Don’t like Trump’s $8m ‘gold card’ visa? Try Europe for $413,000
Hans van Leeuwen
London | Does the $US5 million ($7.9 million) price tag on one of US President Donald Trump’s
gold card visas sound a bit high? Well, good news: across the Atlantic, you can buy your way into European residency for as little as €250,000 ($413,000).
You don’t even have to put up with Northern Europe’s grim and endless winters: the “
golden visa” schemes, often requiring no more than the purchase of a cheap flat, are largely proffered in the balmy Mediterranean. The welcome mat is still out in Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Portugal.
Greece is the cheapest, although the government has just pushed up the price a bit. This seems to have triggered a surge in applications last year, particularly from Americans, to beat the increase.
“
Looking ahead to 2025, we believe that demand for Greek golden visas will remain robust despite the recent changes made,” said Alena Lesina from the investment immigration firm Astons. “
This is because it is still possible to purchase real estate and obtain a residency permit for as little as €250,000, even in the very heart of Athens, provided that the property in question is converted from commercial use to residential.”
In most of the more desirable parts of Greece – the islands, Athens, Thessaloniki – the residency permit requires a minimum property investment of €800,000. In the country’s less compelling regions, this drops to €400,000. And if the property has been converted from commercial to residential, it is only €250,000.
“
We’re seeing a lot of developers now buying old hotels and office buildings and transforming them into modern residential complexes,” Lesina said.
Cyprus is also a bargain, offering residency in exchange for a €300,000 property purchase and proof of an annual income above €50,000. It reputedly used to be popular among Russians because, after eight years, citizenship is on offer. But unlike the other golden visa countries, the Cypriot passport does not offer free movement within the European Union’s Schengen Area. The other drawback is that the application process is relatively slow.
In
Malta, the price tag of the golden visa is a €300,000 property purchase, and proof that the applicant has a further half a million euros of capital assets, of which at least €150,000 must be “financial” rather than in real estate.
The Maltese option also includes some chunky fees: €40,000 for the main applicant, €10,000 for every dependant, a €28,000 “government contribution”, and a €2000 donation to a Maltese charity or NGO. Malta is in the Schengen zone, and for those who actually plan to spend time in their new country of residence, a big advantage is that pretty much everyone speaks good English.
Tighter rules
In
Italy, Spain and Portugal, the path to permanent residency no longer winds through the property market. The Portuguese initially dished out golden visas to people buying a property for as little as €350,000.
The scheme was perhaps a bit too successful, with Chinese investors particularly keen, and Americans piling in behind them. An overheating property market prompted the government to limit golden visas to investors sinking €500,000 or more into investment funds or businesses.
Spain last month followed suit. Amid a political outcry over soaring property prices, the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, which had already moved to end the golden visa scheme from this April, announced a 100 per cent tax on non-EU, non-resident buyers of Spanish real estate.
About 15,000 people had obtained a golden visa in the decade to 2023, the government said, mostly from China, Russia, Britain, the US, Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela and Mexico. Unsurprisingly, buzzing Barcelona had been the biggest drawcard: house purchases connected to golden visas in that city made up more than 5 per cent of annual residential sales.
But there’s still a back door into Spain: the digital nomad visa. This allows a foreigner to live in Spain, as long as he or she works remotely for a business based outside the country. If the nomad is self-employed, no more than 20 per cent of his or her work should involve Spanish companies.
The qualification is a degree and three years’ work experience. Family members can come too. But although it offers a route to permanent residency, it also paves the way to tax residency as well – perhaps a less attractive proposition.
The priciest golden ticket in Europe is Italy, where foreigners have to spend either €2 million on government bonds, €500,000 on Italian shares, or €1 million in donations to good causes or research.
For those of comfortable means, it is also possible to take up “elective residence” in Italy, which requires an Italian address and proof of a stable, independent income – because no work is permitted. But if you’re intending to live La Dolce Vita, that’s probably part of the plan.