Greece raises non-EU property tax to 15%

The tax hike comes on top of tighter Golden Visa rules already in place. Greece has raised minimum investment thresholds to 800,000 euros in high-demand areas including Athens, Thessaloniki and islands with more than 3,100 residents, and to 400,000 euros elsewhere, helping curb a program that had become a major draw for buyers from Turkey, China, Israel and other non-EU countries.

The impact is already showing up in the numbers. New Golden Visa applications fell 44% in the first half to 2,551 from 4,553 a year earlier, even as 4,919 new permits were issued, up 21% as authorities worked through backlogs. Separate central bank data showed 1.2 billion euros were invested in Greek property by third-country buyers in 2025, with about 800 million euros estimated to have gone into homes.

For investors, the headline risk is a further slowdown in a market that had benefited from foreign inflows, especially in prime residential areas. Developers, brokers and landlords tied to the visa regime face weaker demand, while policymakers are betting the higher tax will ease affordability pressures for local buyers rather than simply redirect overseas capital to other Mediterranean markets.

The next focus is whether the government finalizes the measure quickly and how sharply it hits transaction volumes in the second half, especially if overseas investors decide the new tax burden makes Greece less competitive against Portugal, Spain and other residency-by-investment destinations.