The Greek golden visa is a residence permit, not a tax election. The two are frequently confused, especially by advisers marketing packaged offerings, so the important thing to establish first is that a Greek golden visa investor pays exactly the same Greek tax as any other Greek tax resident with the same profile, unless they separately apply for and are granted a special tax regime. The visa unlocks the right to live in Greece and to move within the Schengen area; the tax consequences depend on whether the holder becomes a Greek tax resident under the 183-day rule or the center-of-vital-interests test, and whether they elect into one of Greece's inbound regimes.
This guide walks through the post-2024 investment thresholds, the tax position of an investor who does not become resident, the position of one who does, the EUR 100,000 non-dom lump-sum option that most HNW golden visa applicants weigh, how family members are treated, how rental income from the qualifying investment is taxed, and how the Greek package compares to the Cyprus and Malta alternatives. All figures are as of 2026 and should be verified with a Greek-qualified adviser before any transaction.
Post-2024 investment thresholds by region
Greece restructured golden visa investment minimums in 2024 to cool the property market in the most saturated areas. Rather than a single national threshold, the program now uses tiered minimums that depend on where the real estate sits. The broad structure, as of 2026, is:
- EUR 800,000 for property in Attica (greater Athens), Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and islands with a resident population above roughly 3,100.
- EUR 400,000 for property elsewhere in Greece, subject to a minimum single-property rule that varies by category.
- EUR 250,000 for two narrow routes: conversion of a commercial property to residential, or restoration of a listed historic building.
These figures are widely reported but the underlying legislation has been amended several times and carries transitional grandfathering for pre-2024 files. Anyone modeling a purchase should confirm the current threshold with the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and with a real-estate lawyer, because the exact wording of the zoning categories and the qualifying property types has shifted more than once. Non-real-estate routes (capital contributions to Greek companies, Greek government bonds, deposits with Greek credit institutions, shares in Greek listed companies or mutual funds) remain available at their own thresholds, typically EUR 400,000 to EUR 800,000 depending on the instrument.
None of this changes anyone's Greek tax bill directly. A EUR 800,000 apartment in Kolonaki carries the same annual ENFIA property tax as any other property of the same objective value, and the same transfer tax on acquisition. What the investment threshold does affect is whether the same asset can double as the qualifying investment for the non-dom regime discussed below.
Tax position of a non-resident golden visa holder
A golden visa holder is not required to spend any minimum number of days in Greece; the permit has no physical-presence obligation beyond the initial biometrics and renewals. Many holders never become Greek tax residents. For that group, the Greek tax exposure is limited to Greek-source income, primarily:
- Rental income from the qualifying property, taxed on a progressive scale for individuals (see below).
- ENFIA, the annual real-estate tax, calculated on objective values with a supplementary component for high-value portfolios.
- Capital gains on eventual sale of the property. Greek real-estate capital gains are technically taxed at 15% but the levy has been suspended for individuals for successive years; verify status at the time of any planned sale.
- Transfer tax on the purchase itself, generally 3.09% on used property, plus notarial and registration fees.
Worldwide income remains taxed by the holder's home country. Greek treaty relief is available for the rental income and any Greek withholding on dividends or interest, at rates set by the applicable double tax treaty. This is the most common holding pattern in practice: a non-resident investor keeps their tax home elsewhere, pays Greek tax only on the Greek yield, and uses the permit primarily for Schengen mobility.
Tax position once a golden visa holder becomes Greek resident
A holder who chooses to move to Greece and satisfies the 183-day test, or who shifts their center of vital interests to Greece, becomes a full Greek tax resident. Absent a special regime, they are taxed on worldwide income at progressive rates of 9% to 44%: 9% up to EUR 10,000, 22% to EUR 20,000, 28% to EUR 30,000, 36% to EUR 40,000, and 44% above EUR 40,000. The solidarity surcharge that once sat on top of these brackets was suspended and is expected to remain suspended through 2026, but this too has been re-legislated more than once.
Investment income is siloed at flat rates: 5% on dividends, 15% on interest, and 15% on capital gains from securities. Foreign dividends received by a Greek resident are taxed at the same 5% flat rate with treaty credits for foreign withholding, which makes Greece meaningfully more attractive for dividend-heavy portfolios than a country that folds dividends into progressive brackets. Inheritance tax runs from 1% to 40% depending on the relationship of the heir and the value transferred, with a EUR 150,000 exemption for close family. There is no general wealth tax, but ENFIA sits close to one for real-estate-heavy balance sheets.
The EUR 100,000 non-dom lump-sum option
The regime most golden visa families ask about is Greece's Law 4646/2019 non-dom flat tax. In exchange for an annual lump-sum payment of EUR 100,000, a qualifying individual pays no Greek income tax on any foreign-source income, regardless of amount or type. The regime runs for up to 15 years and requires the individual to have been a non-resident of Greece for at least seven of the eight tax years prior to the transfer of tax residency, and to make a qualifying investment in Greece of at least EUR 500,000 in real estate, a business, or securities.
The crucial point for golden visa applicants: the EUR 500,000 investment threshold for the non-dom regime is lower than any of the golden visa property tiers, so a qualifying golden visa investment automatically satisfies it. A single EUR 800,000 Attica apartment can both secure the residence permit and clear the non-dom investment test. The lump sum is due each year in a single payment, non-refundable, and does not scale with income. For a family with EUR 5 million of foreign passive income, the effective rate on that income is 2%. For a family with EUR 300,000, it is 33% and worse than the standard progressive schedule.
Greek-source income and gains fall outside the regime and remain taxed under the standard rules. So do inheritances of Greek assets. A key structural benefit of the regime is that assets located abroad transfer free of Greek inheritance tax while the regime holder is inside it — a shield the competing 7% retiree regime does not offer, and one that pushes many multi-generation families toward the lump-sum even when the pure income math does not.
