Buying property in Greece: the rules, the costs and the traps

Greece places no general restriction on ownership by non-EU nationals. It places a territorial one, and it catches people who have never heard of it.

Articles 24 to 26 of Law 1892/1990 make border zones off limits: any transaction creating rights over property there in favour of a person whose nationality or seat is outside the EU or EEA is prohibited. The zones are the prefectures of the Dodecanese, Evros, Thesprotia, Kastoria, Kilkis, Lesbos, Xanthi, Preveza, Rodopi, Samos, Florina and Chios, plus the islands of Thira and Skyros and several former eparchies. Thira is Santorini — a mainstream holiday-home market sitting inside a defence-driven restriction.

The ban is lifted case by case by a committee at the relevant Decentralized Administration. It decides by majority, but the Ministry of Defence representative's vote must be positive. The file includes a criminal record extract no older than six months, a short CV in Greek, a passport copy, a birth certificate and a topographic plan locating the property.

No statute, ministerial decision or administration page states a decision deadline. There is no published processing time to plan against, and this is the least predictable step a non-EU buyer faces in Greece.

A transaction completed without the permission is absolutely void, and the parties and the notary carry criminal liability.

Transfer tax is 3% of the taxable value and the buyer pays it. On top of that sits a municipal surcharge of 3% — levied on the tax itself, not on the price — so the real figure is 3.09%.

The first-home exemption exists but requires the buyer to live in Greece permanently or to intend to settle within two years, so a non-resident foreign buyer does not reach it.

VAT on new buildings is suspended until 31 December 2026. The developer charges none, and the sale falls under transfer tax instead. In practice every residential purchase in 2026 — new build included — is taxed at 3.09%.

The notary's fee is a statutory scale: €20 fixed plus a proportional fee of 0.80% on the first €120,000, 0.70% to €380,000 and 0.65% above it. Two Greek legal publishers state the first band as 1% rather than 0.80%; the codified text and the notaries' own copy of the gazette say 0.80%, and the conflict is unresolved, so budget for the range.

A lawyer is not legally required at the deed. A lawyer is nonetheless the only party who searches the title, which makes one a practical necessity rather than a legal one. No statutory rate applies.

Registration at the Cadastre costs 5‰ of the value plus €23, under a fee schedule that took effect on 13 January 2026. Guidance quoting 0.475% predates it.

Agent commission is set by custom, not law: roughly 2% plus VAT, charged to each side separately.

One rule that changes how the money moves: since 11 December 2023 the price must be paid exclusively through banking channels. A deed recording cash is void, cannot be registered and has no legal effect, and the fine is 10% of the cash amount with a €10,000 floor. The prohibition covers preliminary contracts as well.

A Greek tax number comes first, and it is obtained remotely: the application runs through myAADE, with identification by video call. A tax representative is not compulsory. AADE publishes no processing time.

A Greek bank account is not a legal precondition, but the price has to move through banking channels, and a Greek bank will want the tax number, proof of address and evidence of the source of funds.

The preliminary contract is usually notarial, and the cash prohibition applies to it too.

Title is checked at the cadastral office, or at the land registry where cadastral registration is not complete. The encumbrance certificate produced there is the same document the Ministry requires for a golden visa application.

Every transfer needs an engineer's certificate under article 83 of Law 4495/2017 — a declaration that no unauthorised construction exists beyond what the permit allows. It is valid for two months from signature, and notaries, lawyers and engineers who omit it face imprisonment and fines of €30,000 to €100,000. On a purchase that takes longer than two months to close, it is the document that has to be renewed.

The transfer tax return is filed jointly by buyer and seller before the deed, electronically, and the tax is payable within three working days of assessment. The seller must also produce a municipal certificate that the annual property duty is settled — a routine source of delay on the seller's side.

No Greek authority publishes an end-to-end duration for any of this. The only hard timing constraints are the two-month life of the engineer's certificate and the three working days for the tax, and for a border-zone property, a committee decision with no deadline at all.

