One third of transactions real estate in Hellas in recent years, this is due to the purchases made to acquire it golden visa. In fact, many properties are bought at double or triple the price in order to “catch up” with the lower investment limit of 250,000 euros. This is evidenced by his analysis Aetheron Institute on the impact of the Golden Visa on housing, pointing out that the new limit of 500,000 euros, the implementation of which has not yet been specified, will not necessarily mitigate the effects of the measure on the housing market.

The “X-ray” of the Golden Visa program in our country was made public yesterday by the Eteron Institute, edited by Korina Petridis. As Etheron points out:

– Over the five years of the program (2014-2019), Greece has approved 20% of golden visas in the European Union (7,563) and brought in 10% of the total income (1.89 billion euros). The reason is that, until recently, Greece provided one of the cheapest golden visas in the EU.

— According to a recent (2021) study by LSE and Harvard scientists, in 2018 the program brought Greece 470 million euros. “This figure would not be of great importance in itself, if it did not constitute a significant percentage of the total volume of transactions in the country’s real estate market. In particular, it is estimated that in the same year, real estate market revenues amounted to $1.3 billion, of which $655 million came from foreign investors. In percentage terms, this means that the Golden Visa program generated 36% of revenue in the domestic real estate market and 72% of foreign investment in a specific sector,” the authors of the study (Kristin Surak, Yusuke Tsuzuki) calculated.

Eteron estimates that raising the threshold to 500,000 euros must be accompanied by criteria, otherwise it will lead to the purchase of more properties.

“Most of the investors in this particular program in our country have Chinese citizenship. They are followed by Turkey (6%), Russia (5%), Lebanon (4%) and Egypt (3%).

– An analysis of 300 Golden Visa contracts in the center of Athens between real estate companies and Chinese investors during the period 2017-2019 showed that the vast majority of properties were purchased at two and three times the corresponding objective value. “This practically means that properties with an objective value of 50,000 and 100,000 euros were bought by Chinese investors at a much higher price in order to “catch” the threshold of 250,000 euros, which likely put upward pressure on property prices,” — stated in the analysis of Eteron. .

But the market is affected not only by the limit of 250,000 euros (which is often “caught” fictitiously), but also by the number of markets. “The fact that more than 1/3 of real estate transactions in Greece are golden visa transactions shows a very significant degree of dependence of the former on this investment logic. We can easily conclude that the investment in the Golden Visa is decisive in the development of the real estate market and the growth in prices for it, observed in recent years,” says Ms. Petridis.

According to Eteron, the recently announced increase in the investment limit to €500,000 may not be enough in practice, as it may simply lead to an increase in property purchases, since the limit works cumulatively (it is not necessary to purchase only one property over €500,000).

Numbers

20% of Golden Visa applications in the European Union were made in Greece.

470 million was brought by the “Golden Visa” to Greece in 2018. This amount corresponds to 36% of the income from the domestic real estate market in that year.

66% of golden visas in Greece were issued to Chinese citizens. They are followed by Turkey (6%), Russia (5%), Lebanon (4%) and Egypt (3%). Since February, the issuance and renewal of investment residence permits for citizens of Russia and Greece has been suspended.