Golden Visa

The Greek Golden Visa in Thessaloniki & Halkidiki: Two Thresholds, One Geographic Corridor

Thessaloniki is a high-demand zone at €800,000. Halkidiki, forty minutes away by car, qualifies at €400,000. Thessaloniki may also offer a €250,000 pathway through qualifying commercial-to-residential conversion. This creates an unusual concentration of Golden Visa entry routes within a single geographic corridor. Which one applies to you determines the property you target, the due diligence you need, and the legal risks that apply.

An international investor flies into Thessaloniki’s Makedonia Airport on a Thursday afternoon. The question she has been turning over: is the right move an apartment in Kalamaria at €800,000, or a coastal villa on Sithonia at €400,000? Both are genuine Golden Visa pathways. Both are in northern Greece. Both provide the same five-year renewable residence permit and the same Schengen access.

What they do not share is the type of property, the legal risks involved, or the due diligence required to ensure the investment actually qualifies. The threshold difference is €400,000. The legal difference is also very important.

An other investor arrives with a different question: he has read about the €250,000 exception for commercial-to-residential conversion in Thessaloniki. He wants to know whether it is real, whether it applies to the property his contact has shown him in the Thessaloniki Down Town area, and what “sound legal protection looks like” for a transaction at that price point in a high-demand zone.

The Greek Golden Visa is straightforward in concept. In the Thessaloniki and Halkidiki corridor, it is more nuanced than any guide on the internet suggests — because this is the only Greek market where three entry points and two entirely different due diligence profiles exist side by side.

What the Greek Golden Visa Offers

The Greek Golden Visa grants non-EU nationals and their qualifying family members a five-year renewable residence permit through a qualifying real estate investment. The key terms that make it one of Europe’s most flexible residency programmes:

• Five-year residence permit, renewable indefinitely — provided the qualifying investment is maintained
• No minimum stay requirement: the permit remains active without living in or regularly visiting Greece
• Visa-free Schengen travel across 27 European countries
• Family inclusion: Qualifying family members can typically include the spouse, children within the applicable age rules, and the investor’s and spouse’s parents, subject to the programme’s documentary requirements.
• The residence permit can support practical access to education and, depending on registration and insurance status, access to aspects of the Greek healthcare system.
• Long-term leasing of the qualifying property is generally possible under the current Golden Visa regime. Short-term rental (Airbnb and comparable platforms) is restricted for qualifying Golden Visa properties — regardless of location or threshold.
• Obtaining a Golden Visa does not by itself make you a Greek tax resident. Separate Greek tax liabilities may still arise depending on the property, the income generated, and your wider tax position.

The Golden Visa applies only to non-EU nationals. EU citizens — including German, French, Austrian, and other EU member state nationals — already hold the right of free movement within the EU and do not qualify for or require this programme.

Current Investment Thresholds

Investment thresholds and programme conditions are subject to legislative change. The figures below reflect current requirements. Verify the applicable threshold for your specific property and pathway with your legal advisor before committing.

All thresholds apply to a single property. For the €800,000 and €400,000 pathways, the property must have a minimum documented residential area of 120 m². The €250,000 exception pathways have specific qualifying conditions described below.

The Threshold Decision: What Each Choice Actually Means

Choosing between Thessaloniki and Halkidiki is not simply a question of investment size. The two markets have different property profiles, different due diligence requirements, and different buyer logics. Understanding the full picture before selecting a target property is the first legal question — not the last.

The Turkish investor calculus

For a Turkish investor, the Thessaloniki and Halkidiki corridor offers something specific: EU residency in a market with direct air connections from Istanbul and Ankara, in a legal and cultural environment that is navigable, with a Schengen access that removes the friction of EU border crossings that has defined Turkish travel since 2016.

The Halkidiki threshold at €400,000 — half of what Athens requires — provides a meaningful capital efficiency advantage for an investor who is pursuing EU foothold and capital protection simultaneously. A coastal villa on Kassandra or Sithonia that qualifies at €400,000, generates seasonal rental income, and provides a family holiday base has a different financial logic than an €800,000 urban apartment. Both are real options in this corridor. The choice depends on the investor’s goals — and, crucially, on what independent due diligence reveals about the specific property.