The annual property tax is ENFIA, codified in Law 5219/2025. Liability attaches to whoever holds the rights on 1 January, and the assessment arrives electronically without any return being filed.

For buildings the tax is the built area multiplied by a basic rate and by coefficients for zone price, age, floor and facades. The basic rate runs from €2.00 per square metre in the lowest zone to €16.20 in the highest.

The separate supplementary tax on individuals no longer exists. It is now a surcharge inside the main tax: where a person's total property value exceeds €500,000, the main tax rises by 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% by band. The Ministry of Finance's English-language page still describes the old structure and is out of date on this point; the Property Tax Code governs.

From 2026 a 50% reduction applies to a natural person's main residence in settlements of up to 1,500 inhabitants, where the property is worth no more than €400,000. Mainland Attica is excluded. It is of little use to a non-resident, who by definition has no main residence there.

Rental income for individuals runs on a scale introduced by Law 5246/2025: 15% up to €12,000, 25% to €24,000, 35% to €36,000 and 45% above. The 25% band is new. The tax year from which it applies is not stated in the source we could reach, and it is worth confirming before modelling a yield.

The municipal duty is 0.25 to 0.35 per thousand of value, collected through the electricity bill. A disconnected meter stops the collection but not the liability, which accrues quietly and surfaces at sale — the seller has to produce a clearance certificate for the notary.

A short-term let in Greece means a furnished property let for less than 60 days with no service beyond bedding.

Every such property must be entered in the registry the tax authority keeps, and the registry number must appear in a visible position on every platform listing and in all advertising. A declaration is filed for each stay, by the 20th of the month following departure.

An individual letting one or two properties is taxed on it as income from immovable property, on the scale above, and may not elect business taxation. From three properties the activity becomes a business, with 13% VAT.

A climate resilience fee applies to every short-term let regardless of how it is taxed: €2.00 per day from November to March, €8.00 from April to October.

Two registration freezes are in force. In Athens, first-time registration is prohibited in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd municipal districts — introduced for 2025 and extended to 31 December 2026. In Thessaloniki the 1st municipal community is frozen from 1 July to 31 December 2026.

The point that costs buyers the most: a registration does not pass with the property. A property transferred inside a restricted area is removed from the registry, and re-registration during the restriction is not permitted. Buying a working short-let in a frozen district of central Athens does not buy its number.

The penalty for breaching a freeze is 50% of the income from the letting, with a €20,000 floor, doubling to the whole of the rents collected and a €40,000 floor on a repeat within the same tax year.

The often-quoted limits of two properties per taxpayer and 90 days a year are not in force anywhere. The law empowers ministers to impose them in designated areas; no such decision could be found.

A purchase can still lead to residency in Greece, which distinguishes it from Portugal. The terms tightened sharply in 2024.

The thresholds are €800,000 in Attica, the regional unit of Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Thira and islands with more than 3,100 inhabitants; €400,000 everywhere else; and €250,000 for converting a property from another use to residential, or restoring a listed building. For the conversion route the change of use must be completed before the application is submitted.

Both main thresholds carry a minimum area of 120 square metres of main spaces. Storage and parking bought under the same contract count toward the investment value but not toward the 120 square metres.

The investment must be made in a single property. Several properties may not be added together to reach a threshold — they could be before 2024, and guidance written earlier still says so.

Short-term letting of the qualifying property is prohibited outright, and the sanction is both a €50,000 administrative fine and revocation of the permit. Long-term letting is not prohibited; the ban is confined to sharing-economy letting and to sub-letting.

Whether an off-plan property qualifies is genuinely unsettled. Article 100 does not address it, and the two conditions that bear on it — a measurable 120 square metres and full ownership with the price fully paid before the application — point against it. This is a question for written confirmation from the Ministry, not for a website.

The fee is €2,000 per applicant plus €16 for the card. No Greek authority publishes a processing time for the permit.