Does this property actually qualify?
Two questions decide whether a Golden Visa purchase is even possible, and both are usually answered wrongly by the listing. Which threshold applies to this property. And how the documents from your country have to be legalised. Both checks are below.
They run entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us, stored, or seen by anyone — there is no result for us to read unless you decide to send it.
1. Which threshold applies to this property
The €250,000 figure is the one advertised. The one that decides your application is the one that follows from where the property is and how large it is. The surface minimum is the condition listings omit most often, and it is the one that cannot be cured by paying more.
Fill in the four fields and the result appears here. It stays on your screen.
This check applies two conditions to figures you supply. It is not a legal opinion and does not create a lawyer–client relationship. A real assessment also examines title, planning, the cadastral entry, encumbrances, and whether the building as constructed is legal — the questions that actually decide a file.
2. How your documents must be legalised
A passport, a marriage certificate, a birth certificate, a Power of Attorney: none of them work in Greece as issued. Which route they take depends on one thing — whether your country is a party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. Getting it wrong means the document is refused at the notary’s desk and the whole chain starts again.
Choose a country and the route appears here.
Treaty membership changes: states accede, and existing parties can object to an accession, in which case the Convention does not apply between those two states. We confirm the route for each specific document before it is prepared. Source: the HCCH status table for the Convention of 5 October 1961.
The rules the checks apply
€800,000 for Attica, the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with a population of more than 3,100 residents. €400,000 for every other region. In both categories the investment must be a single property of at least 120 m², held in full ownership. Surface is a condition in its own right and is independent of price: a smaller property does not qualify at either threshold whatever it costs.
The €250,000 categories are three, and narrow. Two concern property: the conversion of a building whose use was not residential into a residence, and the restoration of a listed building — each with its own statutory conditions, each usable only once per property, and neither judgeable from a price and a surface area, because the answer lives in the building’s permit history. The third is not property at all: under article 100A of the Migration Code, added by law 5162/2024, a €250,000 investment in a start-up registered with Elevate Greece — by share capital or bond loan, holding no more than one third of the company, with two full-time jobs created in the first year — supports a five-year residence permit of its own. This page does not assess that route either; it is a company investment, not a purchase.
The figure that counts is the one in the title deed and the building permit, not the one in the listing. Where they differ — and on older properties they often do, because of unlicensed alterations that were never regularised — the deed governs, and the difference has to be resolved before the deed is signed rather than after.
One more point, because it is misreported almost everywhere: there is no statutory deadline for deciding a Golden Visa application. Law 5275/2026 introduced a 90-day decision period when it transposed EU Directive 2024/1233, but article 81 par. 2(ιγ) of the Migration Code, as replaced by that same law, expressly excludes holders of residence permits for investment purposes under articles 96 to 100 from the procedure that deadline belongs to. What protects you while a decision is pending is the filing certificate under article 11 par. 10 of law 5038/2023, which evidences lawful residence and the enjoyment of the rights deriving from the permit applied for.
Questions about these checks
Does a 120 square metre minimum apply to the €800,000 tier as well as the €400,000 tier?
Yes. In both the €800,000 and the €400,000 categories the qualifying investment must be a single property of at least 120 square metres, held in full ownership. Surface is a condition in its own right and is independent of price: a smaller property does not qualify at either threshold whatever it costs. An 85 square metre apartment in Athens bought for €900,000 can be an excellent purchase and still a failed application. The figure that counts is the one in the title deed and the building permit, not the one in the listing. The €250,000 categories carry their own separate conditions.
Which areas fall in the €800,000 tier?
Attica, the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and islands with a population of more than 3,100 residents. Every other region of Greece falls in the €400,000 tier. Whether a particular island crosses the 3,100 threshold is a question of the applicable census figure, and it is one of the points that has to be confirmed for the specific property rather than assumed from a listing.
When does the €250,000 threshold actually apply?
In three narrow cases. Two concern property: the conversion of a building whose use was not residential into a residence, and the restoration of a building that is listed as preserved — each subject to its own statutory conditions, each usable only once per property, and neither assessable from a price and a surface area alone. The third is not property: under article 100A of the Migration Code, added by law 5162/2024, a €250,000 investment in a start-up registered with Elevate Greece, holding no more than one third of the company and with two full-time jobs created in the first year, supports a five-year residence permit. The €250,000 figure is heavily advertised at investment-migration seminars and rarely applies to the properties being marketed under it, which is why this page does not attempt a verdict on any of the three.
Do documents from my country need an Apostille or consular legalisation for Greece?
It depends on whether your country is a Contracting Party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. If it is, a single Apostille from the competent authority in that country, followed by an official Greek translation, is enough. If it is not, the document goes through consular legalisation instead. Vietnam is the case to watch: it acceded on 31 December 2025 and the Convention enters into force for Vietnam on 11 September 2026, so documents dated from that day take the Apostille route while earlier documents carry consular legalisation. Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic objected to that accession, so consular legalisation continues between Vietnam and those three states; Greece did not object.
Is anything I type into this page sent to Hellenic Law Firm?
No. Both checks run entirely in your own browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted to us or to anyone else, nothing is stored, and there is no result for us to see unless you choose to send it. That is deliberate: the figures for a property you are considering are your business until you decide otherwise.
Is the result of this check a legal opinion?
No, and it is not offered as one. The check applies two conditions — the area-based threshold and the single-property surface minimum — to figures you supply. A real assessment also examines the title, the planning position, the cadastral entry, any encumbrances, the legality of the building as constructed, and whether the price you are told is the price that will appear in the deed. Those are the questions that decide a file, and they cannot be answered by a form. Nothing here creates a lawyer–client relationship.
When the check says yes, that is the beginning
Passing these two conditions means the property is not disqualified by area or by surface. It does not mean the title is clean, the building is legal as built, the seller can sell, or the price you were quoted is the price that will appear in the deed. Those take a lawyer and a week, not a form and a minute.
The Legal Risk Check is the fixed-fee written answer to all of them, for one specific property, before you commit to anything. If the answer is that you should walk away, that is what the report will say.
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Office: 12 Athanasiou Diakou Street, Athens 11742, Greece