Family member inclusion
Family members of the primary non-dom applicant can be included in the regime for an additional EUR 20,000 per family member per year, on top of the EUR 100,000 main fee. Family here means spouse, civil partner, ascendants, and descendants; there is no cap on the number of members that can be added. Each included member receives the same foreign-income shield as the principal, is treated as a Greek tax resident, and files a Greek return listing only their Greek-source income.
The math is straightforward. A married couple with two adult children moving together pays EUR 100,000 + 3 × EUR 20,000 = EUR 160,000 per year, and every member's foreign passive income of any amount escapes Greek tax. Compared with including four separate high-income filers in the standard progressive system, where each would be taxed to 44% marginal, the family package is often decisive at combined household incomes above roughly EUR 800,000 to EUR 1 million, but this depends heavily on income mix and treaty position.
Family members added to the regime who later separate from the household — divorce, adult children establishing their own tax residency — can be removed from the election, but the specific mechanics are annual and require formal filing. The regime does not automatically extend to grandchildren or siblings; adding them requires them to qualify as ascendants or descendants of the principal or their spouse.
Rental income from the qualifying property
Because so many golden visa investments are apartments that end up on the short-term or long-term rental market, the taxation of that rental yield deserves its own treatment. Rental income received by an individual (resident or not) is taxed on a dedicated progressive scale: 15% up to EUR 12,000, 35% from EUR 12,000 to EUR 35,000, and 45% above EUR 35,000. A 5% flat deduction is available for repairs and maintenance without documentation; actual expenses can be deducted with proof, subject to limits.
Two structural points matter for planning. First, short-term rentals through platforms like Airbnb are treated as rental income for individuals who list up to two properties; a third property or more shifts the activity into a business classification with different rules and VAT exposure. Second, holding the qualifying property through a Greek company converts the rental yield into corporate income taxed at 22%, with 5% withholding on dividend distributions to shareholders. That combination is often cheaper than the individual progressive rental scale above about EUR 30,000 of net yield, but it interacts with the non-dom regime in ways that are jurisdiction-specific and should be modeled with a Greek tax adviser before purchase.
For a non-resident golden visa holder, the rental income is Greek-source and taxed in Greece regardless of the holder's tax residency. Treaty relief in the holder's home country then determines whether they pay tax twice. For a resident golden visa holder in the non-dom regime, the rental yield is Greek-source and falls outside the lump-sum shield — so a EUR 800,000 apartment generating EUR 40,000 of gross rent contributes to the standard Greek tax bill even for the non-dom principal.
How Greece compares to Cyprus and Malta
Greek golden visa investors routinely benchmark the package against Cyprus and Malta, the two other EU alternatives most often on the shortlist. The programs are structurally different — Cyprus does not currently run a residence-by-investment scheme with the same real-estate carve-outs as Greece, and Malta's residence programs are permit-driven rather than investment-tiered — but the tax regimes underlying each are directly comparable.
| Feature | Greece | Cyprus | Malta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top marginal rate | 44% | 35% | 35% |
| Non-dom flavor | EUR 100k lump-sum on all foreign income, 15 years | 17-year SDC exemption on foreign dividends and interest | Remittance basis: foreign income taxed only if brought in |
| Dividend tax (resident) | 5% flat | 0% under non-dom (5% SDC from 2026 for non-non-doms) | 0-35% (0% under non-dom on unremitted) |
| Inheritance tax | 1-40% | None | None |
| Capital gains on securities | 15% | Exempt (except Cyprus real estate) | 0% for non-doms |
| Corporate rate | 22% | 15% (from 2026) | 35% headline, ~5% effective after refunds |
| Minimum days for residency | 183 | 183, or 60 with alternative ties | 183 |
For pure passive-income optimization at HNW levels, Cyprus is often mechanically cheaper than Greece: the non-dom SDC exemption fully removes dividend and interest tax for 17 years without a lump-sum, and there is no inheritance tax at all. Greece's advantage is the ceiling: the EUR 100,000 lump-sum caps total tax on any amount of foreign income, which matters at eight-figure income levels where Cyprus's per-return computation becomes non-trivial. Malta's remittance basis is structurally similar to the pre-abolition UK rule and works well for families who can genuinely leave income offshore, but it is less clean when income needs to be spent locally.
Where Greece typically wins the shortlist decision is on lifestyle-plus-tax packaging: the golden visa gives a direct property route to the same qualifying investment that unlocks the non-dom regime, the language and infrastructure of Athens and Thessaloniki have improved sharply, and the fixed EUR 100,000 cap is politically simpler to explain to family members than a series of exemptions that could be reformed. Where it typically loses is on the standard resident scale, which at 44% remains meaningfully higher than either Cyprus or Malta, and on inheritance tax, which the other two do not levy.
Applicants weighing a broader European set may also want to compare Greece against Portugal's post-NHR landscape and against Italy's EUR 200,000 flat tax, which was doubled from EUR 100,000 in 2024 and is now less obviously superior to the Greek regime at the very top of the income distribution.
Where to go next
Start with the Greece country page for the current headline rates and regime summary, then read the deeper walkthrough of Greece's three inbound options — the EUR 100k lump-sum, the 7% retiree flat tax, and the 50% employment reduction — before deciding which one fits. For side-by-side numeric comparison against Cyprus, Malta, Italy, and Portugal, use the country compare tool, and see the European HNW flat-tax overview for how the Greek package fits within the broader field. Investors focused on the rental economics of the qualifying property should read rental property taxation for non-residents. This guide is informational; a decision to acquire property and file for a special regime should be run past a Greek-qualified tax adviser and a real-estate lawyer at the current legislation state.