Greece 2027: Transfer Tax, Portfolio Golden Visa and the €250,000 Question — Sector Report

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GREECE · GOLDEN VISA · REGULATION AND MARKET · SECTOR REPORT · SEPTEMBER 2026

Three Measures, One Question: What Changes in 2027?

In September 2026 three separate measures landed on the Greek property market at once: a fivefold increase in transfer tax for non-EU buyers, a draft for a portfolio-based Golden Visa category, and — where those two intersect — the fate of the €250,000 route. They do not all point the same way. This report separates what is law, what is an announcement and what is still only a draft, and works out the arithmetic of each for the international investor.

Greece Golden Visa sector report — September 2026 — Avla Real Estate · Sector Report · September 2026

At a glance

Transfer tax: 3.09% → 15.45% on residential purchases by non-EU/EEA individuals. Announced 6 September, detailed 8 September 2026. In force 1 July 2027. No bill published yet.
Outside the measure: companies and other legal entities, EU/EEA citizens, long-term residents, people of Greek descent; and all commercial, industrial property and land.
Portfolio Golden Visa: multiple properties plus an exclusive long-term letting obligation. Sits inside the National Housing Strategy 2026–2035 as a draft — threshold, number of properties and minimum lease term are all undefined.
The €250,000 category: not a regional threshold; it applies only on the change-of-use route or the restoration of a listed building. The new tax hits this route directly, because at the moment of transfer the property is already residential.
What the sector is asking for: exemption or an intermediate rate for conversion investments. The press mentions 8% — a request, not a decision.
The programme: 3,086 new applications in the first seven months of 2026, down 39% year on year, while permits issued rose and the backlog kept falling.

1. Transfer tax: from 3.09% to 15.45%

On 6 September 2026, in his economic address at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the property transfer tax on homes bought by third-country nationals would rise from 3% to 15%. Two days later the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, and Deputy Minister Dimitris Markopoulos narrowed the scope and pushed back the date.

Because the municipal surcharge is levied at 3% of the tax itself, the effective rate today is 3.09%; the new rate would be 15.45%. The base is the higher of the sale price and the administrative tax value (αντικειμενική αξία).

Who is caught by it

Situation	In scope?
Non-EU/EEA individual, no long-term residence status, buying a home	YES — 15.45%
Companies and other legal entities (any property type)	No
EU/EEA citizens	No
Long-term residents (επί μακρόν διαμένοντες)	No
People of Greek descent (ομογενείς)	No
Commercial space, industrial buildings, land	No — non-residential is outside

The arithmetic

Calculated at the effective rates including the municipal surcharge. Until the bill is published this is the upper scenario.

Deed value	Today (3.09%)	After 1 Jul 2027 (15.45%)	Difference
€250,000	€7,725	€38,625	+€30,900
€400,000	€12,360	€61,800	+€49,440
€800,000	€24,720	€123,600	+€98,880
€1,000,000	€30,900	€154,500	+€123,600

The date that counts is the transfer of title — the notarial deed and its registration. Not the contract date, not the payment date. Transfers completed by 30 June 2027 stay on the current rate; a transitional provision in the final text could change that picture.

What is still open

There is no bill. The measure is expected to be folded into an omnibus bill and put to public consultation first; it can change there.
No transitional rule has been announced for deals in progress — deposits paid and pre-contracts signed with completion slipping into 2027 are not addressed in writing.
Dual nationality (third country plus EU) — which nationality governs has not been stated.
No exemption has been announced for the Golden Visa.
Whether a primary-residence exemption applies has not been stated.

The VAT interaction — critical on new builds

In Greece a home sale carries either 24% VAT or transfer tax, never both. On new builds the VAT suspension runs at the developer's election and has been extended to 31 December 2026; an extension into 2027 is not confirmed. The suspension of the seller-side capital gains tax (Income Tax Code art. 41) ends on the same date. 2027 is therefore a threshold year on more than one line at once.

2. Portfolio Golden Visa: the opposite signal, same season

The National Housing Policy Strategy 2026–2035, prepared by the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family, was published in the Government Gazette and opened for public consultation on opengov.gr — 50 measures and a budget above €6.5 billion. One proposal inside it changes the logic of the Golden Visa: instead of a single property, an investor could apply by acquiring a portfolio of several properties.

The condition is explicit: the properties must be offered exclusively for long-term letting within a predetermined period. Short-term rental (Airbnb, Booking) is expressly excluded; the investor's own use is not envisaged; a usage-monitoring mechanism would be set up. The aim is to pull vacant and idle stock into the rental market.

Defined in the draft	Left undefined
The right to acquire a portfolio of several properties	Minimum/maximum number of properties
Exclusive long-term letting obligation	The investment threshold (a separate one, or the existing tiers)
Prohibition on short-term letting	Minimum lease term — the parameter that most determines yield
No own-use by the investor	The deadline for placing properties on the market
That a monitoring mechanism will be established	Supervising authority, sanctions and legislative timetable

This is a draft, not a law. Treat sources quoting firm figures with caution: the strategy text gives neither a threshold nor a term. The only rule in force today is that short-term letting of a Golden Visa property is prohibited, with a €50,000 fine and, in serious cases, loss of the residence permit.

