Much of the recent commentary on European golden visas has focused on what is closing. Looking at the market over a longer period, a more measured picture emerges. The investor proposition is not disappearing; it is being refined, and the new version asks more of investors while offering them a more regulated and durable framework in return.
The refinement follows a consistent logic. Governments are gradually moving away from passive assets such as residential property and toward capital that supports wider economic priorities and can be monitored over time. The Latvia Golden Visa offers one of the clearest recent examples of this direction, as Latvia’s reforms in 2026 compressed into a single year changes that other countries introduced over several.
Latvia’s 2026 Reset
Latvia’s new Immigration Law took effect in September 2026. For new applicants, direct real estate and subordinated bank liabilities are no longer available, and the state securities option had already been removed earlier in the year through separate amendments.
What remains is the capital-company route: €50,000 or €100,000 plus a €10,000 state payment, tied to annual company taxes of €40,000 or €100,000, now with permits of up to two years. Alongside it sits a new route of at least €150,000 invested for five years through a state-established Alternative Investment Fund Manager, plus €10,000 to the state, for a permit of up to five years.
The fund route, however, exists so far only in the law. The fund has not yet been established, and the by-laws needed to operate it have yet to follow. Until they do, the capital-company route is the only investment option open to new applicants.
Existing property and bank-route holders have not been left behind. The transitional provisions allow them to apply for a repeated permit of up to five years, provided the original investment still qualifies, and they pay €1,000 for each year covered, less the qualifying amounts already paid.
How Other Countries Have Responded
Portugal was the first major program to take this path. Since 7 October 2023, under Law 56/2023, property purchases no longer qualify for new applications. The Portugal Golden Visa now centers on regulated investment funds of €500,000 or more, which must have a maturity of at least five years and invest at least 60% in Portugal, alongside routes for scientific research, cultural heritage donation and company capitalization. Rather than closing, Portugal redirected investor capital from housing into the productive economy, which is the same choice Latvia has now made.
Spain took a different decision and ended its Golden Visa on 3 April 2025 through Organic Law 1/2025, citing housing affordability, while protecting existing holders.
Greece chose calibration over closure. Law 5100/2024 introduced thresholds of €800,000 in the most in-demand areas and €400,000 elsewhere, with €250,000 reserved for commercial-to-residential conversions and restoration projects. Golden Visa properties can also no longer be used for short-term rental. Greece has kept real estate at the center of its program but now uses it to steer investment toward regeneration rather than the most pressured housing markets.
Malta’s Permanent Residence Programme follows a contribution-based model, pairing a government contribution and a charitable donation with a property purchase of at least €375,000 or a lease of at least €14,000 a year. Those thresholds were raised from 1 January 2025, replacing lower regional minimums, while fees and contributions also rose. When the Court of Justice of the EU ruled on 29 April 2025 that Malta’s investor citizenship route breached EU law, the judgment concerned the grant of citizenship in return for financial contribution. Residence was not in question, and Malta has kept its residence program by making it more demanding rather than withdrawing it.
What the New Model Asks of Investors
In our experience, the more meaningful change for clients is not the rising thresholds but what they are committing to. Under the old model, the investor owned an asset and the residence permit followed. Under the new one, the investor enters a longer-term relationship with the state: capital placed in a vehicle the government has designed or in an operating business, held for a defined period, verified over time and renewed on stated terms. Latvia’s decision to pair its highest threshold, €150,000, with its longest permit, up to five years, is telling. Governments are willing to offer greater stability to investors whose capital remains in the country and contributes to its economy.
As Alisa Nazaryeva, Programs Strategy Associate at Global Citizen Solutions, explains:
“That changes the questions clients bring to us. They ask less about headline cost and more about the vehicle itself: who manages the fund, what happens at the end of the holding period, and how renewals are priced. Permit length has also become part of the comparison, and Latvia’s company-route permit is now shorter than before.”
Reading the New Playbook
For investors, two practical points follow. Transitional protection has become a consistent feature of reform, as both Spain and Latvia have shown. How a country has treated existing investors through past changes is a useful indicator of how it may treat them in future. It is also worth comparing vehicles rather than thresholds. A €150,000 fund commitment held for five years and a €50,000 company investment are different propositions.
Europe’s golden visa market is not closing. It is maturing into something more deliberate, where states set the terms of the investment as well as its size. Latvia’s reform sets out that approach with unusual clarity, and investors who understand it will increasingly see a residence permit less as a purchase and more as a long-term arrangement with a country.