Greece plans to offer passports to foreign property buyers. The country introduced a Gold Visa scheme in 2013, offering residence permits to buyers outside the EU. Now, a new bill would extend the offer to citizenship, which real estate agents expect to leverage even more.
Greece Golden Visa, introduced in April 2013, now offers a five-year residence permit to buyers from outside the EU, in return for a minimum investment of € 250.000. The permit, renewable, and the owner has the property could also be extended to members of the buyer’s family. He joined a similar wave regimes struggling European property markets, each designed to stimulate investment from the growing Chinese and Russian capital. Greece has always been popular amongst international visitors thanks to its beautiful landscapes, its Mediterranean climate and ancient history as the Golden Visa introduced, demand increased significantly, driven by the supply of housing and low prices of the country estate.
According to data from the Bank of Greece, overseas investments in Greek real estate has doubled in the first half of 2014 year-on-year to € 117.400.000 (data from the newspaper Daily).
