🌐 European Residency Update

European Golden Visa Programs in 2026: A Jurisdiction-by-Jurisdiction Regulatory Update

6

Active EU Golden Visa Programmes

2025

Spain Programme Closed

€250,000

Lowest Entry Threshold

Europe's Golden Visa landscape has changed more between 2023 and 2026 than in the decade before it. Spain's closure in April 2025 removed one of the region's longest-running investor residence routes. Portugal, Greece, and Hungary have each restructured their programmes in response to housing-affordability pressure and European Union scrutiny of investment-linked residency.

For investors evaluating European residency by investment in 2026, the practical question has shifted from "which programme is cheapest" to "which programme is still open, and under what conditions." This update works through each active jurisdiction in turn, using the most recent regulatory sources available, and closes with a direct comparison and an assessment of what the changes mean for investors currently planning a European residency strategy.

What Changed: The European Golden Visa Landscape, 2023 to 2026

Three structural trends define the period. First, real estate-linked routes are narrowing or disappearing as national governments respond to domestic political pressure over housing costs. Portugal removed its property route in 2023. Spain closed its entire programme in 2025, citing the same underlying concern. Greece kept its property route but raised thresholds substantially rather than eliminate it outright.

Second, non-property routes, funds, donations, and business investment, have expanded to fill the gap. Portugal's fund route absorbed the bulk of demand after 2023; Hungary launched an entirely new fund-based programme in 2024; Italy's startup investment route remains one of the lowest-cost entry points in the region.

Third, oversight has intensified across the board. Greece introduced detailed operational guidance through ministry circulars in 2026 clarifying how thresholds apply to mixed-use and off-plan properties. Portugal's processing authority, AIMA, has faced sustained scrutiny over application backlogs. Investors entering any of these programmes in 2026 should expect closer compliance review than was typical five years ago.

Spain: Why the Programme Closed and What Happens to Existing Holders

Spain's investor visa programme, in force since 2013 under Law 14/2013, was repealed by Organic Law 1/2025. The repeal was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) in January 2025 and took effect on 3 April 2025, three months after publication. The Spanish government's stated rationale centered on housing affordability: officials pointed to the concentration of investor-visa-linked property purchases in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, and to research suggesting the programme contributed to upward pressure on local housing costs.

Applications submitted before 3 April 2025 continued to be processed under the prior rules, and holders of visas or authorizations already in force on that date retain their renewal rights for the period originally granted. There is no grace period for new applicants and no replacement investor route. Non-EU nationals seeking Spanish residency in 2026 now look to Spain's non-investment residence categories, including the Non-Lucrative Visa and the Entrepreneur Visa, neither of which requires a fixed capital investment in the way the Golden Visa did.

Portugal: The Shift to Fund-Based Investment

Portugal's Golden Visa (Autorizacao de Residencia para Investimento, ARI) remains open to new applicants in 2026, but the programme looks structurally different from its pre-2023 form. Under the 2023 housing reform (Lei 56/2023), the real estate acquisition route, historically the most-used option, was removed entirely. It has not been reinstated.

The routes that remain qualifying in 2026 are: a minimum 500,000 euro subscription to an eligible, CMVM-regulated investment fund with no direct or indirect real estate exposure; a donation from 200,000 to 250,000 euros to cultural heritage or preservation projects, with the lower threshold available in designated low-density areas; and, to a lesser extent, job-creation and capital-transfer routes tied to Portuguese business activity. Since the real estate route closed, the fund route has become the dominant path, and Portugal issued a record number of Golden Visas in 2024, suggesting investor demand shifted toward funds rather than disappearing.

Processing remains the primary friction point. Applications are handled by AIMA, the agency that absorbed Golden Visa administration after a broader immigration-agency reorganization, and government commitments to clear existing backlogs by the end of 2026 should be treated as a stated goal rather than a confirmed timeline.

Greece: The Three-Tier Threshold System

Greece has kept its real estate investment route intact but restructured pricing substantially. Law 5100/2024, effective 31 August 2024, replaced the previous flat threshold with a three-zone system administered by the Hellenic Ministry of Migration and Asylum:

• Zone A (800,000 euros): Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and other islands with a population above 3,100.
• Zone B (400,000 euros): most other regions of Greece not covered by Zone A or Zone C.
• Zone C (250,000 euros): nationwide, limited to properties restored from historical or cultural value, or converted from commercial to residential use.

