By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Changes to its granting regime Golden Visa is being prepared by the finance ministry in an attempt to curb the problem of finding housing which is swelling. According to information from skai.gr, the doubling of the limit from €250,000 to €500,000 is being promoted for the whole of Attica (currently €500,000 only applies to the northern and southern suburbs, Mykonos and Santorini and the municipality of Thessaloniki).

At the same time, interventions are being studied in order to make more substantial investments.

Perhaps a sense of the moods of the government will be given shortly by himself Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who will answer in the Parliament during the prime minister’s hour, to a question from Nikos Androulakis on dealing with the housing crisis. However, the Ministry of Finance will need some time for the presentation of the interventions, which should be expected in March.

The data available to him skai.gr show a vertiginous increase in the demand for golden visa in our country, which guarantees its holder, in addition to a residence permit, no restrictions on the minimum length of stay in the country, and free movement without a travel visa in all Schengen countries. Applications from 2021 have almost quadrupled:

2021 : 1,997 applications

2022 : 4,362 applications

2023 : 8,516 applications

In fact, it is clear that even the application processing services themselves did not expect such a response (even though the government increased the limit of €250,000 even in these 4 areas of the territory and prohibited the possibility of acquiring 2 or more cheaper properties in order to cumulatively meet the criterion ) with the result that at this moment out of the 8,516 applications made last year, 6,669 are pending, i.e. 78.5%.

Champions of the demand for golden visas are the Chinese who are far from the second. The figures for 2023 are indicative since 5,178 applications, i.e. 6/10, were made by Chinese citizens. They are as follows:

Turkey 953 applications

Lebanon 359 applications

Iran 316 applications

Israel 222 applications

Egypt 208 applications

UK 194 applications

USA 153 applications

There have also been applications from countries such as Saint Kitts and Nevis, the islands of Vanuatu, Kyrgyzstan, Saint Lucia, Macau and Uganda.

Favorite areas are the center of Athens, Piraeus (which is still at 250,000), Thessaloniki, Crete and the Peloponnese.

To date, 31,000 golden visas have been issued to foreign investors and their families following property purchases worth €2.6 billion.

At the same time, learns that P.OM.I.D.A’s proposal for a 3-year tax exemption for those property owners who rent out their previously closed properties is not moving forward. It is not reasonable for a property owner who can get €1000 in rent per month to keep his property closed because… he is afraid of the €150 that the tax office will take from him, officials of the Ministry of Finance commented emphatically.