Cyprus just axed ‘golden passports’ – but Greece still offers a hassle-free visa for EU-wide travel after US$300,000 in real estate investment – and Chinese investors are buying Athens homes fast

Athens has long laboured under the stereotype that it is smog-filled and chaotic. Li Xia, who has lived in the Greek capital with her husband and 10-year-old son since they acquired a flat in the leafy northern suburb of Maroussi three years ago, would wholeheartedly disagree.

She considers the city to have a cleaner natural environment than her native Beijing, coupled with a better quality of life and international schools that are more multicultural.

“Greek people are less anxious than the Chinese. People enjoy a more active social life, which does not simply entail dinners together,” Li says.

“I see my son spending more time with friends and playing sport than staring at a screen. When he is in school, I have ample time to read, go shopping, visit friends and cook, in addition to running my e-business in China.”

For years, starry-eyed Chinese couples would hotfoot it to Santorini for a picture-perfect wedding atop the Cycladic island’s famed caldera cliffs, complete with serenading local musicians.

Today, you are more likely to see affluent Chinese singles, couples and young families with toddlers in tow strolling along a beach on the southern Athens coast – dubbed the Athens Riviera – a stone’s throw from their newly bought, luxuriously appointed, sea-view flat.

The reason is Greece’s Golden Visa programme, considered among the most successful of its type in Europe. Open to non-EU nationals, those who invest €250,000 (US$293,000) or more in Greek property are granted a renewable five-year residence permit, which in turn gives them the coveted privilege of being able to travel freely throughout the 27-member European Union.