Greece cut its Golden Visa queue by 7% in two months

How many Golden Visa applications did Greece receive in Q1 2026?

The ministry's March 2026 Legal Migration report (Appendix B, Table 13a) counts 1,236 initial permanent-investor applications filed in January-March 2026. Its March 2025 report counted 2,913 filed in January-March 2025, so first-quarter filings fell by 1,677, to less than half the previous year's level. The figures are rolling: the August 2026 report (Table 13b) now shows 417 in January, 392 in February and 453 in March 2026, or 1,262 in total (Ministry of Migration and Asylum, checked 18 October 2026).

The queue fell across investor and family files

The Greece Golden Visa is a five-year renewable residence permit for non-EU investors and their eligible family members, granted for a qualifying property or financial investment (Migration Code arts 99-100). The Ministry of Migration and Asylum's May 2026 report counted 9,210 pending permanent-investor files and 23,841 pending family-member files.

Both categories declined from March. The investor inventory fell by 822 files, or 8.2%, while the family inventory fell by 1,796, or 7%. Family applications still represented about 72% of the total queue, so the 33,051 headline should not be read as 33,051 principal investors.

Most of the May inventory was recent. Files submitted in 2024 and 2025 accounted for 22,284 pending applications, roughly two-thirds of the total. Another 8,845 were submitted during the first five months of 2026. The ministry still listed 1,922 pending files from 2022 and 2023.

Authorities issued nearly 3,000 investor decisions

The May report contains a revised series for decisions issued by month. Greece recorded 1,446 permanent-investor decisions in March, including 1,239 initial permits and 207 renewals. Authorities issued another 882 decisions in April and 659 in May.

The March total is higher than the 914 decisions shown in the ministry's earlier March release. The rolling administrative tables are revised as files are updated, which is why the latest report should be used for current comparisons.

The decision series does not account for the entire 2,618-file decline in the headline queue. The pending total includes family-member files, while the decision table cited here covers permanent investors. New applications, withdrawals, reissues, renewals, and later data corrections can also change the stock.

What the August 2026 report shows

The August 2026 report counts 28,681 pending Golden Visa-related files at the end of August: 7,686 permanent-investor files and 20,995 family-member files (Table 16). Its decision series (Table 15) shows 1,299 investor decisions issued in June 2026 and 1,397 in July, and revises March to 1,444 and May to 980 decisions (Ministry of Migration and Asylum, checked 18 October 2026).

New application volume remains below its 2024 peak

The May 2026 report's rolling totals show 9,382 initial permanent-investor applications filed in 2024 and 7,025 in 2025, a 25.1% annual decline. The May report lists 2,137 initial applications submitted during the first five months of 2026. The August 2026 report, the latest online on 18 October 2026, counts 3,426 initial applications filed in the first eight months of 2026 and revises the 2024 and 2025 totals slightly, to 9,372 and 7,021.

What the property thresholds can and cannot explain

Law 5100/2024 raised the standard property minimum, from 1 September 2024, to EUR 800,000 in Attica, the Thessaloniki Regional Unit, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with more than 3,100 residents. The ordinary minimum is EUR 400,000 elsewhere. A EUR 250,000 route remains for specified property conversions and listed-building restorations that satisfy additional conditions.

A Bank of Greece working paper (No. 359, March 2026, by Dimitris Karamanis, Christos Kotsogiannis and Evangelia Papapetrou) studied an earlier reform that doubled the minimum property investment from EUR 250,000 to EUR 500,000 in some municipalities but not others. Using 2017-2024 transaction data, its abstract reports that prices bunched at the EUR 250,000 threshold before the reform, that the bunching disappeared where the threshold rose but persisted elsewhere, and that nearby markets that stayed eligible at the lower threshold saw more transactions. That research shows thresholds can influence where investment clusters. It does not isolate the reason for the current application decline, which may also reflect timing, property prices, financing conditions, exchange rates and buyer preferences.

What the May update means for applicants

A shrinking queue is still a large queue

The pending inventory is measurably lower than it was two months earlier, and the reduction appears in both investor and family-member categories. Even after that improvement, 33,051 files remained pending.

Aggregate movement is not a personal timeline

The ministry publishes a stock of pending files and monthly decision counts. It does not publish a cohort measure that follows the same applications from filing to decision. Cases also differ by filing year, location, application type and family structure.

Keep demand and administration separate

Lower application volume can ease future pressure if it persists. It does not establish when a newly filed case will be decided. Property eligibility, payment evidence, biometrics, representation and renewal documentation still need to be planned against the current rules.

For the current rules and budget, see the Greece Golden Visa guide and the Greece Golden Visa cost breakdown; for the longer-term path, see Greece permanent residency. Movingto's Greece Golden Visa service plans the route, the property tier, the purchase sequence and the residence filing with you. Greece routes are priced per case, so you get a quote.