Golden Visas in Europe 2026: What's Still Open

The Market Got Smaller. That Is Useful Information.

Half the golden visa content online still recommends Spanish property. Spain closed that door on 3 April 2025, when the investor-residence provisions of Organic Law 1/2025 took effect for new filings. Portugal removed property from its programme back in 2023. Ireland shut down entirely the same year.

So the first thing worth knowing in 2026: the live list is short, and it is these six countries.

Spain sits in that table nowhere, despite what the top-ranking articles from 2024 still claim.

The Golden Visa Programmes Still Open

Greece: cheapest entry, most homework

Greece keeps three price tiers. €800,000 buys into Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and a few islands. €400,000 covers the rest of the country, which is the sensible default for anyone who wants a normal residential property without drama. And €250,000 survives on two special routes: converting commercial buildings to residential, and restoring listed heritage properties.

That €250,000 figure gets quoted everywhere as "cheapest in Europe", usually without the footnote. Conversion projects routinely need another €50,000 to €200,000 of actual renovation, and heritage restorations come with committee approvals and timelines you do not control. If you genuinely want a restoration project, this is the best deal in the EU. If you want a turnkey flat and a permit, budget the €400,000 tier and sleep better.

Family inclusion is Greece's quiet advantage: spouse, children under 21, and both sets of parents all ride on one investment. Processing has been the fastest of any programme lately. One restriction catches people out: no short-term rental income from the qualifying property.

Portugal: still the best path to citizenship

No property, remember. The remaining routes are €500,000 into approved funds (or €250,000 into cultural production). What you buy is optionality: seven days in year one and fourteen days per two-year period afterwards, the lightest presence requirement of any programme with a genuine five-year citizenship track. For someone building a Plan B rather than a home, Portugal remains the strongest single choice. The NHR tax regime is closed to new arrivals, so ignore older articles there too.

Hungary: the ten-year permit

Rebooted in 2024-25 after a decade dormant. €250,000 into a Hungarian real-estate fund buys a guest-investor permit valid ten years, the longest single issuance in Europe, with no physical presence required. The fund structure means you never touch property directly. Citizenship would take eight years of residence, so realistically nobody uses this route for that; it is a long-dated parking spot for a family that wants certainty.

Italy: for people who will actually move

Italy's investor visa starts at €250,000 for startups (€500,000 for established companies, €2 million for government bonds), and unlike everyone else Italy expects meaningful residence. The pull is the flat-tax regime: €100,000 per year caps your tax on foreign income once you relocate, which for high earners can dwarf every other consideration. Citizenship takes ten years. This is a relocation programme wearing an investment label, and it suits exactly that person.

Malta and Cyprus: permanent residence, different flavours

Malta's MPRP combines a contribution, a property commitment (buy from ~€375,000, or rent) and donations; the result is immediate permanent residence for the whole extended family. Cyprus asks €300,000 into property and gives permanent residence with a visit every two years, though the country is still outside Schengen (accession has been scheduled through 2026, pending final approval).

The Costs Nobody Puts in the Comparison Table

Headline minimums flatter every programme. Before you compare €250,000 against €500,000, add:

• Legal and due diligence: typically €15,000-40,000 depending on country and complexity
• Government and processing fees: €2,000-50,000+, worst in Malta where contributions stack
• Property transaction costs: transfer taxes run 3-10%+ in Greece, plus agent fees
• Renovation reality on Greek special-route properties, as above
• Five-year fund lock-ups in Portugal and Hungary; this money is illiquid

A realistic all-in floor for the cheapest respectable routes lands around €300,000-350,000 regardless of what the adverts say. Anyone promising less is quoting the brochure number and stopping before the fees.

Sanctions Screening, Stated Plainly

Sulu serves a lot of Russian-speaking clients, so we will say this plainly rather than pretend the question does not exist.

Under the EU's revised AML framework rolling out through 2025-26, every programme now runs continuous sanctions screening. Applicants connected to Russia or Belarus face enhanced source-of-funds scrutiny: six months of bank statements tracing every tranche, documents in the applicant's own name (money routed through relatives or companies gets flagged), PEP checks, and in several programmes outright exclusion. Some banks servicing these programmes decline CIS-linked clients outright, whatever the law says.

What still works, for those it applies to: full documentation built over months, clean and declared fund histories, and honest expectations about processing times stretching well past official figures. What does not work is the 2021 playbook. We coordinate with immigration lawyers on our visa support service, and we would rather tell someone a route is closed than take money for an application that dies in review.

Processing Times in 2026

Official timelines flatter everyone, but current real-world ranges look like this:

Two patterns worth noticing. Greece and Hungary reward prepared applicants disproportionately because their processes are transactional rather than discretionary. Portugal's citizenship promise remains excellent but its immigration agency's backlog is real; anyone needing a permit card inside six months should look elsewhere or hire serious representation.

Which One Fits Which Person

• Want the strongest eventual passport: Portugal, and accept the fund route
• Want the cheapest workable entry: Greece at €400k mainstream, or €250k if you genuinely want the restoration project
• Want maximum certainty for minimum effort: Hungary's ten-year permit
• Actually planning to move abroad: Italy, with the flat-tax maths done properly first
• Need permanent status fast for the whole extended family: Malta or Cyprus

If you are weighing two of these and want a second opinion grounded in current practice rather than a 2024 blog post, message us on WhatsApp or Telegram. We will put the right immigration lawyer in front of you and handle the coordination ourselves.

For shorter-horizon travel documents, our guides cover which Schengen country is easiest for a visa and how to get an appointment fast.

Check It Against the Source

Residency-by-investment rules move fast, and several of the figures above changed within the last eighteen months. Nothing here is legal or tax advice, and none of it should be the last word before you commit money. These are the primary sources we work from:

• AIMA (Portugal) — the agency that now runs the ARI residence permit
• Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum — residence permit categories and thresholds
• Investor Visa for Italy — the official application portal and current minimums
• European Commission — visa and residence policy — the EU-level framework the national programmes sit under

Where a programme's own guidance and a broker's summary disagree, the programme is right.