Eleni Varvitsioti / Photographed for the FT by Thomas Gravanis Published October 30 2026 In areas such as Vouliagmeni, Glyfada and Voula on the Athens Riviera, low-rise villas and gardens are increasingly giving way to luxury apartment blocks with sea views, swimming pools and round-the-clock security. September's news that billionaire hedge fund manager Chris Rokos was swapping London for Athens, where he plans to establish an office, ruffled some feathers. Not least in the UK, where he is one of the country's biggest taxpayers, reportedly paying £330mn last year.
Greece has spent years trying to persuade wealthy foreigners to bring their money to the country. Now it wants them to bring their businesses and families too. And the policies are making their mark on the prime property market.
Since 2020, Greece has introduced a series of tax incentives aimed at attracting new residents. Its non-dom regime offers qualifying new residents a €100,000 annual flat tax on foreign-sourced income. Qualifying foreign retirees have a flat 7 per cent tax on foreign-sourced income for up to 15 years.
Eligible workers and entrepreneurs relocating to Greece receive a 50 per cent exemption on Greek-source employment or business income. The measures are designed to help reverse the brain drain that accompanied the country's financial crisis, when close to one million people left Greece over the course of a decade. The Ellinikon, the redevelopment of Athens' former airport into a coastal district with homes, hotels, shops and leisure facilities, 'will be a mini-Dubai', says one estate agent.
At Greece Sotheby's International Realty, buyers benefiting from the country's non-dom regime accounted for nearly a third of the agency's transaction volumes in 2025, up from virtually none before 2024, according to its president and chief executive Savvas Savvaidis. More than half of those transactions involved UK passport holders. This summer, the Greek government went further, cutting the tax rate on carried interest for qualifying investment managers relocating to Greece from 15 per cent to 5 per cent.
The tax break requires the fund's Greek operation to spend at least €3mn a year in the country, ensuring a genuine rather than nominal presence. The government says its ambition is broader than attracting a handful of wealthy individuals to buy holiday homes. It hopes that the first wave of wealthy arrivals will draw a wider community of professionals and their families. 'It is not 10 people who spend a lot of money,' says Vassilis Karatzas, an adviser to the finance minister. 'Their potential is that [they help] set up an ecosystem and a business environment that did not exist in the country.' Elina Filippou, head of private wealth at Greek law firm Zepos & Yannopoulos, which specialises in advising businesses and individuals relocating to Greece, says her team has grown from eight to almost 20 since 2020.
Her firm has handled about a quarter of relocation applications under the tax incentive regimes, she says. A futuristic residential building in Vouliagmeni. Since Greece's non-dom scheme was introduced in 2020, it has attracted 500 applications: 'It's a constant flow of people,' says Chryssa Miliou of the Greek finance ministry.
In Voula, the urban landscape is changing very quickly, says Paulina Billiri, an estate agent in the area. Since the non-dom scheme was introduced, it has attracted roughly 500 applications, about half from outside Europe, according to data from the Greek finance ministry. Nearly 1,500 retirees and about 10,000 execut...
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