It could be considered a marriage of convenience between the financially strapped but politically stable eastern Mediterranean countries of Greece and Cyprus and wealthy Lebanese property investors.
Greece and Cyprus are fast-tracking citizenship for high-net-worth property owners, as Lebanese who can afford it are lining up to buy homes. This is the idea of the third edition of the Beirut International property Fair, Residency and Citizenship by Investment, a three-day event from May 16 to 18 at the Beirut Habtoor Grand Hotel Convention Center. The event, with booths and representatives from real estate agencies and immigration law firms from different countries throughout the world – mainly Greece and Cyprus, but also the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Malta – are showing Lebanese how they can invest their way to citizenship.
Brochures being distributed throughout the halls not only give instructions on how to obtain citizenship, but also outline the perks of second citizenships and give overviews of quality of life, security, business activities, tax planning and retirement in various countries.
“Let’s call it Plan B. Some Lebanese don’t feel safe,” says Carole Ghanem, office manager at Green Steps, a Lebanon- and Cyprus-based real estate company that sells property in Cyprus to Lebanese, giving them all the information they need on how to apply for permanent residency through their property purchase.
If they invest $300,000 or more, they can get permanent residency after two months and then a Cypriot passport after three and a half years. With an investment of 3 million euros ($3.4 million) or more, a passport can be issued in as little as two months. These rules have existed for about two years.
Starting around the same time, a similar path to residency and citizenship now exists for Greece. For 250,000 euros in property investment, a foreigner can become a foreign resident on day one, giving them free movement to the rest of the Schengen zone, automatically renewable every five years.
“People want a safe exit,” says Panos Rozakis, general manager of Prime Synergy, a property investment firm based in Athens, which has a Greek residency division. Panos, who was most recently in Dubai, says his clientele includes property investors from India, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria (though procedures for clients from war zones takes more steps to process). He says that ever since the residency and citizenship procedures were relaxed for real estate investors, there has been a growing interest from the Middle East and more offices like his have been popping up to serve the demand.
For many attendees at the exhibition, the appeal seems to be having a safe option outside Lebanon.
“We’ve been in the Civil War in Lebanon, and we endured what we had to endure, and at that time, we had to stay in Lebanon,” says retired businessman Emile Azzam, attending with his wife. He adds that he doesn’t like the concept of an exhibition that might encourage Lebanese to leave, but he understands that many people like himself would want to have the option.
“Since the situation in Lebanon is not that safe and you never know what will happen, we’d like to have an escape route. We’d like to always come back to Lebanon. When there are tough times, but we’d like a place nearby to stay.”
By Brooke Anderson
