For a decade, the answer to "where do I buy property in Europe and get residency for it?" was Portugal. In October 2023 that answer stopped existing. Portugal stripped real estate out of its golden visa entirely, and Spain went further in 2025 and closed its programme altogether.
If you started researching this in 2021 and picked it back up recently, almost everything you bookmarked is now wrong. This is what actually remains, and where Georgia fits into it.
What Portugal actually did
Portugal did not end the golden visa. It ended the property golden visa, which for most applicants was the whole point.
The routes that survive are financial rather than residential: roughly 500,000 EUR into approved investment funds, or 250,000 EUR as a contribution to cultural and heritage projects. Both work. Neither gives you an apartment, rental income, or an asset you can live in.
That distinction matters more than the headlines suggested. The property golden visa was popular because the money stayed yours, sitting in a thing you could visit, rent out, or sell. A fund subscription is a financial product with a lock-up. A cultural contribution is a donation. Same visa, completely different relationship with your capital.
The uncomfortable arithmetic of what is left
Across the remaining European property-linked routes, the entry prices have drifted steadily upward:
- Greece operates a tiered system, with the entry threshold raised well above its original 250,000 EUR in the most in-demand areas, including Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos and Santorini.
- Latvia, Cyprus and Malta all still recognise property in some form, at levels that generally start around 250,000 to 300,000 EUR and climb from there.
- Turkey sits outside the EU and runs two tracks: a property-linked residence permit, and a separate, considerably more expensive citizenship route.
Add legal fees, transfer taxes and agent commissions, which in much of Southern Europe run 7 to 12 percent of the purchase price, and the real cost of entry is meaningfully higher than the advertised threshold.
Where Georgia sits
Georgia is rarely in these comparison articles, which is strange, because on the numbers it belongs near the top of them.
Own residential property in Georgia with an appraised market value of at least 150,000 USD and you become eligible for a short-term residence permit, typically issued for one year and renewable for as long as you keep the property. Your spouse and minor children can apply as family members. There is a separate 300,000 USD investment route for larger portfolios.
The full mechanics, including the appraisal requirement and the paperwork order, are in our guide to Georgia's property residence permit.
Three things make the Georgian version structurally different rather than just cheaper:
The transaction costs are close to nothing. No purchase tax, no stamp duty, and a registration fee at the public registry measured in tens of dollars rather than percentages. Compare that with the 7 to 12 percent that evaporates at closing elsewhere. On a 150,000 USD purchase that difference is roughly 10,000 to 18,000 USD, which is not a rounding error.
The holding costs stay low. Annual property tax is income-linked and many foreign owners fall below the threshold entirely. Rental income is taxed at a flat 5 percent for registered individual landlords. Sell after two years of ownership and the capital gain is exempt. The complete picture is in our property tax guide.
The yields are real. Tbilisi and Batumi apartments have been producing gross rental yields in the 7 to 10 percent range, which is not a number Southern Europe offers at these entry prices.
The honest case against Georgia
A comparison that only lists advantages is marketing, not analysis. Georgia's residence permit is genuinely weaker than an EU one in ways that matter to some buyers and not at all to others.
It is not Schengen. A Georgian residence permit does not give you free movement in the EU. If your actual goal is an EU passport or the right to live in Lisbon, Georgia does not deliver it and no amount of favourable tax treatment changes that. Buyers who need EU access should be looking at Greece or Malta and budgeting accordingly.
It is not a citizenship track. Georgia offers a path to permanent residency over time, but naturalisation is discretionary and genuinely difficult. Treat this as residency, not a passport plan.
The threshold moved once and can move again. The property route rose from 100,000 to 150,000 USD on 1 March 2026. Property registered before that date is assessed against the old figure. A programme that has been repriced once is a programme that can be repriced again, so if the permit is your primary motive, do not spend a year deliberating.
It is a smaller, less liquid market. Georgia is a country of under four million people. Exit liquidity in Tbilisi and Batumi is decent and improving, but it is not Athens and it is certainly not Lisbon.
Who should actually look at Georgia
The buyers for whom this genuinely fits share a pattern. They want the asset to be real property rather than a fund. They care about yield and low friction more than about an EU passport. They are comfortable with a non-EU jurisdiction. And their budget sits in the 150,000 to 300,000 USD range, which in the current European market buys you very little residency-linked property anywhere else.
If that is not you, be honest about it early. The worst outcome here is buying a 150,000 USD apartment in a country you have never visited because a comparison table made it look like a Portugal substitute. It is not a Portugal substitute. It is a different proposition that happens to be strong on its own terms.
Before you buy anywhere
Whichever country you land on, the same discipline applies: verify ownership against the public registry before any money moves, and never rely on a seller's or agent's word for who owns what. In Georgia that check is free and takes seconds, and we explain how to run it in our guide to checking a title at the public registry. The same instinct, applied in Greece or Turkey, is worth whatever the local equivalent costs you.
If Georgia is on your shortlist, the current verified listings in Tbilisi and Batumi are a reasonable place to see what 150,000 USD actually buys, and the complete buyer guide covers the process end to end.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Residency programmes change frequently and thresholds described are current as of 2026. Confirm details with a qualified immigration lawyer in the relevant country before committing funds.