How €250,000 Qualifies for a Golden Visa in Athens and Attica — Not €800,000

The number everyone quotes

Athens and the rest of Attica sit in Greece's top Golden Visa tier: €800,000, for a single residential property of at least 120 m².

The number that actually applies to a conversion

Law 5100/2024 (Article 64, amending Article 100 of the Immigration Code, Law 5038/2023) sets a separate threshold: €250,000, for a property created by converting a commercial building into residential use, or by restoring a listed building. It isn't a discount on the standard route — it's a different qualifying category, and it applies at €250,000 regardless of location. In Athens, in Attica, wherever the standard price is €800,000, a genuine commercial-to-residential conversion qualifies at €250,000.

The condition that decides which conversions are worth it

The change of use must be completed before the application is filed (Law 5038/2023 art. 100 §2(c), as replaced by Law 5100/2024 art. 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 (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. And the finished unit can only be let long-term — never short-term, never Airbnb, for as long as it supports the residence permit. Breach that and the law allows for cancellation and a fixed fine of €50,000 (Art. 100 para. 7A).

That single condition decides everything about what makes a good conversion. A long-term tenant isn't a two-week holidaymaker — it's someone renewing a lease year over year, most likely a local professional or family. That tenant expects what any real home needs: somewhere to park, somewhere to store what doesn't fit in the apartment, and shared amenities worth staying for. A conversion that skips these isn't just a weaker product — it's harder to let at all under the only letting basis the law allows.

Why the law makes this trade available

The reduced threshold isn't a favour to the buyer. A conversion adds a home that didn't exist before — an old commercial building becomes residential housing, in a market that needs more of it. Because the finished unit can only be let long-term — as with every Golden Visa property, on any tier — it goes straight into the housing stock available to local tenants, not into short-term rentals competing with them. That's a genuine win-win-win: the investor gets full Athens or Attica location, and the same five-year renewable Golden Visa, for under a third of the standard entry price; Greece gains long-term housing supply in exactly the areas that need it; and the finished property does real work in the local market rather than sitting as a paper investment.

We checked what's actually available at €250,000

We went through the qualifying conversions currently on the market in Attica against exactly that standard — parking, storage, and shared amenities a long-term tenant would actually want, not just a unit that clears the legal bar. Lopes Residences, in Paiania, was the one that had all three, and it's further along than anything else we looked at this month — on track to complete before the end of the year.

Eleven residences in total. Every one comes with its own parking space and storage, and a shared pool, garden and BBQ area serves the whole building. Seven remain on the developer’s schedule of 23 August 2026 — three studios from €260,000, two more at €270,000, and two one-bedroom residences at €295,000 and €300,000. The live price list carries the current position.

Seven left. If you’re ready, here’s how this works.

Once you've chosen a residence, you don't have to decide on the spot — take it off the market while you finalise things. Tell us how many days you need; we take that to the developer, seek approval, and revert to you personally. It's a request, not an automatic hold, but it’s the way to stop one of the remaining units moving while you’re still deciding.

View plans and prices for the remaining units →

Ready to take one off the market? Request a hold while you decide →