The €250,000 Greek Residency Tier Nobody Writes About

Property

12 Oct

Updated October 2026

If you're an Australian who has been to Greece and started daydreaming about staying for longer than a holiday, the maths hits you within about a week. Australians get up to 90 days in Greece in any rolling 180 as a tourist. That's the ceiling for every non-EU passport holder across the Schengen zone (the group of European countries that share a single border rule). To stay past 90 days you need permission to live in Greece: a residence permit. This piece is about one specific route to that permit that almost every English-language guide skips, and that gets you the same Greek residence permit as the €800,000 buyers, for a third of the money.

Quick answer, in plain English

Greece runs a scheme called the Golden Visa. In plain English, if you buy Greek property above a set price, the Greek government gives you and your family a residence permit that lets you live in Greece long-term. Most guides say the minimum property spend is €400,000 or €800,000 depending on where you buy. There is a third, smaller price of €250,000, valid anywhere in Greece, that applies when the property you buy used to be commercial (a shop, an office, a workshop, an old village kafeneio) and has been legally converted into a home. If your property fits, you get the same residence permit for a much lower price. The rules are strict and most applications fall over on the same rule, so read on before you commit to anything.

What is a Golden Visa

A Golden Visa is a nickname for a residence permit you earn by making a qualifying investment in a country, most commonly by buying property. Greece calls its version the Residence Permit for Investment Activity. It is issued by the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum. The scheme has been running since 2013, and after Portugal shut its property route and Spain closed its Golden Visa in April 2025, Greece is the last major European door still open on the buy-your-way-in route.

The permit does not make you a Greek citizen. It puts you on the inside of Greek residency, sweeps your spouse and dependent children onto the same document, and hands you free movement across the Schengen zone. It renews. It does not police your days.

What is a tier, and why are there different prices

When guides talk about "the €400,000 tier" or "the €800,000 tier," a tier is a price band. Greece splits the country into zones, and the more the government wants to cool a postcode, the higher the minimum spend to buy in.

There are three price bands.

The €800,000 band covers the most popular places, where the government wants to slow property demand: Attica (the region around Athens), Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and any Greek island with more than 3,100 residents. If you buy in these places, the minimum spend is €800,000 and the property must be at least 120 square metres.
The €400,000 band covers everywhere else. Regional mainland Greece, smaller islands, less-touristed regions. Minimum spend €400,000, and again 120 square metres minimum.
The €250,000 band is the one nobody writes about. Valid anywhere in Greece. No minimum size. But the property has to have been commercial and legally converted into a home. This is the route this article is about.

The €250,000 route exists because the Greek government wants to nudge closed shops, workshops and shuttered village kafeneia back into housing stock, and pricing the residency at rock-bottom is one way to bait it.

What is a change of use?

In Greek building law, every property is registered as being for a particular use. A shop is commercial. A workshop is commercial. An office is commercial. A house is residential. A room in a hotel is tourist accommodation. And so on.

If you want to take a shop and legally make it into a house, that is called a change of use. An engineer files paperwork with the local planning authority in Greece (Poleodomia), confirms the space meets the rules for the new use (things like natural light, ceiling height, working plumbing, a kitchen and bathroom that meet the standard, fire safety), the works are carried out, and when everything passes inspection the engineer issues a certificate saying the works are complete. Only then is the space legally a home.

This matters for the €250,000 Golden Visa because the change of use must be finished before you file your Golden Visa application. Not planned. Not approved. Finished, with the engineer's certificate in hand.

The four rules that must all be true

For the €250,000 Golden Visa to apply, every one of these rules must be satisfied. Miss any one and the file does not qualify.

The change of use must be lawfully finished before you file. This is the rule that kills most applications. Buyers assume approval is enough. It is not. The engineer's certificate of completion must exist first.
The change of use must be dated after 5 April 2024. This is a deliberate cut-off. Older changes of use do not qualify.
One property, one file. You cannot combine two smaller commercial-to-residential conversions to reach the €250,000 total. It has to be one property.
Short-term letting on the property is not allowed. No Airbnb, no Booking.com, no Vrbo. Long lets only. If you list the property short-term after getting the permit, the permit can be revoked.

The Greek residence-permit options

If you want to live in Greece longer than 90 days, you have a few different doors. Here is the simple comparison, so you can see where the €250,000 route sits alongside the others.

