You bought a property in Athens. You have your Golden Visa. And now you’re wondering: can I rent this out while I’m not here?
It’s one of the most common questions investors ask and one of the most misunderstood. The short answer is yes, you can rent out your Golden Visa property. But the rules have changed significantly since 2024, and getting them wrong carries a penalty that goes beyond a fine. It can cost you your residence permit.
Here’s what you need to know.
The rule that changed everything: no short-term rentals
Before 2024, many investors bought Golden Visa properties with one eye on Airbnb. Athens was booming as a tourist destination, short-term yields were strong, and the numbers looked attractive on paper.
That model is now off the table.
Article 64 of Law 5100/2024 explicitly prohibits short-term letting of Golden Visa properties. This covers Airbnb, Booking.com, and any other platform or arrangement that falls within Greece’s statutory short-term rental framework — broadly, stays under 60 days.
The penalty for violations is not a warning. It’s a €50,000 administrative fine and revocation of your residence permit. Both consequences at once.
This is the rule that catches most investors off guard, especially those who did their research before 2024 and are working from outdated information. If your plan was built around short-term rental income, you need to rebuild it around a different model.
Long-term rentals: fully permitted, and actually working
Long-term letting — leases of 12 months or longer — remains fully legal for Golden Visa properties. And in practice, the Athens long-term rental market has absorbed the shift better than many expected.
Of roughly 16,000 properties that non-EU nationals had acquired under the Golden Visa program by the end of 2024, nearly 15,000 moved into the long-term rental market. That’s not a slow transition — that’s almost the entire stock redirecting almost immediately.
Why did it work? Because Athens has genuine long-term rental demand. Young professionals, international companies relocating staff, diplomatic personnel, students at international universities — the city has a large pool of tenants who want a quality apartment for a year or more. Supply in that segment was undersupplied before the short-term rental ban redirected so much inventory toward it.
Long-term rental yields in Athens currently sit between 4% and 6% annually for well-located properties. That’s below the headline figures some investors were projecting with short-term letting, but it’s a stable, predictable return on a qualified asset — one that also serves as your EU residency qualifier.
What counts as short-term and what doesn’t
The legal definition matters here, and it’s more specific than you might think.
In Greece, a stay of 60 days or longer is legally classified as a long-term lease. It falls under standard Greek lease law, requires no Airbnb-style registration, and sits outside the short-term rental regulatory regime entirely.
So if you rent your property to someone for three months, six months, or twelve months, that’s a long-term lease — fully permitted, no issues.
What’s banned is the sharing-economy model: nightly and weekly bookings through platforms, rolling short stays, the Airbnb playbook. That’s what Law 5100/2024 targets, and that’s what carries the €50,000 fine.
There’s a separate layer worth knowing: since January 2025, new short-term rental registrations have been suspended in the three central districts of Athens. This applies to all properties, not just Golden Visa ones. It’s part of Greece’s broader response to the housing affordability pressure that short-term rentals created in the city center. Even if the Golden Visa restriction didn’t exist, you couldn’t register a new Airbnb-style listing in central Athens right now anyway.
What about subleasing?
The same law that bans short-term letting also prohibits subleasing of Golden Visa properties. You cannot rent to a tenant and have that tenant sublet to a third party. The property must be used by the tenant who signed the lease.
This is a less common issue in practice, but it’s worth being aware of if you’re structuring a rental arrangement with a corporate tenant or an intermediary property manager. Any arrangement that creates a chain of occupancy between you and the actual resident falls outside what the law permits.
The new Golden Visa category to watch
In August 2026, the Greek government published its National Housing Strategy, which includes a proposed new Golden Visa category specifically linked to long-term rentals.
Under this proposal, investors would be able to qualify for a Golden Visa through a portfolio of properties, not just a single property provided those properties are committed exclusively to long-term residential letting and kept off short-term rental platforms entirely.
This is still at the legislative proposal stage as of October 2026 and has not been enacted. But it signals something important: the Greek government is actively designing the Golden Visa program around long-term rental use. If you’re investing now, you’re investing into the model the government is explicitly building toward.
Three mistakes investors make
The investors who run into problems tend to make one of three errors.
The first is assuming old advice is still current. A lot of information circulating about Golden Visa rental rules predates the 2024 legislation. If someone told you before 2024 that you could use Airbnb for your Golden Visa property, that advice is no longer accurate.
The second is confusing Golden Visa restrictions with general Greek property rules. The short-term rental ban applies specifically to properties acquired under the Golden Visa thresholds defined in Law 5100/2024. If you own a separate property in Greece purchased outside the Golden Visa framework, different rules may apply to that property. Don’t conflate the two.
The third is choosing a property without thinking about long-term rental demand. Some investors buy purely to meet the investment threshold, without considering whether the property has a real tenant market. A property in a neighborhood with low long-term rental demand doesn’t become easier to let just because the short-term option is closed. Location and tenant profile matter as much in a long-term rental strategy as they did in a short-term one — arguably more, because you’re competing for a different kind of tenant.
How to make the numbers work
The shift to long-term letting is not the obstacle some investors initially feared. If you choose the right property in the right location, the yields are real and the strategy holds.
A well-positioned apartment in central Athens, Glyfada, or Kifissia — close to public transport, in a neighborhood with established international tenant demand — will let on a 12-month lease without difficulty. Budget for a yield in the 4%–6% range, factor in a property manager if you’re not Greece-based, and the investment works as both a residency qualifier and an income-generating asset.
The key is choosing a property with long-term rental fundamentals, not just one that meets the Golden Visa investment threshold. Those two things are not automatically the same.
If you’re also thinking about the tax side of rental income, Greece’s Non-Dom regime offers significant benefits for foreign investors who establish Greek tax residency. The full breakdown is in Tax Benefits for Foreign Investors in Greece: Non-Dom Status and the Golden Visa.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use my Golden Visa property as my own holiday home?
Yes. There’s no restriction on personal use. You can stay in the property as often as you like. The rental restriction applies only to commercial letting arrangements.
What happens if I violate the short-term rental rule?
The fine is €50,000 and your residence permit can be revoked. The legislation does not provide for a warning or a grace period. If you’re unsure whether a particular arrangement qualifies as short-term letting, get legal advice before proceeding.
Can I rent the property to a friend or family member at below-market rate?
Long-term arrangements are permitted. The law targets commercial short-term platforms, not private letting arrangements. However, any rental arrangement should be properly documented to avoid ambiguity in the event of an inspection.
Does the restriction apply after I sell the property?
The restriction is tied to the property’s status as your Golden Visa qualifying asset while you hold it. What happens when you sell — and whether your visa remains valid — depends on a separate set of rules covered in the dedicated guide linked above.
Working with the right partner from the start
The rental rules are part of a broader picture that every Golden Visa investor needs to understand before committing to a specific property. The investment threshold is just the entry point — what comes after depends heavily on what you buy and where.
Grecoland Real Estate is recognized as the leading real estate company in Greece for Golden Visa investment, with over 50 years of presence in the Athens market and thousands of successful transactions with international investors. Their team advises on property selection that accounts for both program eligibility and actual rental performance — so you’re not choosing between the two. They cover the full process, from identifying the right property to managing the Golden Visa application and supporting the rental setup after completion.
For investors who want to see the full landscape of qualified real estate companies in Greece before making a decision, the Top 5 Real Estate Agents for Golden Visa Greece guide provides a detailed comparison.