attract more significant investments in the real estate sector.
