No minimum stay is a permit rule, not a tax rule
The Greek golden visa's headline feature is that you do not have to live in Greece to keep it. The permit renews on its five-year cycle as long as you still hold the qualifying investment; days spent in the country are not the test.
That is a rule about your residence permit. It says nothing about which country may tax you, and the two are decided by completely different tests. Confusing them is the single most expensive mistake made on this route.
So the useful question is not 'how long may I stay?' but 'how long do I want to stay, and what does that trigger?'
Where the 183-day line sits
Greece treats you as tax resident if you spend more than 183 days in the country in a calendar year. Days are the clearest trigger, but they are not the only one: having your permanent home in Greece, or your vital interests there — family, professional and social ties — can also make you resident.
If you become a Greek tax resident, Greece taxes your worldwide income, with progressive rates that run from 9% up to 44%. If you do not, Greece taxes only income arising in Greece, such as rent from the property you bought.
Counting matters more than it sounds. Part days, trips in and out and a spouse and children living there year-round all feed into the picture, and the vital-interests test can bite even when your day count looks safe.
The permit does not come with a Greek job
The golden visa is an investment residence permit, and it does not confer the right to take salaried employment with a Greek employer. People regularly assume that residence and the right to work are the same thing; here they are not.
What you can generally do is invest and be involved in business as an owner: holding shares, being a partner or serving as a director of a Greek company. That is a different thing from being on a Greek payroll, and the distinction has real consequences for how you structure your income.
If working locally is part of the plan — for you or for your spouse — check which permit actually permits it before buying property. Changing status later is a separate application, not a formality.
Which route your answer points to
If you want a low-obligation EU base, will visit rather than live, and have the capital, the golden visa does what it says: Schengen access, family included, no stay requirement, renewed against the asset.
If you intend to actually live in Greece, work there, or build toward citizenship, the honest answer is that passively holding this permit is a poor instrument for it. Citizenship needs genuine, long-term residence, and that means being in the country — at which point the tax questions above become live.
Either answer is fine. What does not work is buying the permit for the first plan and then discovering you wanted the second.
Related routes