Golden Visa: The competitiveness of the program is suspended according to the SAE

The competitiveness of the program is completely suspended from the proposed amendment, as stated in a letter by the Association of Anonymous and Entrepreneurship (SAIE) to the Minister of Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis and the Minister of Development, Kostas Skrekas, according to ERT. In particular, the SAE Property Committee and the Golden Visa Working Group report their concerns to a relevant communication, having studied – as noted – the amendment to the draft law of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, “Incorporation of the Directive (EU) Council Regulation (EC) No 2022/2523 of 14 December 2022, on ensuring a global minimum level of taxation for multinational groups and local large-scale groups in the European Union (Pillar II) and other customs and tax provisions’ concerning the permanent residence permit for investors (Golden Visa). More detailed in the letter and in the communication concerned are the following: ‘We understand that the amendment aims: (a) to reduce directly the prices of dwellings which are deemed to have increased excessively and to avoid further increases; (b) to indirectly increase the availability of dwellings for long term lease; (c) to indirectly reduce rental rents for long term leases. It is considered highly doubtful to achieve these objectives. On the contrary, it is estimated that the impact on attracting investment through the programme will be extremely serious. These problems are due to other factors and are largely the result of economic growth that began from an extremely low base. Moreover, price increases have led to an increase in (welcome) investments in new constructions and ultimately the desired increase in housing availability despite extremely significant recent increases in construction costs. Moreover, it does not appear from the information available that the increase in rents and the lack of real estate are due to the programme. On the contrary, it appears that the main share of responsibility lies in the non-proportional expansion of the houses offered for short-term leases and that is why we welcome their full ban. In its entirety, the amendment is estimated to suspend almost completely the competitiveness of the Greek programme by increasing the amount to EUR 800,000 and the square to 120, which, as stressed, has been successful. However, given the government decisions, it is proposed to maintain the diversification of Piraeus, Nice, Korydallos, even with an increase in the limit to 400,000 euros and to transfer its accession to the regulations of the amendment from 31/12/2025. This is proposed because of the number of investments under way in these regions and it is almost impossible to cope with change directly. They are investments that in the majority of them were made as a result of changing the limits that were only legislated in the summer of 2023. More generally, the lengthening of the period of payment beyond the advance amount of the purchase of the property will reduce the risk of cancellations by already interested parties (disturbed by frequent changes) and help normalise the market as far as possible in the period. Among the positive elements of the amendment is the clarification that existing permanent investor licences will be renewed under the conditions applicable at the time of issue and that short-term leases for properties already under the Golden Visa regime are prohibited. In any case, the complete absence of even the simplest data or some elementary study is noted, so that the public debate on such an important subject is carried out documentedly and comprehensively without relying on individual experiences or fragmentary publications.”