Permanent residence, reg. 6(2)
Cyprus golden visa: permanent residence, tax and property
Cyprus grants permanent residence, not a visa: €300,000 plus VAT in a new home from a developer, and €50,000 a year of secured income from abroad. The Migration Department estimates about two months for a complete application, the right of residence has no end date, and it lapses after two years spent outside Cyprus. Cyprus is not in the Schengen area, and the government announced in September 2026 that the route will be tightened before it joins.
- From
- €300,000 + VAT
- First permit
- About 2 months, the department's own estimate
- Tax regime
- Non-dom: no SDC on dividends or interest for 17 years
The real number
What Cyprus actually costs
The threshold is the investment alone. Transfer taxes, professional and government fees and the first renewal are not optional — everyone pays them, every time.
- Advertised
- €300,000
- Everything else
- €61,000
- Real, first year
- €361,000
Sources Verified against primary sources on 23 August 2026, Cyprus on 22 October 2026 — statutes, ministry tariffs and official fee schedules. Figures are for ONE main applicant and cover entry and the first renewal; dependants are priced differently in every jurisdiction and are not included. Amounts in euro; the UAE threshold is AED 2,000,000 converted at 4.288 on the same date. See the working →
Who the Cyprus permanent residence permit suits
Cyprus fits somebody who wants a permanent status in an EU country for the family, can put €300,000 into a new home without borrowing it in Cyprus, and has an income from abroad that does not depend on working on the island. The permit is permanent from the first decision: the right of residence has no end date, and only the card is replaced, every ten years. There is no renewal to apply for and no minimum stay — but the permit lapses after two years spent outside Cyprus, or if the family takes permanent residence in another country.
It does not fit somebody who needs to work in Cyprus: a holder may not take employment, except as director of the company they invested in. It does not fit somebody who wants Schengen, because Cyprus is not in it. And it is not a fast passport: naturalisation takes about eight years of physical presence and Greek at B1.
What Cyprus's €300,000 threshold consists of
The threshold is €300,000 plus VAT, and VAT is the part most estimates get wrong. The home category requires a house or flat bought from a development company as a first sale. Up to two units may make up the figure, and at least €300,000 excluding VAT must be paid by the time of application, whatever the delivery date — so an apartment still under construction qualifies once that much is paid.
New homes carry VAT at 19%. The 5% rate exists, but the VAT Law gives it only to a home used as the buyer's main and permanent residence in Cyprus, on the first 130 m² and up to €350,000, where the whole transaction is no more than €475,000. An investor who takes the permit and goes on living abroad pays 19%: €57,000 on €300,000. One who moves and makes it the family home pays 5%, €15,000 — and repays the difference if they stop living there within ten years.
There is no transfer fee where VAT is charged, and no stamp duty since 1 January 2026. On top of the price: €500 to apply, €70 per person for the registration certificate, and a lawyer at roughly 1%, which no tariff sets.
The money must come from abroad — a Cypriot loan does not count towards the €300,000 — and the family needs a secured income from abroad of €50,000 a year, plus €15,000 for a spouse and €10,000 for each minor child. Three other categories exist at the same figure: other property such as shops or offices, where a resale is allowed; capital in a Cypriot company employing five people; and units of a Cypriot investment fund.
What changed in Cypriot law, and when
On 2 May 2023 the fourth revision of the criteria — the one in force — raised the income requirement from €30,000 to €50,000 and the amount per child from €5,000 to €10,000, required the full €300,000 to be paid at application instead of €200,000, and removed parents and parents-in-law as dependants. It also introduced the obligations after the permit: annual proof that the investment and the health insurance are kept, and criminal-record certificates, now every three years. The annual proof of income it added has since been abolished by the department.
In 2023 the reduced VAT rate was narrowed to the first 130 m² and €350,000, with a €475,000 ceiling on the transaction. On 1 January 2026 stamp duty was repealed, rent stopped carrying the Special Defence Contribution, and the band of income taxed at 0% rose from €19,500 to €22,000.
Announced and not law: in September 2026 the deputy minister for migration said the route will be tightened before Cyprus joins Schengen, without naming a threshold or a date, while about 12,000 permits issued since 2013 are reviewed. Bills restricting purchases by buyers from outside the EU are before parliament. Neither has a text that can be checked, so neither changes a figure on this page.
