2017 Best Year on Record for Greek Golden Visa
Europe’s third most popular residence by investment program – after those of Portugal and Spain – the Greek Golden Visa, saw 648 residence permits issued to investors in 2017, marking another record year for applications and bringing the cumulative number of golden visas issued to 2,170.
Unlike its Mediterranean cousins, however, Greece’s program has recorded four consecutive years of growth – a herculean feat – and will usurp Spain as Europe’s second most popular golden visa by the end of the year if application growth continues apace.
To no one’s surprise, Chinese investors are leading the charge and account for some 44% of applicants, followed by Russians at 18%, Turks at 9%, and Egyptians at 4.5%, writes Tornos News.
Read also: Chinese Golden Visa Investors Biggest Foreign Buyers of Barcelona Real Estate
By November 2017, the program had raised some EUR 1.5 billion, according to the Ministry of Economy and Growth. Although the minimum investment requirement – EUR 250,000 – is only half that of Spain, investors spend, on average, more than EUR 700,000.
Christian Henrik Nesheim is the founder and editor of Investment Migration Insider, the #1 magazine – online or offline – for residency and citizenship by investment. He is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, documentary producer, and writer on the subject of investment migration, whose work is cited in the Economist, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, and Business Insider. Norwegian by birth, Christian has spent the last 16 years in the United States, China, Spain, and Portugal.