An amend bill tabled by Development and Investment Minister, Adonis Georgiadis, allows investors who buy real estate in order to secure residence permit via the Golden Visa program to make their purchases via credit card or POS. The bill is to be voted today, Thursday, at the Greek Palriament. The bill goes so far to retrospectively include payments conducted via credit or debit card since January 1, 2017.
“We have received the opinion by Bank of Greece that the use of POS does not violate any European and national legislation,” Georgiadis told the Parliament during the debated on the Development bill.
Including payments since 2017, the bill legitimizes payments that became subject of investigation and controversy last year after it was revealed that National Bank officials and the former vice chairman of the Jumbo toy retailer were involved in a case of property transactions with Chinese nationals through card terminals in China, which were in violation of capital controls in China.
Georgiadis defended the amendment, arguing that the revelation of that case froze the interest of Chinese investors, though Golden Visa figures show quite the opposite.
He added that the Golden Visa program had brought 1 billion euros but it stopped..
“Several decentralized administrations made cancellations and several demanded their money back,” teh Development Minister said.
He added that 90% of real estate transactions were in Attica and that the goal was to direct buyers to other parts of the country.
“The amendment will make it harder to get a residence permit card via the Golden Visa program for those who want to invest in Attica, as opposed to those who invest in other regions,” notes cnn.gr.
The Golden Visa program is aimed at non-EU nationals who will need to invest 250,000 euros for a residence permit for them and their families.
