Fund or property: the same permit at two very different prices
Both routes end at the same five-year renewable permit, so the question was never which is better. It is which price is worth paying for your situation. This page works out both sides — including the fund’s own fees.
The short version
If your objective is to obtain and keep Greek residence, the fund route ties up less capital and leaves you less to administer. If you were going to own Greek property anyway, the property route does two jobs at once and the higher capital buys something real.
The costly mistake is conflating the two: buying a flat you do not want and will not use, in order to obtain residence, means paying a higher entry threshold, the transaction taxes, and then every year of holding costs on top.
Four differences that outlast the purchase
- Management: property means ongoing upkeep, building charges, insurance, letting and tax filings. Fund units mean none of it.
- Exit: property is sold through a process measured in months; fund units are redeemed under the fund’s own terms. Neither is a current account.
- Cost predictability: repairs and vacancy are unknowns; a management fee is a stated percentage — though the units themselves move in value.
- Tax: property generates ENFIA and rental income obligations every year. Holding and disposing of fund units is treated differently and depends on your own tax residence.
What the announced 2027 transfer tax would change
In September 2026 the Greek government announced plans to raise the property transfer tax for third-country nationals from 3% to 15%, stated to apply from 1 January 2027. The measure has not completed its passage into law, and the final scope, transitional provisions and effective date are subject to legislation.
If enacted as announced it does not close the property route — it raises the cost of entering it. The calculator below lets you switch that assumption on and off and see the gap either way.
What would the property route actually tie up?
- Property price
- €800,000
- Property transfer tax
- €24,000
- Municipal surcharge on transfer tax
- €720
- Notary
- €9,600
- Conveyancing legal fee
- €8,000
- Land registry / cadastre
- €4,000
- Estate agency fee
- €16,000
- ENFIA property tax (indicative)€3,200
- Upkeep, building charges, insurance€6,400
- Asset form
- Real property
- Management
- Owner-borne
- Liquidity
- Sale process, months
- Golden Visa eligible
- Yes
- Subscription
- €350,000
- Fund subscription fee (varies by fund)
- €3,500
- Fund management fee (varies by fund)€3,500
- Asset form
- Fund units
- Management
- No property to manage
- Transfer tax
- Not applicable
- Golden Visa eligible
- Yes
Both routes lead to the same 5-year renewable permit. The difference is not the outcome — it is how much capital leaves your hands, and whether you have to look after it afterwards.
Our fee is visible. Your investment is yours.
FastGreece charges a disclosed legal and administrative service fee. We take no sales commission, no kickback and no revenue share from any investment fund.
That keeps two things apart: immigration and legal advice on one side, distribution of an investment product on the other. An adviser paid by the fund has two clients.
The practical consequence: our fee is the same whether you end up in a fund or buying a flat. We have nothing riding on which way the comparison above comes out.
View the complete fee breakdown- Fund sales commission
- Kickbacks from a fund manager
- A share of your subscription
- Referral or introduction fees
- A cut of an estate agency fee
One legal and administrative service fee, itemised in full before you pay anything — the amount, what it covers and when each part falls due, all on the pricing page.
Frequently asked
- Isn’t the €250,000 property band cheaper than the fund?
- On the purchase price alone, yes. But that band requires you to carry out a qualifying commercial-to-residential conversion or a listed-building restoration. The construction cost, the timeline and the permitting risk are yours, and completing the works is a condition of the permit. It suits someone who wants to run a building project.
- Property produces rent. Does a fund distribute anything?
- Whether and how a fund distributes is entirely a matter of that fund’s own terms, and its documents govern. We do not describe or project returns on any fund — that is investment product information and sits outside the legal and immigration services we provide.
- Is one route harder to get approved?
- Both require the same KYC and anti-money-laundering scrutiny and the same standard of source-of-funds evidence. What differs is the file: the property route examines the transaction and the title, the fund route the subscription and the holding. Approval is decided by the Greek authorities.
- Can I take the fund route now and buy property later?
- Yes, and they do not conflict — but keep the purposes apart. Buying a property once you already hold residence, on your own timetable, is a very different decision from buying one in order to obtain it.
Not sure which route fits your situation?
A two-minute questionnaire and a preliminary read on your position based on your budget, family and timeline — including when the answer is that neither route fits right now.