Property and residency in Europe: what still works, and what has been closed

What has actually changed

Portugal removed property from its golden visa: the programme continues in other investment categories, but buying an apartment in Lisbon no longer routes to residency. Spain went further and closed its investor visa altogether. Greece kept a property route and raised the thresholds, with the highest levels in the most in-demand areas.

The direction of travel is consistent across the continent and it is political rather than economic: governments concluded that these programmes fed housing costs in exactly the cities where housing was already the electoral issue. Nothing about that pressure looks temporary.

What survives are non-property routes — business, employment, income-based residence permits such as the various passive-income and remote-work visas — and they have their own conditions that have nothing to do with buying a home.

So what does buying in Europe give you?

A house, in a jurisdiction with a functioning land registry and enforceable title. That is not a small thing, and for most buyers it was always the real motive: a place to be, in a country whose rules do not change with a phone call.

What it does not give you, in most countries, is the right to stay. Buying property and obtaining a residence permit are two separate processes, and the property purchase generally does not advance the second. Anybody being told otherwise should be shown the current statute, not a brochure.

And it does not give you yield. Rent-to-price sits below Dubai across desirable Europe, ownership and gains are taxed, transaction costs are heavy — in several countries the round trip on buying and selling runs to a tenth of the price. Europe is bought for jurisdiction, schooling, currency diversification and use.

How to read anything on this subject

By its date, first. Any video, article or adviser's summary on European residency is a snapshot, and the shelf life is now roughly a year. That applies to our own material and to this page.

By the source, second. Residency status is verified against the law in force on the day of the transaction, and the person qualified to do that is a lawyer in the country of purchase — not a broker, not a relocation agency and not a marketing site with a golden-visa landing page.

And by the structure of the offer. Where a scheme packages property with residency, ask what happens to your money if the residency element is refused or withdrawn. In the programmes that were closed, buyers who had already committed learned what that clause was worth.