Greece will revoke the golden visas of investors whose purchases came with a concealed refund of part of the price, and of those who let their properties short-term through subleases, Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris said on October 15.
Plevris was speaking at Prodexpo 2026, an annual real estate conference held at the Athens Conservatoire, where he warned against arrangements that indirectly lower the real purchase price of a Greece Golden Visa property, according to ERT, the Greek public broadcaster.
“We have no interest in a property being sold to a Chinese national for €250,000, in him being guaranteed €100,000 back through a lease, and in him getting a residence permit,” Plevris said.
Any permit tied to a deal marketed as a route to a golden visa for less than €250,000 (approximately US$280,000) will be revoked, no matter how the lower price was reached, he added.
He extended the warning to investors who circumvent the program’s ban on short-term rentals. “Nor are we interested in someone being given a golden visa and, while we say we do not want short-term rentals, trying to do short-term rentals through parallel subleases,” Plevris said. “In that case too, the golden visa will be taken away.”
The minister announced no new legislation, and IMI found no ministry transcript of the speech as of the evening of October 15.
The Sublet Ban
Article 100 of Greece’s Migration Code (Law 5038/2023), as amended by Law 5100/2024, bars investors from letting or subletting a golden visa property short-term within the sharing economy. A breach costs the investor his permit and exposes the property’s owners or holders to a standalone administrative fine of €50,000 (approximately US$56,000).
A 2024 ministry circular instructed regional offices that breaches lead to revocation or non-renewal of the permit, as well as administrative fines.
Circular 1/2026, which Secretary General for Migration Policy Konstantina Papakosta signed in April, adopts the definition used in Greece’s general short-term rental legislation: A lease or sublease of fewer than 60 days in which nothing beyond accommodation and bed linen is provided, whether or not the property appears on a digital platform.
The ban excludes long-term leases or subleases to hotels and other tourism businesses that provide services beyond accommodation. If an operator takes a long lease and relets the apartment for stays of under 60 days with nothing more than a bed and linen, the property is caught by the ban.
The ban does not reach properties acquired under the rules that preceded Law 5100/2024, or investments completed within the transitional period that followed it, the circular states.
The Rebate Rule
Article 100 requires that the full minimum price be paid before the application is filed, by crossed bank check, credit transfer, or card payment into the seller’s account at a payment institution operating in Greece. The notary who drew up the deed must certify how it was paid.
The statute, however, does not address money that flows back to the buyer after the deed is signed. Circular 1/2026 takes that up in its 23rd clarification, which states that the ministry will put such cases before the tax and law enforcement authorities and the Hellenic Anti-Money Laundering Authority.
The clarification covers two kinds of conduct: Misleading advertising of the permit’s conditions, in Greece or in investors’ countries of origin, and unjustified or undocumented transfers of money before or after the investment that leave the real investment substantially below the legal minimum.
Where such practices are established, they lead to the revocation of permits already granted, “in accordance with the provisions in force” and “beyond the specific sanctions of Article 100,” the circular says.
Article 100 spells out revocation for a breach of the rental ban, but not for rebates. The circular, an instruction to the regional offices that issue permits, does not cite the provision that would allow the ministry to revoke permits over rebates.
In Plevris’s example, a buyer who pays €250,000 and gets €100,000 (approximately US$112,000) back has effectively paid €150,000 (approximately US$168,000).
Since September 2024, €250,000 has applied only to properties converted to residential use and to listed buildings under restoration. Other purchases require €400,000 (approximately US$447,000), or €800,000 (approximately US$895,000) in Attica, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and islands of more than 3,100 inhabitants.
Cut-Price Offers
Advertisements presenting Greek properties priced at €180,000 to €230,000 (approximately US$201,000 to US$257,000) as eligible for a golden visa have circulated on social media and overseas platforms since the thresholds rose. Plevris already had a file on companies allegedly involved in such practices, according to an April report by the Greek financial outlet Mononews.
“Over the past year, a number of agents have openly advertised that a golden visa could be obtained for less than the €250,000 statutory minimum through various structures that reduce the real investment below the legal threshold,” Alexander Varnavas of Varnavas Law Firm told IMI.
“The ministry’s position is consistent: The program exists to attract genuine investment and to bring additional housing stock into long-term use, and it makes clear that below-market arrangements will not be tolerated,” Varnavas said.
Christina Georgaki, founder and managing partner of Georgaki Law Firm, said the minister’s concerns “closely reflect what we have witnessed in our practice.”
“We consistently caution investors against misleading golden visa advertisements and questionable investment arrangements, particularly in overseas markets,” she told IMI. Her firm stresses due diligence and strict compliance with Greek law and anti-money laundering requirements, Georgaki said, adding: “Strict enforcement is essential to safeguarding the program’s credibility and protecting genuine investors.”
Housing Politics
Plevris also defended the program. “The golden visa is a rather charged concept, carrying both positive and negative connotations,” he said, calling it “an important tool that you can use depending on the needs you have.”
Christos Vardikos of Vardikos & Vardikos takes the same view. The golden visa “should be viewed neither as an exclusively positive tool nor as the primary cause of the housing crisis,” he told IMI.
“The program’s initial objective was to bolster construction activity during a period when the sector was facing serious challenges,” Vardikos said. “Today, however, the housing crisis has shifted policy priorities.”
Like the minister, Vardikos disputes the view that “abolishing the golden visa would automatically lead to an increase in the available housing stock.”
Plevris placed particular emphasis on the rental ban. “What did we remove that was very important? We removed short-term rental,” he said, “because the point is not who holds the property as such, but whether that property is made available for long-term use.”
His preferred investor would use the conversion route, one of only two categories still open at €250,000. “What interests us is for serious investors to come, to be able to find spaces that are not suitable for housing right now, to invest in those spaces, to convert them, and for more properties to come onto the market,” Plevris said, adding that investors could then live in the homes or let them long-term.
Georgaki sees the conversion route the same way. It “represents a particularly valuable investment opportunity, as it channels foreign investment into transforming non-residential properties into new housing stock, thereby contributing to alleviating Greece’s housing shortage,” she said. The program “must remain a vehicle for responsible investment that benefits both investors and the Greek economy,” she added.
The minister also called for incentives to steer investment beyond central Athens.
Chinese investors, the nationality in his rebate example, remain the largest group in the program, followed by Turkish nationals, with Israelis and Britons also among the leading nationalities, he said.
His remarks follow a parliamentary amendment from PASOK, the main opposition party, that would end the program’s real estate route and apply the rental ban to existing holders when they renew. New Democracy’s parliamentary spokesman, Notis Mitarakis, dismissed the proposal.
Enforcement Record
Greece counted 34,278 active investor permits at the end of July. IMI could find no published figures on how many of them, if any, the authorities have revoked for short-term letting or for a rebated purchase price.
