Greece · the sourced record
Four thresholds, not one — and what the €250,000 route actually requires.
The Greek thresholds are commonly reported as €800,000, halved to €400,000 on small islands. That inverts the statute, and it leaves out two €250,000 tiers entirely. Everything below is read from article 100 of the Migration Code, as replaced by article 64 of Law 5100/2024.
Read from the codified Greek text on 16 August 2026
The common error
€800,000 is not the national rule with a small-island exception. It applies to four named areas and to islands with more than 3,100 residents. €400,000 applies to the whole of the rest of the country, which is most of Greece. Read the other way round, the map is inverted.
The four thresholds
The Attica Region; the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki in Central Macedonia; the Regional Units of Mykonos and Thira (Santorini) in the South Aegean; and islands with a population of more than 3,100 at the last census.
- The investment is made in one property only.
- Where the property is built, or a building permit has been issued for it, the main areas must be at least 120 square metres.
- Where the purchase is of an undivided co-ownership share, the share itself must be worth €800,000.
The remaining areas of the country — that is, everywhere not named in paragraph 2(a).
- The investment is made in one property only.
- The same 120 square metre minimum applies to built property.
- A co-ownership share must itself be worth €400,000.
Where the main areas of the property change use to residential. The same terms apply to property comprising an industrial building, part of one, or land containing one.
- For the industrial route, no industry may have been installed and operating in the building for at least the previous five years.
- The investment is made in one property only.
- The change of use must be completed before the application for the permanent investor residence permit is submitted (article 100 §2(c), as replaced by Law 5100/2024 article 64), and must post-date 5 April 2024 (Circular 9/2024).
- Completion is evidenced by an engineer’s technical report in the form prescribed by ΚΥΑ 214926/2025. Circular 1/2026 of 22 April 2026 confirms that completion is certified from the planning act — the building permit, small-scale works approval, file update or revision — and not from connection to utilities.
- Circular 1/2026 also requires the property to have existed with a non-residential use when Law 5100/2024 came into force on 5 April 2024, and allows the €250,000 category to be used only once per property.
- In practice the file is accepted once the purchase contract is signed and the price has been paid in full. We confirm the position for each specific building before it is relied on.
- The change of use may be carried out by the seller.
- A co-ownership share must itself be worth €250,000.
Where the property comprises a listed building for restoration or reconstruction, part of one, or land containing one.
- The investment is made in one property only.
- A co-ownership share must itself be worth €250,000.
- A transfer before the restoration is completed is void, the permit is revoked and a €150,000 fine is imposed; failure to complete the restoration by the first renewal is also fined €150,000.
Separately, paragraph 7A prohibits property acquired for an investor permit at any tier from being let short-term in the sharing economy, and from being sub-let. Breach carries revocation of the permit and a fixed €50,000 administrative fine. A further restriction applies to property acquired under the change-of-use route in paragraph 2(c).
Sources
Each links to the published text and to the copy we hold, so the reference survives if the original moves. The Greek text governs; the English here is our reading of it.
Law 5100/2024, article 64 — replacing article 100 of the Migration Code
Government Gazette Α΄ 49, 5 April 2024, shown codified with Law 5167/2024. This is the article that sets every threshold below.
Law 5038/2023 — the Migration Code
Government Gazette Α΄ 81. Article 100 is the residence-by-investment provision that article 64 of Law 5100/2024 replaced.
Golden Visa — Hellenic Ministry of Migration and Asylum
The Ministry’s own programme page.
Golden Visa clarification documents — Ministry of Migration and Asylum
The Ministry’s published clarifications on implementation and application matters.
Citing this page
Kestrel Private, “Greek golden visa thresholds: article 100 of the Migration Code, and the €250,000 conversion route”, kestrelprivate.com/greece-golden-visa, read from the codified Greek text 16 August 2026, citing article 100 of Law 5038/2023 as replaced by article 64 of Law 5100/2024 (Government Gazette Α΄ 49, 5 April 2024).
Kestrel Private is an independent private-client advisory. It is not the Hellenic Ministry of Migration and Asylum and does not speak for the Greek State. This page records published law and is not legal advice; eligibility and any individual application are matters for admitted Greek counsel, and where the English differs from the Greek text the Greek governs.
The programme you apply under is the one that exists on the day you file.
For residence applications, we generally plan on approximately two to three months to approval and three to six months from instruction to residence card.
Citizenship applications vary more widely. A straightforward application may receive approval within approximately three months, but six to nine months to passport issuance is a more prudent planning assumption.
Programme rules, government fees and processing times can change. We therefore reconfirm the applicable terms immediately before an application is filed.
Neither approval nor timing can be guaranteed.
If Greece is the route you want, we can start your file.
A first conversation, not a commitment. Tell us who would be included and what you already hold, and we come back with the route, the confirmed terms and the timeline — or tell you honestly if it is not worth doing.