The Chinese investments in greek golden visa scheme has exceeded €1 billion euros, according to latest figures released by Enterprise Greece.
The total number residence permits issued to property investors under golden visa scheme crosses 6,000 in Dec 2019 reaching all time high soaring 48% from previous year. Of these 68% of the residence permits went to chinese, who bring wealth from China to Greece.
Chinese top the table creating significant demand in Golden visa scheme and property market in Greece. A total of 4,129 residence permits issued to Chinese property investors and 12,318 family members as of Dec 2019 since the inception of Golden visa scheme.
The Greek golden visa scheme requires atleast €250,000 euros invested in property sector and recently the government has expanded the scope of the scheme by including bank deposits, shares and bonds. Golden visas now an be acquired by holding €400,000 in term bank deposits or shares in various investment funds; or by investing €800,000 directly in Greek stocks, corporate and government bonds.
A significant number of chinese have invested in Athens, Piraeus area, as Port of Piraeus a main gateway for China exports to Europe.
These are the most popular places for chinese buying properties in greece.
The Chinese interest is expected to grow further by 2020 as the Greece-China relations have deepened recently. Greece seeing rising numbers of individual Chinese visiting Greece and investing in residential property.
- In 2016, China’s shipping firm Cosco purchased a majority stake in Piraeus port to transform it as biggest port for trade between Asia and Europe. Piraeus port surpassed 5 million containers in November, placing the port among the busiest in Europe.
- In 2018, Greece announced it was formally joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- In 2019, Greece and China signed extradition treaty and several bilateral agreements with each other
Unlike Chinese, the Greek golden visa scheme is not popular with Hong Kong investors. The data shows only 7 Hong Kongers invested in Golden visa scheme. Four of them invested in Athens, one each in Chania, Larissa and Arta.
Greece GDP is projected to trend around 236 USD Billion in 2020 and the new government set to achieve strong GDP growth target of 2.9% by 2020 onwards attracting more FDI into the country through various incentive measures such as tax cuts in Greece.
