Spain closed its Golden Visa. Greece did not.
Spain abolished its Golden Visa on 3 April 2025, so there is no Spanish Golden Visa left to compare. This page sets out what Spain offers instead, why Greece is the live alternative from €250,000, and the one case where Spain — not Greece — is still the right answer.
| Dimension | Greece | Spain | Favours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is there a Golden Visa? | Yes — a residence-by-investment permit with no minimum stay, from €250,000. | No. Spain abolished its Golden Visa on 3 April 2025 (Organic Law 1/2025, repealing arts. 63–67 of Law 14/2013). No investor-residence route remains for new applicants. | Greece |
| Can you qualify by buying property? | Yes. €800,000 in high-demand zones, €400,000 elsewhere, or €250,000 for a conversion or listed-building restoration. | No. There is no investor-residence route. The closest permit, the non-lucrative visa, is based on passive income, not on buying property. | Greece |
| Do you have to live there? | No minimum stay to hold or renew the permit. | For the non-lucrative visa, yes — more than 183 days a year of actual residence, which also makes you a Spanish tax resident. Renewal is refused without it. | Greece |
| What you have to show | A qualifying investment from €250,000 — property, a Greek fund from €350,000, a deposit, bonds, shares or a startup. | For the non-lucrative visa, stable passive income of €28,800 a year for the main applicant plus €7,200 per dependant (400% and 100% of the 2026 IPREM), and you may not work in Spain. | Even |
| Route to citizenship | 7 years of lawful residence, with genuine physical presence and Greek tax residence; passive permit years do not count. | Ten years of legal residence for most nationals. Two years applies only to nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal, and to Sephardic Jews. | Greece |
| If you actually want to live in Spain | A Greek Golden Visa gives Greek residence; it is not a route to living in Spain. | The non-lucrative visa is a genuine, income-based route to living in Spain full-time, without a large investment. | Spain |
Spain no longer has a Golden Visa at all
Spain's investor residence visa was abolished on 3 April 2025 by Organic Law 1/2025, which repealed articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013. No new Golden Visa can be obtained by investing, at any amount.
Applications filed before 3 April 2025 are still processed under the old rules, and permits valid on that date remain valid for their issued term. Renewals are decided under the rules in force at the initial grant, but the renewal provision is headed at real-estate investors while its text refers to investors generally, so holders on the capital, fund or deposit routes should confirm their renewal position with counsel rather than assume it is settled. For anyone deciding now, though, the Spanish Golden Visa is not an option, and any comparison that still lists a “€500,000 Spanish property route” is describing a programme that has closed.
Spain's remaining route asks you to move, not to invest
The closest Spanish permit now is the non-lucrative visa. It is based on passive income of €28,800 a year (400% of the 2026 IPREM), not on an investment, and it requires more than 183 days a year of actual residence in Spain.
Those 183 days also make you a Spanish tax resident, and renewal is refused if the presence is not there. It is a genuine route, but a different one: a full-time move to Spain that you fund from income, where the Greek Golden Visa is a residence you can hold from abroad by making a qualifying investment. They answer different questions.
Where Greece is not the answer
On one dimension Spain is straightforwardly the right choice, and a page that sells Greece should say so.
- If you actually want to live in Spain
- The non-lucrative visa is a genuine, income-based route to living in Spain full-time, without a large investment.
- The one dimension where Greece cannot substitute: if the goal is to move to Spain specifically, the Spanish non-lucrative visa is the route and a Greek permit is not.
We advise on Greece, so treat that as a disclosure: if your goal is to live in Spain specifically, the Spanish non-lucrative visa is the instrument for that, and a Greek Golden Visa is not a way to get it.
What most comparisons get wrong
These claims appear throughout published Greece-versus-Spain comparisons and are wrong or incomplete.
- Incorrect: “Spain's Golden Visa starts at €500,000 for property.”
- Spain abolished its Golden Visa on 3 April 2025 (Organic Law 1/2025). There is no Spanish Golden Visa at any price for new applicants.
- Incorrect: “You can still get Spanish residence by investing in property.”
- No investor-residence route remains. The closest permit is the non-lucrative visa, which is based on passive income and requires you to actually live in Spain.
- Incorrect: “The Spanish non-lucrative visa is a low-presence base like a golden visa.”
- No. It requires more than 183 days a year of actual residence and makes you a Spanish tax resident; renewal is refused without the presence.
- Incorrect: “Spain gives citizenship faster than Greece.”
- Standard Spanish naturalisation is ten years, longer than Greece's 7. Spain's two-year route applies only to specific nationalities, not to investors generally.
Common questions
What people ask when deciding between the two.
- Is the Spain Golden Visa still available?
- No. Spain abolished its Golden Visa on 3 April 2025 (Organic Law 1/2025, repealing articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013). Applications filed before that date are processed under the old rules and permits valid on that date stay valid for their term, but no new Golden Visa can be obtained by investing, at any amount. Greece's Golden Visa is open, from €250,000.
- What is the alternative to the Spanish Golden Visa?
- For residence in return for an investment without relocating, Greece is the closest live equivalent, from €250,000. Spain's own remaining route, the non-lucrative visa, is a different thing — it is income-based and requires you to live in Spain. Portugal also changed, having removed its property route in 2023, so a current comparison of the live options matters.
- What is the Spanish non-lucrative visa, and is it like a Golden Visa?
- No. It is based on stable passive income (€28,800 a year for the main applicant plus €7,200 per dependant, being 400% and 100% of the 2026 IPREM) and requires more than 183 days a year of residence in Spain, so it is a full-time move rather than a low-presence investment permit.
- Which gives citizenship sooner, Greece or Spain?
- Greece, for most people: 7 years against Spain's standard ten. Spain's two-year route applies only to nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal, and to Sephardic Jews.
- Can you still get Spanish residence by buying property?
- No. Spain removed the investor-residence route entirely, so buying property no longer leads to residence. In Greece, property from €400,000, or €250,000 on the conversion route, still qualifies.
Sources
- Spanish Golden Visa abolition: Organic Law 1/2025 (BOE, 3 January 2025), twenty-first final provision, in force 3 April 2025; it repealed arts. 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013.
- Spanish non-lucrative visa income and residence: 400% and 100% of IPREM (2026); RD 1155/2024 art. 64.2.f (over-183-day residence at renewal).
- Spanish naturalisation periods: Civil Code art. 22.
- Greek thresholds and naturalisation: Law 5100/2024 art. 64; Law 5038/2023 arts. 99 and 100, and art. 100A (added by Law 5162/2024); Greek Citizenship Code (Law 3284/2004) art. 5.
Not yet reviewed by a Greek-qualified lawyer. Last checked 2026-08-27. Aegalis advises on Greece and does not advise on Spanish immigration; the Spanish figures here are published so the comparison is usable, not as advice on Spain.
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