3. The €250,000 category: the most fragile link

A common misreading first: €250,000 is not a regional threshold. No city and no neighbourhood is a “€250,000 area”. The figure applies on two specific routes only:

Change of use (αλλαγή χρήσης): an office, shop, warehouse, workshop or industrial building legally converted into a dwelling. The conversion must have been completed after 5 April 2024 and certified by an engineer before the application. There is no floor-area requirement on this route.
Restoration of a listed or protected building.

The new tax lands precisely here. On the conversion route the property must already be a dwelling before the deed is signed. So at the moment of transfer its registered character is residential — and the new measure targets residential purchases. Transferring a commercial building in its commercial state attracts no such tax; but the €250,000 Golden Visa route does not accept that transfer.

The sector's argument is that these investments do not take homes off the market — they create new housing supply — and so should not be treated like acquisitions a demand-suppressing tax was designed to deter. The request is for full exemption or an intermediate rate; the figure circulating in the press is 8%. That is a request, not a decision — neither adopted by the ministry nor written into any text.

The ground that has not moved: the thresholds in force

The tiers below came into force on 31 March 2024 under Law 5100/2024 (art. 64, amending art. 100 of Law 5038/2023) and still apply. The tax debate does not change them.

Threshold	Where / in what case	Additional condition
€800,000	The entire Region of Attica, the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and every island with a population above 3,100	Single property; at least 120 m² of main living space
€400,000	All other areas	Single property; at least 120 m² of main living space
€250,000	Not tied to location — change of use or restoration of a listed building only	No floor-area requirement; conversion completed after 5 April 2024

That the whole of Attica sits in the €800,000 tier is stated plainly on the government's own housing-policy portal: “ολόκληρη την Περιφέρεια Αττικής”. Athens, Piraeus, North, South, East and West Attica alike. Which tier a given property falls into is decided on its title and its file, not on a listing description, and has to be confirmed property by property.

Short-term letting of a Golden Visa property is prohibited (Law 5100/2024). The sanction is a €50,000 fine and, in serious cases, loss of the residence permit.

Where the programme stands

Indicator	Value	Period
New applications	3,086 (−39%)	Jan–Jul 2026, y/y
New applications	2,551 (4,553 a year earlier)	H1 2026
New permits granted	4,919 (+21%)	H1 2026
Pending files	~29,273 (52,000+ at the start of 2025)	Mid-2026
Foreign share of all transfers	8.7% — €2.05bn of €23.5bn	2025
Foreign capital inflow	−25%	2025
Apartment prices	+7.8%	2025
Annual building permits	>20m m² in 2006 → <7m m² today	—

The last three rows are the part of the debate most often skipped. Foreign capital inflow fell 25% while apartment prices rose 7.8%. Foreign demand is not the only source of price pressure; production has fallen to roughly a third of its 2006 volume. Suppressing demand reduces transaction volume — it does not close a supply gap.

What it means for a non-EU investor

The items below are not forecasts; they are the arithmetic of the texts available today.

The cost line changes, the threshold does not. On a €400,000 file the transfer-tax difference is about €49,440; on an €800,000 file about €98,880. That sits on top of the purchase price.
The deed date is what governs. On a new build whose handover runs past mid-2027, the transfer will most likely fall under the new regime. A handover date is no longer only a delivery question; it is a tax question.
The legal-entity exclusion is not a “solution”. Companies are outside the measure — but a Golden Visa is granted to an individual, and how a purchase through a company would be treated for residence purposes is not written in this text. Tax planning and residence rights are two different questions.
Files on the €250,000 route carry double uncertainty. Both the completeness of the conversion paperwork and the fate of the exemption request are pending. For such a property, both the permit file and the registered character of the title must be verified separately.
Watch the calendar, not the clock. No firm conclusion can be drawn before the bill is published. What can be done is to review, file by file, whether the deed date can be brought forward and what the contract actually commits to on handover.

What to follow after this report is dated

The omnibus bill going to public consultation and the text being published.
A transitional provision for transactions already under way.
A decision on exemption or an intermediate rate for the Golden Visa, and for the €250,000 conversion route in particular.
Whether the VAT suspension on new builds is extended into 2027.
The threshold and the minimum lease term for the portfolio Golden Visa category.
Which test applies for dual nationals and for purchases through a company.

Sources

Every figure in this report rests on the sources below. No unverified number has been used, and undefined parameters are marked as undefined.

Report date: 16 September 2026. This report will be updated when the relevant Greek legislation is published.

Let us work out together which threshold and which route your file falls under, and where your deed timetable stands against 1 July 2027. →

Avla Real Estate — Greek Golden Visa advisory with an independent Greek legal partner, a written fixed fee and document verification property by property.