Greece Golden Visa Cost and Requirements

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A Greece golden visa costs €800,000 when the property is in the Attica region, the Thessaloniki regional unit, Mykonos, Santorini, or an island with more than 3,100 residents, and €400,000 in the rest of the country. As of November 2026 that figure is the acquisition value of one property, it has to be paid in full before you apply, and a stay of under 60 days in the sharing-economy sense can cost the permit plus a €50,000 fine.

The card is a five-year residence permit. You can renew it while you still own the property, and time spent outside Greece is not a reason for the ministry to refuse that renewal. The same permit does not give you the right to work, and it does not switch off US tax. If Greece becomes your home, the tax rules in the non-dom regime for people who actually move matter more than the purchase price.

Spouses or civil partners can share one deed at a single threshold. Two unrelated buyers cannot: each share has to stand on its own at the full €400,000 or €800,000. If you would rather qualify with earnings than with a property check, an income test such as the one on the Croatia nomad visa is a different product, and the golden visa comparison shows which countries still sell residency this way.

What does a Greece golden visa cost?

The price is set by where the property sits, not by how many weeks you plan to use it. Article 100 of the Migration Code, as replaced by Law 5100/2024, puts Attica, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, and Santorini (the Thira regional unit) in the higher band, and it puts every island with more than 3,100 people on the latest census in that band too. The housing ministry's own summary records the jump from the old €500,000 and €250,000 floors to these numbers.

Where the property is	Minimum value	Size test
Attica, Thessaloniki regional unit, Mykonos, Santorini, islands over 3,100 people (Evia included)	€800,000	120 square meters of main space if the property is built or already has a building permit
The rest of Greece, including smaller islands outside those zones	€400,000	Same 120-square-meter test when the property is built or permitted
One property whose main spaces are changed into a home, including an industrial building idle for at least five years	€250,000	No 120-square-meter test. Change of use finished before you apply, and only if that change was completed on or after 5 April 2024
One listed building, or part of one, bought to restore or rebuild	€250,000	No 120-square-meter test. Full restoration before the first renewal. A sale before that is void

Data note: thresholds are from Article 100 of Law 5038/2023 as amended by Law 5100/2024, plus the Ministry of Migration circular of 24 September 2024. Checked November 2026.

A long-term tourist lease or timeshare can qualify too, but only when the total rent hits the same euro floor and is paid in full before you apply. Permits already issued under the older law renew on the terms that applied when they were granted, so a buyer from those years does not have to top the property up to €800,000. A contract you sign now does not get that older price. Sales from 1 September 2024 had no transitional discount, and the later windows for people who had already paid a deposit closed in 2025.

Which property actually clears the bar?

Count one property, not a portfolio of studios. Storage and a parking space can be folded into that one property when they are bought in the same contract, sit in the same building, and are auxiliary space. Their price can help you reach €400,000 or €800,000. Their floor area does not help you reach 120 square meters.

The 120-square-meter test

The 120-square-meter rule applies to main space on built property and on property that already has a building permit. A bare plot with no permit is not held to that size. A finished apartment of 90 square meters fails even if the price is far above the euro floor. Measure main rooms before you fall in love with a view.

Unrelated co-owners do not get to add their money together. If you and a friend buy in a €400,000 zone, each share has to be worth at least €400,000, so the property has to be worth at least €800,000. Spouses and civil partners are the exception: they can co-own a single property at the one threshold. You can also hold the property through a company based in Greece or another EU country, but only if you own 100 percent of it.

The €250,000 paths

Two narrower purchases still start at €250,000, and neither one uses the 120-square-meter test. The first is a change of use so the main spaces become a residence. The change has to be finished before you file for the permit, it has to have been completed on or after 5 April 2024, and either you or the seller can do the work. An industrial building fits this path only when no industry was installed and running there for at least the past five years. You also cannot use that converted property as a company headquarters or branch.

The second is a listed building you buy in order to restore or rebuild. You still get the permit at €250,000, but the first renewal depends on the restoration being finished, and a transfer before that restoration is void. Budget the construction as part of the price of keeping the card, not as a later idea.

Walk the property with those tests in hand, then put the zone, the square meters, and the ownership names in writing before you pay a deposit. A deposit does not freeze an old threshold anymore.

What does the five-year card give you?

You get a residence permit for five years. The authority has two months once the file is complete, so a missing paper does not start that clock. Renewal is another five years if you still own the property, or the qualifying lease is still in force, and the other conditions still hold. Absences do not block renewal. You do not have to spend a set number of days in Greece to keep this card.

Trips to the rest of Schengen

A residence permit from a Schengen state lets you travel or stay in the other Schengen states for a short stay of 90 days in any 180-day period. The Greek card is what lets you live in Greece. It is not a work permit, and it is not a Greek passport. Naturalization is a separate application with its own residence record.

Budget a private insurance contract that covers health and safety risks, a €16 fee to print the card, and a €2,000 electronic fee when you renew. The initial checklist cites the fee law without a second euro figure, so read the payment slip on the first filing instead of copying the renewal amount. Selling to another non-EU buyer during the permit term can move the right to that buyer and revoke yours. Stop owning the property and the renewal basis goes with it.

What tax do you pay on the purchase?

The buyer pays Greek real estate transfer tax at 3 percent of the taxable value. A municipal levy of 3 percent is then charged on that tax, not on the property value. You and the seller file a joint return before the contract, and the whole tax is due within three working days. The taxable value is the base the tax office uses. It is not safe to assume it equals whatever number you shook hands on, so ask the notary which value the return will use before you model the cash.

