A family that has spent decades in London closes its home and moves within a year. This is not an isolated case. It is a sign of a reshaping of private wealth across Europe.
The abolition of the UK’s non-domiciled tax regime has prompted families that took London for granted as a base to consider moving. Greece is now among their potential destinations.
The tool is the non-dom regime under Article 5A: a fixed annual tax of 100,000 euros, an additional 20,000 euros per dependent and a minimum investment of 500,000 euros. Law 5313/2026 removed the March deadline, and the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) made the process fully operational online in less than a month.
Greece Sotheby’s International Realty reported that non-dom buyers accounted for 29% of its transactions in 2025, all valued at more than 2.3 million euros, with a median value twice that of Golden Visa transactions; 53% of these buyers came from the UK. These are figures from one agency, not the market as a whole, but they point to a trend. The real question is not how many people come, but how many stay.
The type of resident is changing
For years, Greek debate about foreign capital in real estate focused on the Golden Visa investor. Non-dom residents operate differently. They move their tax residence, family and day-to-day life: school, doctor, accountant, professional and social networks. They are not simply buying a property. They are choosing a place to live.
This turns a fiscal advantage into an operational requirement for the country. The first, and often decisive, consideration is schooling. Families from international centres have specific expectations about curricula, facilities and the overall experience. A school can determine both whether they settle and whether they stay.
Healthcare infrastructure and the public realm
Healthcare comes next. Greece’s private healthcare sector has clinical capability, but the quality of the premises, reception, time management and continuity of care does not always meet the same standard. The gap is one of design and organisation.
Families are also accompanied by family offices, advisers and wealth-management firms, which need high-quality, reliable premises.
Then there is the public realm. Private-sector quality amid public-sector decline is not enough. Pavements, infrastructure, cleanliness, noise and traffic are all part of the overall experience.
Success is measured by how long people stay
These families can move to another country if circumstances change. The same mobility can work in reverse. Comparisons between destinations continue after the move.
That is why the true measure of success is not just arrivals or approvals, but long-term retention and whether those who settle here build new networks and generate economic activity.
At the same time, pressure on housing costs cannot be ignored. The inflow of international capital contributes to it. The response requires a greater supply of better housing and sound spatial planning.
What this means in practice
For the state, the job did not end with the tax measure. Developers should understand that this audience does not judge by Greek standards. It compares Athens with Milan, Lisbon and Dubai on quality, service, functionality and experience.
For those of us working at the intersection of strategy and place, the brief has changed. Greece has secured a place in the international competition through fiscal and administrative measures. The next stage will not be decided by tax rates, but by what a family encounters when it steps out of its front door.
Attracting capital is a matter of policy. Retaining it is a matter of design and execution. We remain underinvested in the latter. The state often stops where regulation ends; developers build for a buyer who compares prices rather than experiences; and our own industry spent years selling aesthetics where it should have offered strategy, functionality and experience.
That is what will determine whether today’s inflow lasts. Capital may arrive with a signature. But it stays for the experience.
* Alexandros Athanasoulas is chief executive of STIRIXIS Group