Where to live in Greece
We track 4 cities in Greece: Athens, Corfu, Pátra and Thessaloníki. Average temperatures run from 17°C to 19°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,622 to €2,941 a month to live centrally. Greece sits in our high tax tier. For citizens from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, long-term residency is comparatively open.
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- Tax tier
- High
- High personal income tax
- Languages
- Greek
- Some English
- Safety
- 60/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 60/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~60 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 4 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens | mid-sized | coastal | 18°C | 426 mm | €2,941 |
| Corfu | smaller | coastal | 19°C | 1,052 mm | €2,622 |
| Pátra | smaller | coastal | 19°C | 653 mm | €2,785 |
| Thessaloníki | mid-sized | coastal | 17°C | 466 mm | €2,857 |
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally.
Taxes
Greece sits in our high tax tier: high personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Comparatively open, for people from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. Greece offers well-established passive-income (Financially Independent Person/retirement) and investor (Golden Visa) routes plus a digital-nomad visa, with EU Blue Card for skilled workers; figures converted at 1 EUR = 1.1637 USD (2026-06-02).
Citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights here.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Greece:
- Income: about $4,073 a month (Greece Financially Independent Person (FIP) visa, EUR 3,500/mo single applicant (Law 5038/2023, Ministerial Decision 225679/2024); as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $291k (Greece Golden Visa lowest tier, EUR 250,000 one-time (commercial-to-residential conversion or listed-building restoration, nationwide, Law 5100/2024); as of June 2026)
For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa in advance.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).