Moving to Greece: the routes, and why the figure you have read is usually the wrong one

Every jurisdiction on this site has pages that correct something. Greece is the one where the correction is the normal case rather than the exception.

That is not a national characteristic. It is what happens when a country rewrites its migration law, prices a residence programme by postcode, and keeps its naturalisation periods in a code with a closed list attached — and the English-language content about it gets written by people reading each other rather than the instruments.

So this page is a map with a warning on it. The short answer. Residence by investment asks €800,000 in Attica and €400,000 elsewhere, with two €250,000 exceptions that carry no minimum floor area. Living on your own income asks €3,500 a month. Remote work runs under article 68 of Law 5038/2023: a national visa for up to twelve months at €75, then a two-year permit at €1,000, on €3,500 a month net of tax. Retirement has no visa of its own and uses the sufficient-resources permit, type Ι.8. And citizenship is three, seven or twelve years depending on your nationality and on whether your residence title is on a closed list — not the seven years every page prints.

The five things most pages about moving to Greece get wrong

Each of these is corrected on a page of this site where the instrument is quoted with the date it was read. None of them is our opinion.

That is five corrections on one country, and they are the reason this page exists in the form it does rather than as another list of visas.

Residence by investment: €800,000 in Attica, €400,000 elsewhere

Greece is the only jurisdiction in this set that prices residence by zone, which is why a single headline figure for its golden visa is always wrong somewhere. The thresholds, the two €250,000 exceptions and the fact that those exceptions carry no minimum floor area at all, are set out in the Greek golden visa and residency page, together with the €3,500 a month that the income route asks under a ministerial decision we found no competitor page citing.

And the part that decides the end state rather than the entry: whether either route ever reaches permanent residence turns not on which permit you hold but on how many days you spend in Greece. Same page.

The application mechanics, and where the process differs from what agents describe, are in the Greek golden visa process.

Citizenship: three, seven or twelve years, and the closed list that decides which

This is the most consequential correction on the site for anyone choosing a jurisdiction by passport timeline.

The Greek Citizenship Code sets three, seven or twelve years, and which applies turns on two things: your nationality, and whether your residence title appears on the closed list in article 5(1)(ε). The investor permit is on that list. Many other titles are not — and that is a five-year difference that the uniform "seven years" answer hides completely.

If a passport is the reason you are considering Greece, read Greek citizenship law before anything else on this page, because the route you choose decides the clock.

Retiring in Greece: there is no retirement visa, and the 7% tax is a separate application

Greece does not issue anything called a retirement visa. A retiree from outside the EU uses the permit for people with sufficient resources, type Ι.8: €3,500 a month for one person, €4,200 for a couple, a €180 consular fee, €1,000 for the permit and €1,000 again at every three-year renewal, with a private health insurance contract required at both stages.

The 7% pension tax that draws people to Greece is not part of that permit. It is a separate application to the tax office, with its own deadline, and it covers all foreign income rather than only the pension. Both halves are in retiring in Greece, and the deadline is the part worth diarising before the move rather than after.

Remote work: article 68, €75 for the visa, and a rule that costs you a tax break

The digital nomad route is article 68 of the Migration Code, Law 5038/2023. A remote worker for employers or clients outside Greece gets a national visa for up to twelve months for €75, with a consular answer due in ten days, and can then switch to a two-year residence permit for €1,000. The income test is €3,500 a month net of tax for an employee, plus 20% for a partner and 15% for each child.

The condition that catches people: the holder may not work for anyone based in Greece — which also puts the 50% tax break for people moving to Greece out of reach for a remote employee. Both are in the Greek digital nomad visa.

Buying: the transfer tax is 3.09%, on a value that is not your price

Three things about Greek property transfer tax are stated wrongly almost everywhere, and all three change the arithmetic.

The rate is 3.09% rather than 3%, because the municipal surcharge is charged on the tax and not on the price. The tax falls on the assessed value from the register, which is not what you paid. And the first-home exemption requires residence in Greece, so the buyer who most often reads about it is the one who cannot use it. All three are in property transfer tax in Greece.

Who you buy through matters too: the licensing and register checks are in estate agents in Greece.

Where you cannot buy: the border areas, which almost nothing in English mentions

Greece restricts foreign acquisition in designated border areas, and this is the Greek rule least likely to appear in a relocation guide. It is not a price zone and not a golden visa tier; it is a separate regime about where a non-EU buyer may acquire at all.

We corrected our own pages on this in November 2026, because three of them had described Santorini and the islands only as golden visa price zones and had not mentioned the border regime at all. What it covers and what remains unestablished about its 2026 tightening is on the Greek golden visa and residency page and in the island pages: buying a Greek island, buying property in Rhodes and buying property in Santorini.

What living there costs, from the state's own survey

The cost pages on this subject are usually confident and unsourced. Ours gives the source for each figure: the state's own household survey, the ministerial decision that sets the minimum wage, the circular that sets social contributions, and two rent datasets that measure different things — what landlords ask, and what tenants signed. That distinction is the one most comparisons quietly drop. It is all in the cost of living in Greece.

If you are coming from the United States or the United Kingdom

Both have their own instrument and their own trap.

For an American, the governing convention is from 1950 and amended once, and its article XIV(1) is a saving clause: each country may tax its own citizens as though the convention had not been made. Greek residence does not reach American law. That is living in Greece as an American.

For a British mover, the convention in force was signed in 1953, and its article X(2) has two conditions rather than one — so residence in Greece alone does not exempt a UK pension from UK tax. That is living in Greece from the UK.

How Greece compares with the rest of this set

• The only zoned investment threshold. €800,000 or €400,000 by area, which makes a single headline figure impossible.
• The widest spread of citizenship clocks. Three to twelve years inside one country, against Portugal's five-or-seven split and Argentina's flat two.
• A separate tax application, not a permit feature. The 7% regime has to be applied for on its own and reaches all foreign income.
• A restriction on where you may buy at all, which none of the other four has in this form.
• The most corrections per page, which is the honest way to describe a jurisdiction whose published guidance is this unreliable.

The order that saves the most

1. Decide whether the passport is the point. If it is, the citizenship clock and its closed list come before the route, because the route determines the clock.
2. Then pick the route on its own gate, not on the headline: the zone for investment, €3,500 for income or remote work, type Ι.8 for a retiree.
3. If the 7% regime matters, diarise its deadline now. It is a separate application and missing it is not a permit problem, it is a tax one.
4. Check the border regime before you choose a location, not after you have found a property.
5. Price the purchase at 3.09% of the assessed value, not 3% of what you agreed.

Frequently asked questions about moving to Greece

Where each part of this is proved

Nothing on this page is a new claim; every figure is carried from a page where the instrument is quoted with the date it was read, and if a number here and a number there disagree, the other page is right and this one needs fixing. Investment thresholds, the €3,500 income route, the days rule for permanent residence and the border regime: the Greek golden visa and residency page. The application mechanics: the golden visa process. The three, seven and twelve-year clocks and the closed list: Greek citizenship law. Type Ι.8, its fees and the 7% application: retiring in Greece. Article 68, the fees and the no-Greek-employer rule: the digital nomad visa. The 3.09% and the assessed value: property transfer tax in Greece. Agents and registers: estate agents in Greece. Costs and the two rent datasets: the cost of living in Greece. Islands and the border areas: buying a Greek island, Rhodes, Santorini. Origin-specific tax: as an American, from the UK. For the contrast with the other hubs: relocating to Portugal and relocating to Argentina.