Second life for closed shops

Thousands of empty and decaying ground-floor shops, mainly in the center of Athens and of Thessaloniki, now have the opportunity to be transformed. According to property market executives, the new Golden Visa provisions have already begun to mobilize investment interest in the acquisition of such properties, which can be converted into apartments.

As mentioned in the recent regulation on the change of investment limits, a residence permit can be secured through the Golden Visa program with the low threshold of 250,000 euros, instead of €800,000 that is now established.

The condition is that the property purchased comes from a change of use and has a minimum area of 120 square meters. That is, if a commercial store or a ground-floor warehouse or even an old office is converted into an apartment, then €250,000 is enough to grant a residence permit to the investor who...