After nearly two years of rapid growth, Greece’s Golden Visa program is beginning to show signs of fatigue. For the first time since 2022, the country has recorded a noticeable decline in new applications for residence permits through real estate investment, suggesting the initial momentum driven by the previous, more favorable conditions may be losing steam.
In April 2025, Greece received 564 new Golden Visa applications, a significant drop of 28.5% compared to the 790 applications submitted in April 2024. This marks the first monthly decline since September 2022, when the Greek government announced plans to raise the minimum investment thresholds for the program. That announcement triggered a rush of interest from foreign investors eager to lock in lower investment requirements before the changes took effect.
In the period that followed, investor activity surged. Between 2023 and 2024, foreign buyers acquired nearly 17,900 properties under the Golden Visa scheme—more than the total number purchased during the previous ten years of the program’s operation. Over those two years, total investments exceeded €4.47 billion. Application numbers also hit record highs, with 8,477 in 2023 and 9,411 in 2024.
This spike in demand, however, also created significant pressure on Greece’s property market and migration services. It led to distortions in real estate prices and a backlog of applications that continues to grow. As of the latest available data, over 16,000 applications are still pending review, a figure that will likely result in thousands more residence permits being issued in the coming months.
The recent slowdown appears linked to the phasing out of the old investment thresholds. On September 1, 2024, new rules came into effect, raising the minimum required investment to €800,000 in popular areas such as Athens, Thessaloniki, and many islands with populations over 3,100. However, investors who signed preliminary contracts by August 31, 2024, were allowed to complete their purchases by the end of February 2025 under the previous limits—€500,000 in Athens and €250,000 in areas like Piraeus.
Although April’s numbers dipped, the program’s performance over the first four months of 2025 remains strong. A total of 3,477 applications were submitted during this period, representing a 25% increase over the same period in 2024. This spike is largely attributed to the final wave of investors capitalizing on the extended grace period.
