How to Get the Greece Golden Visa in 2026: 7 Steps

Most Greece Golden Visa problems don’t start with opinions or laws. They start with someone wiring a deposit on a property that was never going to qualify.

Greece overhauled the program in 2024, raising the minimum on standard property purchases while keeping a €250,000 threshold for conversions and restorations. Do these seven steps in sequence, and the rest gets a lot simpler.

Step 1. Pick your investment route before you pick a property

The first decision isn’t which property looks good. It’s which category fits your budget and your plans. Under Article 64 of Law 5100/2024, the real estate routes break down like this:

Route	Minimum	Key requirement
Prime locations	€800,000	Qualifying property in designated areas
Other eligible areas	€400,000	Qualifying property outside higher-threshold zones
Conversion/restoration	€250,000	Qualifying conversion or listed-building restoration

A €250,000 price tag doesn’t make a property eligible. It has to meet the conditions attached to that category.

Here’s the part most investors miss. The €400,000 and €800,000 tiers both require a single residential property of at least 120 square meters. Per the official procedure published by Greece’s National Registry of Administrative Public Services, the change-of-use route carries no surface area restriction on the main spaces. That’s why a well-planned conversion can deliver qualifying units at €250,000 that would never work under the standard tiers.

Confirm the category before you sign anything. Mercan currently runs structured Greece Golden Visa options, including qualifying €250,000 projects.

Step 2. Get your Greek tax number and sort out banking

You’ll need a Greek tax identification number, the AFM, and banking in place to move funds.

Living outside Greece? A power of attorney executed before a Greek consular authority or a foreign notary with a Hague apostille covers most of it, and you can file before you ever set foot in the country.

Step 3. Line up independent legal counsel and an experienced provider

Independent legal review is standard practice in Greek property deals. Your lawyer checks ownership structure, title documents, planning status, and whether the property qualifies under your route.

A full-service provider keeps the investment and immigration tracks moving together. That’s where Mercan fits: Golden Visa guidance plus direct access to qualifying projects, including Keranis Residences in Piraeus, in the €250,000 commercial-to-residential conversion category.

Use both. The provider runs the process through to filing, your lawyer reviews the deal on your behalf.

Step 4. Finish due diligence before the deposit leaves your account

Never let the price tag be the starting point. Before you commit funds, confirm:

• The seller has the legal right to sell
• Title documents are in order and correctly registered
• Taxes and obligations have been settled
• The property meets your category’s requirements
• The investment hasn’t been used before in a way that affects eligibility

This matters most on €250,000 conversions, where two extra conditions apply. The change of use must be completed after 5 April 2024 and before you file. And if the building was industrial, an engineer has to certify that no industrial activity has run there for at least five years.

A structured program clears that ground in advance, because the project gets built around the rules from day one. Mercan’s Keranis Residences is exactly that: individual ownership titles, designed to qualify at €250,000.

Step 5. Move the money through a clean paper trail

Greek law is specific. Payment goes by crossed bank cheque, credit transfer, or POS terminal, into a payment account held in Greece. Cash isn’t an option.

Keep records of where the money came from, both accounts, the purchase agreement, and receipts. That trail is what proves the qualifying investment was completed.

Step 6. File the application and give biometrics

Submission is fully digital through the Ministry of Migration and Asylum e-services portal. Expect seven to eight supporting documents, private health insurance, and a passport photo meeting Greek specs. Biometrics get collected at the examination stage.

State fees are fixed: €2,000 for the permit, plus €16 for the printed card. The official target is 50 days, though real timelines shift with volume and how clean your file is. Mercan handles this stage too, so the property and immigration files match.

Step 7. Think about renewal before you invest

Getting the card isn’t the finish line. The permit runs five years and renews as long as you keep the qualifying investment in place, with no minimum stay requirement.

Two rules worth planning around early: Golden Visa properties can’t be used for short-term holiday letting, so long-term rental is your income route. And selling while the permit is valid revokes it. Current guidelines are published on the Ministry of Migration and Asylum website. Sort out ownership, management, rental policy and exit options before you buy, not after.

Why most investors hand this off

Seven steps sounds manageable. But they pull together immigration law, property checks, tax, legal opinion and government procedures, and every piece has to line up.

Mercan suits investors who want it all under one roof. Keranis Residences is a redevelopment of the former Keranis tobacco factory in Piraeus: 29,900 square meters, six floors, 408 fully furnished units, with individual title deeds; a 3% guaranteed annual return for ten years, and projected capital appreciation of 4% to 7%. Piraeus is Greece’s largest port, twenty minutes from central Athens by metro and midway through a long infrastructure upgrade. Mercan Group has placed more than 4,100 investor families since 1989 across Greece, Portugal, Panama, the US and Canada.

Two questions investors keep asking

Do I have to live in Greece? No, as long as the qualifying investment stays in place. Citizenship is separate, with eligibility starting after seven years under its own physical presence rules.

Has the process gotten faster? It’s fully digital now, with a published 50-day target. Actual timing depends on volume, and what reliably moves a file along is a complete, correctly certified submission.

Where this leaves you

The biggest mistake in 2026 is treating the greece golden visa program like a normal property purchase. Threshold, property type, location, legal status, conversion certification, and paperwork all have to line up. The €250,000 route is still the most capital-efficient way into EU residency, and it belongs to categories that serious projects were designed around years ahead.

So don’t start with a property viewing. Start by deciding which route fits, then build the professionals and the project around it.