A first-time buyer from the United States should not plan on the primary-home exemption. That relief is for a defined list of buyers, and third-country citizens are on it only if they already hold long-term resident status or a second-generation residence permit. The buyer also has to live in Greece permanently or intend to settle within two years. A new investor permit is not that status.

When the purchase makes you a Greek tax resident

Owning the property does not, by itself, make you a Greek tax resident. Article 4 of the Income Tax Code does that if Greece is your permanent home, your habitual abode, or the center of your personal and economic life. It also does that if you are in Greece for more than 183 days, added up, in any 12-month period. In that case residency starts on the first day of your presence. The 183-day rule skips people who are in Greece only for tourism, medical care, or similar private reasons and whose stay does not pass 365 days. Living in a house you bought is not a tourist stay.

Once you own Greek property you file an E9 statement by 31 March of the following year. ENFIA, the annual property holding tax, is calculated on what you owned in Greece on 1 January and can be paid in up to 10 monthly installments, none smaller than €10, with the last one due on the last working day of February of the next year. The euro amount depends on the property, so get the assessment rather than a rule of thumb.

US citizens stay taxable on worldwide income whether they live in the United States or abroad. Greek rent, if you have any, goes on the US return. The foreign tax credit and the other special benefits are available only if you file. The IRS page for citizens abroad is the rule, not the Greek residence card. If you open a Greek account and the total of your foreign accounts goes over $10,000 at any point in the year, you also file the FBAR, FinCEN Form 114, even when the account paid you nothing.

How do you pay without losing the permit?

The statute is picky about the path of the money. The full price has to reach the seller before you apply, through a two-line bank check into a payment account at a bank operating in Greece, a credit transfer, or a card terminal in Greece charged to the buyer's card. A spouse, or a relative by blood or marriage out to the second degree, may be the person who pays. Cash does not satisfy the list.

Money you are not spending on the deed can stay in a US brokerage that still serves clients after an address change. Charles Schwab is one of the firms Americans use for that remaining portfolio. The purchase price itself still has to land in a Greek payment account by one of the three methods above.

Use this order before you wire anything:

1. Name the zone from the table, including the island census if you are not on the mainland. Write down €800,000, €400,000, or €250,000.
2. Confirm it is one property. If it is built or permitted, confirm 120 square meters of main space unless you are on a €250,000 path.
3. If you are buying with someone else, confirm you are spouses or civil partners. If you are not, price each share at the full minimum.
4. Ask the notary for the taxable value, then set aside 3 percent plus 3 percent of that tax, payable within three working days of the return.
5. Pay the full acquisition price through a Greek bank channel and keep the payment details. The notary has to certify the parties, the property, how you paid, any condition that could undo the sale, and whether the seller already used this property for an investor permit.
6. Line up private health insurance the ministry will accept, then file. Do not advertise stays under 60 days while you wait.
7. After closing, file the E9 by 31 March of the next year, watch for ENFIA, and keep the US return and any FBAR on the calendar.

Long-term rent is allowed, and it is the lawful way to offset holding costs. A lease shorter than 60 days, with no services beyond lodging and linens, is the sharing-economy rental the circular describes, whether or not you list it on a platform. That rental, or a sublet of the same kind, can revoke the permit and bring a €50,000 fine. The €150,000 fine is the listed-building penalty, for skipping the restoration before the first renewal or for selling before the work is done. If the investment only works on short stays, it does not work under this law.

Should you wire the money?

Buy in a €400,000 zone when you want the card and you can find one property with 120 square meters of main space, or a real €250,000 conversion or listed restoration you are willing to finish on the statute's clock. Buy in Attica, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, or a larger island only if €800,000 is money you can leave in the deed. Skip the purchase if you need to work in Greece, if the spreadsheet depends on short stays, or if you thought the card would end US tax.

The same purchase-versus-income choice is the core of geographic arbitrage: this permit ties up €400,000 or €800,000 in one Greek property, while an income-based residence permit ties up a monthly earnings test instead. Price both before you pick a flight.

If you already hold an older investor permit, renew on the conditions that applied when it was issued, and keep the ownership. If you are signing now, use the table at the top and the payment list, and have a Greek lawyer read the draft deed against Article 100 before the check is cut.

Disclaimer: this is not legal, tax, or immigration advice. Greek thresholds, fines, and tax rates can change, and a notary or the tax office can treat a specific property differently from the general rule. Confirm the deed with a Greek lawyer and the US return with a qualified tax professional before you pay.

Data notes and sources checked

• Law 5100/2024, Article 100 of the Migration Code, hosted by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Permit length, price bands, size test, payment methods, fines, and the work restriction.
• Ministry circular 9 of 24 September 2024. Evia at €800,000, the 60-day short-rental definition, and the end of transitional pricing for sales from 1 September 2024.
• Ministry golden visa document list. Insurance, the €16 card fee, and the €2,000 electronic fee on renewal.
• Greek housing-policy note on the higher investment floors.
• AADE, real estate transfer tax and AADE, tax residence and AADE, E9 and ENFIA.
• IRS, US citizens and resident aliens abroad and FinCEN, FBAR.
• European External Action Service, Schengen short-stay FAQ.

As of November 2026. Notary, land-registry, and lawyer fees are not a single national rate on these pages, so they are not quoted here. The initial electronic fee is confirmed on the renewal checklist at €2,000 and should be rechecked on the first filing.