How Greece struck gold in its new visa programme, and what it must do now the rush has ended.

Earlier this year, a Greek parliamentary committee backed a bill offering tax relief and faster licensing for productive foreign investment. The question for Greece’s Golden Visa is whether it can meet that same test.

In 2015, there were few classes of people more loathed in Greece than the international creditor. The country was buckling under the hawkish scale of its own debt, which would soar to 209.4% of Greek GDP by the time Covid hit in 2020. But Greece’s story since then has been one of resilience and economic canniness. The Golden Visa is an exemplification of the country’s willingness to exploit opportunities where they arise, and of Greece’s own self-understanding: its weather, food, and history notwithstanding, Greece is a great place to live.

Once visitors move beyond the 21°C average temperature and stunning natural beauty, Greece also boasts membership of the EU, the eurozone, the Schengen Area, NATO, has a cheaper cost of living than much of Western Europe, and holds a privileged strategic position in one of the modern world’s most conflicted seas. All that was before investors realised how attractive Greece’s collapsed investment market was for buyers with ready capital. When Greece began its Golden Visa programme in the early 2010s, its lucrative offer went beyond cheap housing. Greece was offering investors the opportunity to live in one of Europe’s most desirable countries.

No wonder wealthy immigrants leapt at the chance, especially given the seven years runway that Greece offered to full naturalisation. Greece’s nominal GDP has grown cumulatively by 42% since 2015, even including the Covid-19 dip, and presents an enduringly desirable country to build a life in. Public investment has jumped from 2.5% of GDP in 2019, to roughly 4% today. EU funding for Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (including a package worth €35.9 billion) has boosted critical policy areas in need of support, from transport, to energy infrastructure and healthcare reforms.

In short, the economic crisis that occupied Greece in 2009 is no longer as pressing. This does beg the question: why does Greece still maintain a Golden Visa, and how can it be improved upon to continue delivering for an economy with a more stable property market, a budget surplus, and improved consumer confidence and purchasing power? Spain has utterly eliminated a similar national programme, while Portugal has cut off property investment from qualifying routes. Greece continues to deliver prosperity with its programme for a simple reason: it is willing to steer investors towards areas of greatest need. Since 2023 reforms were enacted, Greece’s Golden Visa has a lower minimum spend in small islands or in areas like Western Macedonia, and more in Athens, which already has a booming property market and busy public services.

It’s an elegant solution, but it has the opportunity to build on its own success and deliver value both for international investors, and for Greeks themselves. The country must now consider reforms that target economic sectors in genuine need of investment to ensure that large-scale investment is linked more directly to targeted economic growth. The new bill’s emphasis on manufacturing and innovation points towards the wider economic returns Greece wants from foreign capital. Could Greece also move towards Golden Visa investments directly into regional regeneration, energy, or business innovation in future? By the logic of the current programme, cheaper Golden Visas could even be offered in exchange for investments in economic sectors of greatest need.

Clearly, the system is a mighty success for the economy, but if it can be supercharged to fill the existing blindspots in Greece’s phenomenal economic recovery, Greece could turn a system that helped save it, into an idea that fuels its future ambition. As Greek lawmakers continue to woo lucrative foreign investment, the Golden Visa deserves a place in that conversation.