Spain and Greece are changing their golden visa schemes and phasing out real estate purchases. However, Hungary is making it easier for expats to gain residency.
Two European countries are weighing new restrictions on so-called “golden visas” that grant non-citizens permanent residency in exchange for significant investments, including the purchase of real estate.
Greece’s Ministry of Finance has introduced a bill that would change the threshold for the country’s golden visa scheme, which has brought significant real estate investment from outside Greece. The program had “distorted the real estate sector” in Greece, said the head of a real estate brokers association.
Since the program began, over 30,000 foreign investors have bought real estate in the country, and many of them have bought housing units which they turned into vacation rentals, reducing housing inventory and driving up prices, particularly in popular tourism spots. The proposed changes to the law would remove the real estate purchase option and require foreign visa-seekers to invest in Greek business startups instead.
In Greece, the golden visa grants a renewable five-year residency and work permit, with an eventual path to citizenship. Permanent residents of Greece also have the right to live and work in any country in the European Union.
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In Spain, lawmakers have made similar moves, planning to abolish the real estate investment option for their own golden visa, which currently allows foreigners to acquire residency by purchasing real estate with more than €500,000. Spain’s Prime Minister noted earlier this year that virtually all the approved visas came from real estate investment in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, and Valencia—markets where he described the real estate market as “stressed.”
In Barcelona in particular, residents have griped about fast-increasing rents driven by a shortage in available housing units. Over the summer, some residents took to the streets with water guns to protest overtourism. Spain has issued over 11,000 visas since the program began in 2013.
Many countries that have historically offered golden visas have done so for economic reasons, hoping to entice wealthy foreigners to move to the country and take up residency, boosting local spending and tax collections. European countries that typically offered the visas often experienced population decline with lower birthrates and a high rate of residents leaving for other parts of Europe to seek better opportunities. With the real estate purchase option removed, prospective visa seekers in Spain can still qualify by transferring assets or investing in Spanish businesses.
Portugal, one of the more popular golden visa countries, already ended the real estate investment earlier this year, after whittling away at the eligible real estate investments for several years, first requiring larger investments in major cities, then prohibiting real estate investment in urban areas entirely. Now, would-be visa holders must invest in the country’s stock market, cultural projects, or scientific research—that is, programs that boost economic development for Portugal, but often with little or no guaranteed return for the investor, aside from the residency visa.
Until the end of the real estate investment option, the government said the majority of applications under the golden visa scheme had come from Brazil (where Portuguese is the official language), China, and the United States.
Other European countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, have already ended their own golden visa programs entirely.
Golden visa seekers aren’t out of options, however. One country bucking the trend is Hungary, which rebooted its golden visa program—including real estate investment—in mid 2024. Malta and Italy also still offer golden visas to foreign business investors.
Without a residency or other longer-stay visa, U.S. passport holders are limited to staying 90 days in any 180-day period in Europe’s Schengen Area, which comprises virtually every member state of the European Union (except Cyprus and Ireland) and also includes Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.