Greece holds first place in the EU in terms of the demand for “golden visas” among the rich – a residence permit bought for investment, primarily for the purchase of expensive real estate. However, other resort countries are rapidly catching up with it – in the EU, for example, Malta, Montenegro and Turkey are also growing. These statistics were provided by Tranio, a real estate brokerage company.
According to her, the Greek Golden Visa has become one of the most sought after programs. To clarify, we are talking about a residence visa issued to citizens of non-EU countries that make a significant contribution to the Greek economy. Moreover, the most common way of investing is through the purchase of real estate worth at least a quarter of a million. Golden visas issued by EU member states such as Greece are popular as they can eventually lead to EU citizenship.
Requests for the Greek golden visa program jumped 127%. These are estimates for the first half of 2022.
Interestingly, not only the European Union turned out to be among the other leaders in the rating in terms of the growth of requests. In second place are golden passports in Turkey +24% and Malta 18%. This is followed by Montenegro, which is still not part of the EU, + 12% and Italy + 11%.
At the same time, as experts added, in 2021, a similar program in Portugal scored a 100% increase, Montenegro showed + 50%, and Greece +30%. Spain also made the list last year, showing +28%. But the Baltics have lost their attractiveness, real estate sales in Latvia have fallen by 38%.
Outside of Europe, the most demanded golden visas are in the UAE + 8%, the green card of the United States and the golden visa of Thailand – + 4%. At the same time, the average number of foreign property buyers wishing to obtain a residence permit or citizenship in European host countries showed + 20% in 2021, brokers have not yet provided statistics for this year.
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