For Turkish investors purchasing through a Greek Private Company or SA for tax structuring or capital protection purposes, the contracting entity must be precisely identified and the company’s eligibility under the GV programme verified before any commitment. Purchasing through a company is permitted only where the applicant owns 100% of the company’s shares. This is not a post-signing detail.

The Israeli investor calculus

Israeli investors in Thessaloniki are disproportionately aware of the €250,000 commercial-to-residential exception — and for good reason. It provides access to the Golden Visa at a significantly lower threshold than the standard Thessaloniki rate, in an urban market that is rising, through a transaction type (commercial conversion) that most international investors do not understand how to structure correctly.

The sophistication of this buyer profile is matched by the complexity of the pathway. The €250,000 exception is real and achievable. It is also not a shortcut: the due diligence burden is higher than for a standard residential purchase, and the contract structure matters more. A buyer who pursues this pathway without a lawyer who knows the specific verification requirements will either discover the problem after a commitment has been made, or miss the opportunity entirely.

The Balkan lifestyle buyer and Golden Visa

For non-EU buyers from Serbia and North Macedonia who purchase in Halkidiki primarily as a lifestyle decision, the Golden Visa is frequently a secondary consideration rather than the primary driver. Bulgarian citizens, as EU nationals, already hold the right of free movement and do not require the Golden Visa — though they remain an important part of the Halkidiki lifestyle buyer market. A qualifying property at €400,000 provides a residence permit; a property at €350,000 provides the holiday home without the permit. The due diligence question is the same in both cases. The legal process is more demanding for the GV version, and the stakes if something goes wrong are proportionally higher: an undiscovered forest map classification does not just affect the property’s value, it can invalidate the visa basis.

The €250,000 Exception in Thessaloniki: A Strategic Opportunity

The €250,000 pathways remain available in Thessaloniki regardless of its high-demand zone classification. For an investor entering the Thessaloniki market, this is not a footnote. It is a structural advantage that most international buyers never discover before they are already working with a lawyer who knows it.

Commercial-to-residential conversion

Thessaloniki’s urban fabric — particularly in the historic centre, the Ladadika district, and the older commercial corridors adjacent to residential buildings — contains a stock of ground-floor and lower-level spaces originally registered as commercial. The conversion of a formally registered commercial property to residential use qualifies at €250,000 regardless of the city’s high-demand classification.

This pathway is not a simpler acquisition. It is a different type of transaction with a higher due diligence burden and a more demanding contract structure. Before any commitment, three core verifications should be completed:

• That the property is formally registered as commercial in the official records — not merely used as commercial. The registration status must be confirmed at the Cadastral and the urban planning authority, not assumed from the deed description.
• That the planned conversion to residential use is achievable under current urban planning regulations and building permit framework for that specific property and location. A conversion that is architecturally feasible is not necessarily legally achievable.
• That the contract structure protects the buyer throughout the conversion process. A unified notarial deed covering both the acquisition and the construction obligation provides substantially stronger protection than separate contracts. The staged permit process in a conversion means that the developer’s obligations at each permit stage must be explicitly addressed.

The €250,000 threshold applies to the acquisition price. Construction and conversion costs are separate and must be fully estimated before any commitment is made.

Listed and preserved buildings

Buildings classified as listed or preserved also qualify at €250,000, provided the investor undertakes full restoration. In Thessaloniki, this pathway has a narrower but genuine scope — in the Jewish quarter, parts of the historic upper town, and select older buildings in the central grid. The restoration obligation is legally binding and must be assessed in terms of both its documentary requirements and its financial scope before any commitment.

Due Diligence: What Each Market Requires

For any Golden Visa acquisition, independent legal due diligence is not optional. It is the mechanism by which the qualifying investment is verified as actually qualifying. A property with an undiscovered building violation, forest map classification, or coastal zone boundary issue does not just carry financial risk — it may fail to qualify for the programme it was purchased to access.

A property that passes these checks qualifies. A property that does not may still be purchaseable — but it does not form a sound GV basis. Your independent lawyer is the professional whose job it is to make that determination before any commitment, not after.

