The decision by the Portuguese government to cancel the visa program for people from outside the EU who want to invest certain sums of money in the country will increase the number of requests for a golden visa for Greece by more than 50%, writes Money Review.

As Spanish authorities also consider tightening the conditions for granting residence permits and “golden visas” for foreign investors, the Greek program remains one of the few that still offers access to a European passport in exchange for real estate investment. And this is at a time when Beijing’s decision to cancel restrictive measures against the coronavirus is once again attracting the interest of Chinese investors, quite high interest in the pandemic.

“We believe Golden Visa applications in Greece will increase by more than 50% after the completion of the Portuguese program,” says Kashif Ansari, co-founder and chief executive of Juwai IQI, a real estate giant that Chinese and other Asians are turning to to buy real estate abroad.

As Ansari explains, Greece’s program was already attractive in its own right and particularly popular with Chinese real estate investors, but as other options disappear one after another, it now has few competitors.

Improving public finances in countries hit by the debt crisis and recovering housing markets are prompting governments in several European countries to review Golden Visa schemes as rising house prices are already creating challenges for interested local buyers.

The latest development in this regard was the revelation by El Pais that Spain is considering introducing stricter conditions for granting “golden visas” to foreign investors. Today, foreign citizens who invest at least 500,000 euros in the purchase of a residence in Spain receive a residence permit for a period of 3 years.

They can also get a so-called golden visa if they invest at least €1 million in stocks or €2 million in Spanish government bonds.

Spain’s move to tighten the regime comes after Ireland ended its program in February, and Portugal also plans to pass legislation to end the program in the near future.

According to data analyzed by the Global Property Guide, with which Juwai IQI works, both Greece and Spain have seen a fall in real house prices over the past decade. In nominal terms, property prices in Spain rose by 14%, double that of Greece, where the corresponding increase was 7%.

However, it should be noted that Greece is also doubling the minimum investment limit for the Golden Visa in some regions, from €250,000 to €500,000. But with only programs remaining in Greece, Malta and Latvia, Ansari believes that raising the minimum threshold for obtaining a golden visa in some areas of Greece to €500,000 will not reduce the interest of Chinese buyers, who tend to invest relatively large, on average about 650,000 euros.

“As the new minimum investment threshold of €500,000 is in line with competing programs, we believe the impact will be relatively small,” says Ansari.

In fact, data compiled by Juwai IQI shows that about 2/3 of inquiries made by Chinese were in the Athens area, where property prices were already high. According to Global Property Guide, the average two-bedroom apartment in central Athens sells for €630,000, above the golden visa threshold.

A wave of Chinese buyers is expected in 2024

Juwai IQI’s Kashif Ansari says demand for Greek property in China has already picked up, but the opening of borders by the Beijing regime alone is not enough to turn that interest into purchase deals. Flights should also be restored to 2019 levels for Chinese investors to travel to Greece, and this is expected to happen from the first half of 2024 or even later.

In the context of a domestic real estate crisis, Chinese are turning to property abroad, with many looking for homes to live in permanently or to use for a few months of the year and then rent out the rest of the time.

“Some of the buyers I worked with in 2020 moved with their grown children to a quiet suburb north of Athens. Today, their two-year-old grandson attends a private English-language preschool in the area. They hope that their grandchildren will grow up fluent in English, Greek and Chinese,” says Ansari.

What Chinese buyers are looking for in Greece is a property in an area convenient for services and transport and close to good English-speaking schools.

As for the biggest difficulties they face, it is of course the language barrier, as sometimes civil servants do not speak English, and property taxes, which can be very high. The Chinese also face particular difficulties in obtaining a tax code and opening a bank account, as well as obtaining the necessary approvals and permits.

The article was created with the support of the Rador agency