A Ministry of Migration and Asylum circular issued in April 2026 provided the first detailed operational clarification since the 2024 reform, addressing how the thresholds apply to mixed-use properties, auction purchases, and off-plan acquisitions. Separately, Law 5275/2026 introduced a new 250,000 euro route through qualifying investment in an eligible Greek startup, broadening the programme beyond real estate for entrepreneurially minded applicants. Greece also enforces a nationwide ban on short-term rental of Golden Visa-qualifying properties, with fines of up to 50,000 euros for violations, a detail investors planning to offset carrying costs through platform rental income need to factor into their underlying investment case.

Hungary: The Guest Investor Programme

Hungary relaunched its investor residence framework on 1 July 2024 as the Hungary Golden Visa (Guest Investor Programme), positioning it as a lower-cost, longer-duration alternative to the Southern European Golden Visas. The confirmed qualifying routes are a minimum 250,000 euro investment in units of a real estate fund registered with the Hungarian National Bank, or a non-refundable 1,000,000 euro donation to a public trust or higher-education institution. The residence permit is granted for 10 years and is renewable for a further 10-year period, one of the longest initial validity periods among comparable EU programmes.

Hungary does not operate a citizenship-by-investment programme; the Guest Investor Programme grants residence only, and any future path to Hungarian citizenship runs through standard naturalization, which generally requires eight years of continuous residence. The programme's direct real estate purchase route, separate from the fund route, has been discontinued. As of 2026, the fund investment and the donation route are the only active pathways under the Guest Investor Programme.

Malta, Cyprus, and Italy: Current Status

Malta continues to offer residency, not citizenship, by investment through the Malta Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP). This is a separate programme from Malta's former citizenship-by-investment route, which was struck down by a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in April 2025; that ruling does not affect the residency-only MPRP. Qualifying routes under the MPRP include property purchase from approximately 350,000 euros, or property rental from approximately 12,000 euros annually, alongside a government contribution and an NGO donation component. Investors seeking a Maltese citizenship pathway following the CBI closure can review NTL's Malta Citizenship by Merit program instead.

Cyprus operates a permanent residence route requiring a minimum 300,000 euro investment in qualifying property or Cypriot company shares, alongside proof of stable annual income of at least 50,000 euros from sources outside Cyprus. Processing is comparatively fast, with permanent residence typically issued within two to four months in 2026.

Italy's investor visa framework allows qualifying investment starting from approximately 250,000 euros in an eligible Italian startup, with higher thresholds for government bonds or established company investment. Italy's process is distinctive in requiring government pre-approval of the investment plan before the applicant transfers funds, reducing upfront financial exposure relative to programmes that require investment before approval.

Comparison Table: Active European Golden Visa Programmes, 2026

Implications: What This Means for Investors

For investors who had prioritized Spain, the practical alternatives with a broadly comparable EU access profile are Portugal, Greece, or Cyprus, each with a different balance of entry cost, processing speed, and path to citizenship. Portugal remains the only one of the six offering a path to citizenship without a significant physical presence requirement, though the naturalization timeline runs longer than the residency permit itself.

Investors focused purely on the lowest entry threshold now have three comparably priced options at 250,000 euros: Greece's conversion and restoration tier, Hungary's regulated fund route, and Italy's startup investment route. These are not interchangeable: Greece's option is location- and property-type-restricted, Hungary's carries a 10-year permit with no direct citizenship pathway, and Italy's requires government pre-approval before capital transfer.

For investors already holding a Golden Visa in one of the closing or restructured jurisdictions, the priority is confirming renewal rights under the relevant transitional provisions before making any further investment decisions elsewhere. Multi-jurisdiction planning, holding more than one residency or citizenship option, has become more relevant as individual European routes narrow, a theme NTL has addressed in its broader analysis of crisis-preparedness and portfolio-level mobility planning.

The European Golden Visa market in 2026 is smaller in headcount of active programmes than it was five years ago, but the programmes that remain are, on balance, more clearly regulated and less exposed to the political risk that closed Spain's route. Investors evaluating European residency by investment should treat the current threshold and route structure as a snapshot rather than a fixed target, and confirm the applicable rules with official sources at the time of application, not from marketing material describing the pre-2023 landscape.