Legal and Ownership Rules

• Individual purchase: the investment must be made in the applicant’s name
• Corporate structure: permitted only if the applicant holds 100% of the company’s shares. For Turkish and Israeli investors using a Private Company or SA for tax or inheritance purposes, this condition must be verified before the transaction is structured.
• Short-term rental: properties acquired under the Golden Visa scheme cannot be used for short-term rental platforms. Long-term leasing is generally possible under the current regime and should be assessed against the intended use of the property.
• Investment maintenance: selling the qualifying property can affect the residence permit, and any proposed sale, replacement, or restructuring should be legally assessed before completion.
• Remote acquisition: most of the acquisition process can be completed by Power of Attorney. Personal presence is generally required for biometric submission.

The Process: Step by Step

A Golden Visa acquisition is primarily a property transaction — the immigration steps follow the legal and technical work. The sequence below applies to both markets, with pathway-specific due diligence noted at Step 1.

At Your Legal Home led by Kotsonis–Gaitanaki Law Firm, we manage every stage of this process on your behalf from our Thessaloniki office — running legal, technical, and administrative steps in parallel, and attending government meetings on your behalf when required.

Acquisition Costs to Budget For

In addition to the qualifying investment amount, buyers should budget for the following:

• Property transfer tax: approximately 3.09% of the purchase value
• Notary fees: calculated on a scale based on the transaction value
• Land registry and cadastral fees
• Legal fees: agreed at the outset on a fixed basis
• Golden Visa state application fees: payable at the application stage
• For €250,000 conversion projects: construction and permit costs are separate from the qualifying threshold and must be fully estimated before commitment

Capital gains tax: Greek law has at various points provided for CGT exemptions or suspensions on property sales. The applicable rules are subject to legislative change. Verify the current CGT position for your specific asset and exit horizon with your legal and tax advisors before committing.

A Note on Legal Independence

Purchasing property in Thessaloniki or Halkidiki for Golden Visa purposes involves multiple professionals: agents, developers, notaries, engineers, and legal advisors. In a transaction at this scale, the alignment of your legal representation is not a procedural question. It is a substantive one.

At Your Legal Home led by Kotsonis–Gaitanaki Law Firm, we represent only the buyer’s side in Golden Visa transactions — never the developer, the seller, or any other party in the same transaction. We have no financial relationship with any agent or developer involved in transactions we advise on. Our Thessaloniki office means we work with direct knowledge of this corridor: the new-build developments in Kalamaria and Pylaia, the conversion stock in Ladadika, and the coastal and plot market on Kassandra and Sithonia.

If a property carries a legal or technical risk that affects its Golden Visa eligibility — whether that is a building violation in the Thessaloniki apartment or a forest map classification in the Halkidiki plot — we will be the first to tell you. Before any commitment, not after.

Before Your Consultation: A Starting Point

These questions define the focus of any Golden Visa conversation for Thessaloniki or Halkidiki. You do not need answers before we speak — they exist to make the first conversation more useful.

• Which market and threshold apply to my situation: €800,000 in Thessaloniki, €400,000 in Halkidiki, or the €250,000 conversion exception in Thessaloniki?
• Has the specific property been verified for the due diligence requirements of its market — building legality and master deed in Thessaloniki, forest map and coastal zone in Halkidiki?
• Does the property meet the 120 m² minimum as documented in the building permit — not as described in the listing?
• What ownership structure am I considering — individual purchase or a company with 100% shareholding — and has its GV eligibility been confirmed?
• For the €250,000 conversion pathway: is the property formally registered as commercial? Has the conversion’s planning feasibility been confirmed before any offer?
• Do I have a clear picture of total acquisition costs, including transfer tax, notary fees, legal fees, and — for conversion projects — the full construction estimate?

Experience Your Golden Visa Journey with Clarity

Whether you are comparing the three entry points to this market or ready to move forward on a specific property, the right starting point is a structured legal conversation — not a sales pitch. At Your Legal Home led by Kotsonis–Gaitanaki Law Firm, we guide you through the threshold decision, the due diligence, and the process from first property search to permit issuance.