Shady agents undermine Golden Visa success: dubious realtors

The Golden Visa program in Greece is suffering significant damage due to the presence of several companies with questionable origins and solvency, which are active in the local market despite lacking the necessary funds. Moreover, these companies are linked to illegal activities such as tax evasion and money laundering.

Professionals in the real estate market who specialize in the Golden Visa program say these companies are breaking the law and are a major headache for law-abiding businesses. Due to the negative experiences of several investors in Greece, they are turning to other countries.

The chairman of construction company V2 Development, Vangelis Kteniadis, says that currently more than 700-800 properties cannot be handed over to their new owners, mostly Chinese, because the agents who sold them are unable to pay the agreed amount to the previous owners. The likely reason is frozen bank accounts at the request of tax authorities or investigation by authorities for possible money laundering.

These companies are estimated to number in the dozens and are mostly of Chinese or Cypriot origin. They were active in other countries such as Cyprus, Spain and Portugal before arriving in Greece.

The problem is that these properties are not owned by these companies, who are instead trying to obtain them through temporary contracts with legitimate owners and professionals in the sector. In practice, they secure properties with small deposit payments, but because many of them are under investigation by tax authorities, they cannot get full possession despite having already received substantial contributions from prospective buyers.

The method of temporary contracts, real estate experts say, significantly reduces the supply of residential real estate and has distorted the market. This phenomenon is observed in areas with high demand from foreign buyers, such as the center of Athens and the southern suburbs of the capital, which also leads to price increases.