Greece nearly doubled its Golden Visa approvals in 2025 while the number of new applications fell, according to a report carried by KESQ on migration figures for the programme.

The gap between the two trends is the story. More approvals and fewer applications mean Greek authorities cleared a backlog of existing files rather than processed a wave of new interest. The KESQ report did not publish the absolute approval count, the rejection rate, or the nationality breakdown — gaps that matter when assessing the programme's real health.

What is Greece's Golden Visa?

The programme grants five-year renewable residence permits to non-EU nationals who invest in Greek real estate or other qualifying assets. It remains one of Europe's most widely used residence-by-investment routes, despite successive increases to its minimum investment thresholds in recent years.

Greece raised the entry price for the most sought-after regions — including Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and other high-demand areas — to 800,000 euros, with a lower 400,000-euro threshold elsewhere, under reforms that took effect in 2024 and 2025. Those hikes preceded the 2025 application decline the report describes.

Who is affected by the 2025 numbers?

The near-doubling of approvals directly affects applicants already in the queue. Families and investors who filed before the threshold increases stood to benefit, since adjudication — not filing — determines who secures permits under which rules.

The fall in applications points the other way. Higher minimum investments, tighter scrutiny of residence-by-investment schemes across the EU, and competition from rival programmes in Spain, Portugal and Malta may all have cooled demand. The KESQ report does not test any of these explanations; it states the trend without attributing a cause.

What the report does not say

Several facts would change how readers judge the 2025 result, and the report omits all of them:

• The exact number of approvals granted in 2025, and the 2024 baseline against which they "nearly doubled".
• The precise count of applications received.
• Approval and rejection rates by applicant nationality.
• Whether the backlog reduction will continue into 2026, or whether the approval surge was a one-off clearance.

Without those figures, "nearly doubled" describes a rate of change, not a scale. A programme that approves 1,000 files after approving 550 looks different from one that approves 8,000 after 4,200 — even though both double.

Why approval speed matters for applicants

Faster adjudication shortens the window between filing and holding a permit, which affects travel planning, school enrolment and investment timing for applicants' families. It also affects how quickly investors can qualify for longer-term status, since renewals and any eventual permanent residence options generally count from the date of first permit issuance.

A caveat follows every promise, and this one is no exception: a single year of faster approvals does not guarantee sustained processing times. Applicants should verify current thresholds, processing schedules and documentary requirements through Greece's official immigration channels before committing funds, as investment minimums have changed more than once since the programme launched in 2013.

The wider European context

Greece's numbers arrive amid broader EU pressure on golden visa schemes. Spain closed its programme to new applicants in 2025; Portugal restricted real estate investment as a qualifying route in 2023. Greece has so far adjusted its thresholds rather than shut the programme, and the 2025 approval surge suggests it continues to process and grant permits at scale — even as fewer people knock on the door.

Whether that combination — fewer applicants, faster approvals, higher prices — signals a stabilising programme or a shrinking one will only become clear when Greece publishes complete 2025 statistics.

By Olivia Hart, immigration desk, Passport File