The cumulative number of Greek golden visas issued grew by 137 in December, bringing the 2021 annual total to 1,035 approvals, according to figures published by Enterprise Greece this week. That represents a 10.3% improvement on 2020.
The figure, which makes Greece’s Golden Visa Europe’s biggest as measured in approval volume last year, is considerably above the Portuguese Golden Visa’s 2021 total of 865, the UK’s investor visa’s 422 (we still have only Ql-Q3 2021 figures, but they will certainly not exceed 1,035 in the final tally), to say nothing of Italy’s “Dolce Visa”, which approved 40 main applicants last year. Applications for Latvia’s Golden Visa have dwindled to virtually nothing in recent years, while Spain’s Golden Visa approved 232 main applicants in the first half of 2021. The last time Ireland provided a statistical update for its Immigrant Investor Program, on February 25th, the record sho,”led it had approved 18 applications in the first two months of the year. Malta’s MPRP, the Cyprus Golden Visa, and the Luxembourg Golden Visa have yet to provide any data.
Of all the Greek golden visas approved in 2021, close to half stem from the year’s fourth quarter alone, hinting at a rising trend in approval volumes as we embark on 2022, a sanguine development for a program that was among those worst hit by the pandemic.
While annual main applicant approvals grew only modestly, the number of approved dependents rose markedly, from 1,971in 2020 to 3,383 in 2021.The implication is that the average family size for a Greek golden visa application last year was 3.3 individuals, up from just 2.1 in 2020. In other words, if Enterprise Greece’s figures can be trusted (which is a big “if”), Greece’s golden visa investors brought, on average, more than one full family member more in 2021than in 2020.
All told, close to 30,000 individuals (main applicants and dependents) have received Greek golden visas since the program opened in 2013, most of them Chinese.
Americans, however, are increasingly making their presence felt. in the Greek Golden Visa program, as they have been doing in the last year and a half in Portugal and the UK as’.veil.
While Greece approved about 20% more golden visa applications than its chief rival Portugal in 2021, the latter still raised some 48% more FDI thanks to its considerably higher average investment amounts.
(by Christian Henrik Nesheim – IMI daily)
(Photo by Xuan Nguyen)