After the Cyprus permit: naturalisation and the non-dom regime
There is nothing to renew. Each year the holder proves that the investment is still held and that health insurance is in place, unless covered by the public health system; every three years the adults supply criminal-record certificates. Selling the property without replacing it at the same value or more cancels the permit for the whole family.
Naturalisation needs twelve months of continuous lawful residence before applying and at least seven years within the ten years before that — physical presence, not the permit on paper — plus Greek at B1 and a test on the country's political and social life.
The permit makes nobody a tax resident; days do. A tax resident without Cypriot domicile pays no Special Defence Contribution on dividends or interest. Domicile is deemed after 17 of 20 years, and since 2026 it can be bought off for five years with a single payment of €250,000. Income tax runs from 0% up to €22,000 to 35% above €72,000.
Buying property here — Buying property in Cyprus: the rules, the costs and the VAT trap
Questions about Cyprus
- What is a golden visa, exactly?
- A residence permit granted because you placed a defined amount of money in the country — not because you have a job offer there, family there, or protection needs. That is the whole of the idea. It is not a passport and not a travel visa, and none of these five states calls it a golden visa in its own law: Portugal issues an ARI, Greece a residence permit for investment activity, Malta a permanent residence certificate, the UAE a ten-year golden residence. The marketing name is the market's, which is worth knowing before you read anyone else's page about it.
- Where is the entry threshold lowest?
- On the threshold alone, Greece — but only in a narrow case most buyers do not qualify for. Since 1 September 2024 Greece has three tiers: €800,000 across Attica, the Thessaloniki regional unit, Mykonos, Thira and islands above 3,100 people; €400,000 everywhere else; and €250,000 only by exception, for converting premises to residential use, rebuilding an industrial building idle five years, or fully restoring a listed one — with the works finished before you file. Otherwise Cyprus: €300,000 plus VAT in a new home from a developer — and the VAT is 19% for an investor who does not move there, which makes €357,000. Then Malta €375,000 to buy or €14,000 a year to rent, the UAE AED 2,000,000 (about €466,000 at 4.288), Portugal €500,000 into a fund.
- Does the permit let me work anywhere in the EU?
- No. An investment residence permit lets you live in the issuing country and travel freely in Schengen, but it carries no right to work in other EU states. Working in the issuing country itself is usually allowed; the conditions differ.
- After how many years can I apply for citizenship?
- Malta about five years by naturalisation, Greece seven, Cyprus eight, Portugal seven for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals and ten for everyone else — that last figure changed in May 2026 and used to be five. The UAE has no citizenship route here at all. Everywhere the clock counts years of actual legal residence, not years of holding the status, so a permit that requires a few days a year accrues nothing on its own.
- Do I have to live there to keep the status?
- To keep the permit, almost nowhere: a few days a year is usually enough. For citizenship, yes — actual residence is required, and this is where expectations diverge most often.
- Does buying property make me a tax resident?
- No. Tax residence is decided by days of presence and centre of vital interests, not by ownership. Buying a house and remaining a tax resident of your own country is an ordinary situation.
Cyprus: guides and research
- Short-term rental rules in five jurisdictions: what a listing must show in 2026
Every jurisdiction this site covers now answers the same question in its own way: before a property can be advertised for short stays, it must carry a number issued by the state. Dubai calls it a holiday home permit, Portugal a registration in the RNAL, Greece an AMA, Cyprus a registration number, Malta a licence. From 20 May 2026 an EU regulation makes the number itself part of the listing across the four European jurisdictions, and makes the platform check it. This is what each one requires, who issues it, what it costs and what happens to the owner who skips it.
- Golden visa income requirements, and what each country actually publishes about living costs
The routes that cost the most money test income the least. Greece, Malta and the UAE ask investors to prove nothing about their income; Portugal is the one exception and almost nobody writing about it says so. Every threshold below is quoted from the instrument that sets it, and the cost-of-living half explains why one comparison table would be a lie.
- Which countries still give residency for buying property in 2026
Buying property gets you residency in far fewer places than the advertising suggests. Portugal removed property from its qualifying routes in 2023, Greece raised the threshold to €800,000 across half the country, and on Malta the property is one of five payments rather than the route itself. Five jurisdictions read against the statute: thresholds, the full cost on top of the threshold, real processing times, and the restrictions that get a permit revoked.
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