€250,000 change-of-use Golden Visa. Buy a property that used to be commercial and has been converted into a home. Any location in Greece. No minimum size. Long lets only. Best for Aussies who have found a specific property that fits, particularly in a family village.
€400,000 Golden Visa. Buy any property worth at least €400,000, minimum 120 square metres, anywhere in Greece except the most popular zones. Best for buyers who want a straightforward apartment purchase in a regional Greek city or a mid-tier island.
€800,000 Golden Visa. Buy any property worth at least €800,000, minimum 120 square metres, in Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini or any island with more than 3,100 residents. Best for higher-budget buyers who want the most in-demand postcodes.
Digital Nomad Visa. No property purchase required. You need to prove income of at least €3,500 per month, after tax, from work outside Greece. Best for Aussies who can work remotely and want to live in Greece for a year or two without buying anything.
Greek citizenship through descent. If a Greek parent or grandparent is on your family tree, you may be entitled to Greek citizenship by ancestry. This is not a residence permit, it is full citizenship, and it takes months to years to process depending on how well the family paperwork survived.

Who the €250,000 route makes sense for

Three profiles of Australian buyer end up looking hard at the €250,000 route.

The Greek-Australian family with a village property. If your family knows of a closed shop, an old kafeneio, or a small workshop in the village you are connected to, and the current owner is willing to do (or contribute to) the change of use before sale, this is the cheapest path to a Greek residence permit that includes you, your spouse, and your kids.

The Aussie retiree looking at Greece's 7 percent flat tax. Australia and Greece have different tax rules. Greece has a scheme where retirees moving over from other countries can pay a flat 7 percent tax on their foreign pension income instead of Greek income tax rates, for up to 15 years. To use that scheme you need Greek tax residency, and that means first getting a Greek residence permit. The €250,000 route is a much lighter entry than €400,000 or €800,000 if the right property is available.

The buyer comparing European residencies. Portugal closed its property Golden Visa route in 2023. Spain closed its Golden Visa in April 2025. Greece is now the only European country still offering a property-linked residence permit at anything under €400,000. If you have been quoted numbers from other guides that all start at €400,000, you have been looking at an incomplete map.

What to budget beyond the €250,000

The €250,000 sticker price is the smallest line item in the file. An honest Australian budget adds all of the following on top.

Renovation. Most €250,000 change-of-use properties are unrestored village buildings. An honest full renovation of a small Greek village house (new kitchen, new bathroom, insulation, wiring, plumbing, roof) starts at around AUD 100,000 and can be much more. Get a Greek builder's quote before you commit.
Engineer's fees for the change of use. If the works are not already done, this is a separate line item, quoted per property. Expect several thousand euros for a small village conversion.
Greek property transfer tax. Currently 3.09 percent of the sale price, on top of the price itself.
Legal, notarial, and Land Registry fees. Add a few thousand euros combined for a straightforward purchase.
Border-region paperwork, if the property is on certain islands. Large parts of the Greek islands and northern Greece sit inside what's called a border region. If you are Australian without Greek citizenship, buying property in one of these areas requires a special approval from a government committee before the sale can complete. We have a full explainer on this in our Greek border-region guide for Australians. Ikaria is one of the affected islands. Your Greek lawyer handles this application, and it does add weeks to months to the timeline.
Annual Greek property tax (called ENFIA). Modest for a village property. Your Greek accountant will calculate it once you own it.
A Greek accountant. Not optional if you are entering the 7 percent tax scheme, and strongly recommended even if you are not.

Note: Do your own due diligence. I’m not a lawyer, I just share information.

Frequently asked questions

Is the €250,000 Greek Golden Visa route real?

Yes. It is set by Article 100 of Greek Law 5038/2023, updated by Law 5100/2024 and put into effect by a government decision numbered JMD 214926/2025 (JMD stands for Joint Ministerial Decision, which is the Greek term for a technical rule signed by more than one government minister). It applies anywhere in Greece, has no minimum property size, and applies when the property has been legally converted from commercial to residential use.

Do I have to live in Greece full time to keep the residence permit?

No. The Golden Visa does not require a minimum number of days per year in Greece. Tax residency is a separate question and depends on where you spend your time and where your income comes from. That is a conversation for your Greek accountant.

Does the residence permit cover my family?

Yes. It covers you, your spouse, and dependent children. Adult dependent children have different rules that have changed recently, so ask your lawyer for the current definitions.

Can I let out the property short-term to holidaymakers once I have the permit?

No. Short-term letting is prohibited on properties that qualify for the €250,000 route. Long lets only. If you list the property short-term, the permit can be revoked.

How long does the application take?

It varies. The Golden Visa file itself takes weeks to process, though the run from first email to permit-in-hand is usually several months, longer if the property sits inside a border region.

Can I combine the €250,000 property with other Greek investments?

Not for this route. It is one property, one file. Other investment routes (Greek government bonds, deposits, capital contributions to Greek companies) exist separately.

What if the property has been changed from commercial to residential, but before 5 April 2024?

It does not qualify. The change of use has to be dated after that cut-off for the €250,000 route.

Do I need to travel to Greece to buy the property?

No. Powers of attorney can be signed at a Greek consulate in Australia, or in front of an Australian notary with an apostille (an international legal certification), and your lawyer manages everything in Greece from there. Some buyers still want to visit the property in person, and that is sensible, but it is not a legal requirement.