ATHENS – Greece will expand eligibility for Golden Visas that bring 5-year residency permits and passports to rich foreigners who put at least 250,000 euros ($278,873) into startup companies as an alternative to investing in properties.

The move comes in the wake of the government raising the threshold for property purchases to as high as 800,000 euros ($882,793) in some popular areas in a bid to hold down investors turning them into short-term rentals.

That dried up supply and nearly emptied some neighborhoods while also spiking the prices of rents and buying homes that were being taken off the market or rising in value because of foreign interest.

The Finance Ministry is preparing a draft law to offer tax incentives for research and development of up to 315%, further incentives for investment in startups by “angel investors” and commercial utilization of patents, said Kathimerini.

The aim is to strengthen the sector of entrepreneurs in Greek startup companies where there is a fertile field that has seen keen interest among investors abroad, with capitalization expected to pass 8 billion euros ($8.83 billion.)

In a bid to gain more money for innovators and also shift away from buying properties, the government wants to attract investors to put money into domestic startups needing funds.

That will begin as of Jan. 1, 2025, the report said, the hope being to accelerate investment in an array of new companies, especially high-technology, registered in the national startup register, Elevate Greece.

That already has more than 800 companies in fields such as education, agriculture, enterprise software and financial technology, with the sector evolving and Artificial Intelligence being a major breakthrough.

The Greek firm Hack the Box received funding of $55 million from American private equity Carlyle Group, while Augmenta, in Volos, came under the control of CNH Industrial, the second largest tractor manufacturer in the world.

The report noted that several foreign angel investors have already jumped in, including Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of the popular Google Maps application, who is originally from Denmark, now a permanent resident of Greece.

He has invested in the Greek Phos Print, which through the technology it has developed is able to print 3D cells, as well as in the Greek biotechnology company ResQ Biotech, the paper also said.

“It is not enough to attract only talent – something that can be achieved with the launch of the Talent Visa and the Tech Visa – but people from the entire spectrum of startup entrepreneurship, such as the founders of startups as well as investors,” a Greek startup market executive added.