If you have been researching the Greek Golden Visa for more than a few months, some of what you have read is out of date. The programme was substantially rewritten by Article 64 of Law 5100/2024, amended again by Law 5275/2026, and given administrative guidance in Circular 1/2026. Pages that have not been revised since 2023 are describing a different scheme.
This article sets out the current thresholds and the rules that sit around them, and flags the three that catch people out most often.
The flat EUR 250,000 threshold is gone. EUR 250,000 is not.
Until the rewrite, EUR 250,000 bought a qualifying property almost anywhere in Greece. That general threshold no longer exists. What survived is narrower and more interesting: the reduced amount still applies anywhere in the country, Athens included, but only to two specific kinds of building. We come back to those below.
Where EUR 800,000 applies
The high-demand band covers the areas with the most pressure on housing:
Attica, which includes all of Athens.
The regional unit of Thessaloniki.
Mykonos.
Santorini.
Islands with a population over 3,100.
In those areas a standard residential purchase qualifies at EUR 800,000. It must be a single property of at least 120 square metres, and the price must be paid in full before the application is submitted. The most common misunderstanding here is geographic rather than legal: people search for Athens and read the national threshold. Athens is in Attica, and Attica is in this band.
EUR 400,000 everywhere else
Outside the high-demand band, the threshold is EUR 400,000 — most of the mainland and most of the smaller islands. The conditions are the same in structure: one property, reaching the threshold on its own, at least 120 square metres.
The two routes that still cost EUR 250,000
Both are available anywhere in Greece, Athens included. Neither has a minimum floor area. They differ on the one thing that decides applications:
Change of use — a commercial or industrial building converted to residential use. The conversion must be complete before the application is submitted. The change of use must have occurred on or after 5 April 2024. The property may not later be used as a company headquarters or branch.
Listed building restoration — a listed or heritage building. The restoration must be complete by the first renewal, at year 5, rather than before the application. Transferring ownership before the restoration completes is void.
One deadline falls before you apply; the other falls five years after. Reading them as interchangeable is the single most expensive error available on this tier.
Three rules that catch people out
Properties may not be combined. Two units at half the threshold do not qualify, in any band.
Each reduced route may be used once per property. If a unit has already qualified someone at EUR 250,000, the next buyer must meet the full EUR 400,000 or EUR 800,000 threshold for its location. A reduced-tier property is not a Golden Visa asset you can pass on.
The five-year clock starts at card issue. Under Law 5275/2026 the 5 years run from the date the residence card is issued — not from the purchase and not from the application. If your planning assumed the earlier date, redo it.
What did not change
The parts of the programme that make it attractive were left alone. There is still no minimum stay — 0 days a year. One investment still covers a spouse or registered partner, unmarried children under 21, and the parents of both spouses. Schengen travel is still 90 days in any rolling 180-day period in other Schengen states, with days in Greece not counting against it.
The limits were left alone too. There is still no right to work in Greece or the EU, no right to reside in another member state, and no version of the rules in which selling the property leaves your residence permit intact.
This is general information current as at July 2026, not legal advice. Check the position with a lawyer admitted in Greece before you commit to anything.
pexuus media