Greece’s ‘Golden Visa’ scheme a hit with China
Chinese investor Jiang Rungong, who moved to Greece three years ago, says he and his family could not be happier in their new home on the Athens coast.
“We chose Greece because of its cultural heritage, its history, the democracy, the freedom. We really like its atmosphere,” Jiang says.
“Since we got the visa, we’ve travelled to many European countries. And every time we come back to Greece, the moment we set foot in the airport, we feel like it’s home.”
The 52-year-old from Shanghai, his wife and son took advantage of Greece’s so-called Golden Visa scheme to come and live in Europe.
His 18-year-old son, Jiang Semniao, managed to learn Greek in just two years. He is attending a Greek public school and dreams of becoming a Greek citizen.
Under the arrangement, non-EU citizens are given a five-year residence permit in return for investing at least €250,000 (RM1.1mil) in Greek real estate.
Greece is not the only European country to operate such a scheme.
Other crisis-hit EU members such as Portugal, Cyprus and Spain have been offering similar incentives for years.
Following Greece’s decade-long recession, real estate prices remained at rock bottom for a long time, even if they have since started to rise again recently.
So far the programme seems to be working: the number of residence permits issued to non-EU citizens was up by 46% last year.
And some 5,300 permits have been issued since the scheme’s launch in 2013, more than 3,400 to Chinese buyers, official data show.