Buying a home in Greece: the steps and the costs
A purchase in Greece passes through a tax number, a bank account, a lawyer, an engineer and a notary, roughly in that order. We follow those steps, work through the costs of one example with the Greca House calculator and note what the agency does at each stage.
A tax number and a bank account
Every buyer, Greek or foreign, first needs a Greek tax number (the ΑΦΜ, issued by AADE, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue). For a buyer living abroad, AADE takes the application only electronically, through its myAADE portal (filed by the buyer or someone authorised), and then identifies whoever filed it, at a tax office or by video call through myAADElive, likely the easier of the two.
The money comes next. The price of a home has to be paid exclusively by bank means, and a deed that does not say so cannot be registered (article 50 of the Property Tax Code, law 5219/2025), so most buyers open an account with a Greek bank, and the lawyer and the notary say what proof of funds they need. Greca House helps buyers abroad with the tax number, the bank account, a power of attorney (signed, as its guide for buyers abroad explains, at a Greek consulate or before a notary abroad with an apostille) and first viewings at a distance.
The checks before you commit
Before any deposit, two professionals look at the property. A lawyer of your own checks the title, any mortgages or other encumbrances and the record in the Hellenic Cadastre. An engineer, what is more, checks the building's legal status: the law requires an engineer's certificate that there are no unauthorised constructions or uses (law 4495/2017, article 83), and the notary will ask for the Electronic Building Identity or, where it still applies, that certificate.
The seller's side brings two further documents. A sale needs an Energy Performance Certificate (the ΠΕΑ, under article 12 of law 4122/2013), and the seller needs an ENFIA certificate from AADE (ENFIA being the annual property tax) confirming that the property was included in the seller's ENFIA declarations for the five years before the deed (or six, the current one included, once that year's ENFIA is out). Greca House replaces none of these professionals: it coordinates the lawyer, the engineer, the notary and the accountant and keeps the timetable, while the legal and tax advice comes from them.
The transfer tax, the notary and the Cadastre
Once the price and terms are agreed in writing (often with a deposit or a preliminary contract, which the buyer's own lawyer should read first), the notary prepares the transfer tax return in AADE's myPROPERTY application and sends it to buyer and seller. They accept it in myAADE, and the tax is paid within three working days of the return (or of the tax office's assessment) and before the deed.
For most resale homes the tax is 3 per cent of the taxable value (the price, or the objective value if that is higher), plus a municipal surcharge of 3 per cent of the tax, whereas new buildings may fall under VAT and a first home may be exempt, within limits, for certain buyers (Greek, EU and EEA citizens among them) living in Greece or settling there within two years.
The notary, paid on an official scale (joint ministerial decision 111376/2011) plus VAT at 24 per cent, then draws up the deed. It is registered with the Cadastre for a share of the value plus small fixed charges set by a decision of 12 January 2026 (6 per thousand where the Cadastre operates and 5 in the old mortgage registries, as the Greca House calculator reads it).
One example, worked through
For a resale home bought by an individual for 250 000 euro, at no less than its objective value, the Greca House buying-costs calculator (rates in force when read on 30 September 2026) gives 7500 euro of transfer tax, a municipal surcharge of 225 euro, 1523 euro for Cadastre registration, a notary's scale fee of 1890 euro and 454 euro of VAT on that fee, or 11 592 euro on top of the price (about 4.6 per cent). It is an estimate, not tax advice: the notary's written quote replaces the scale figure, and the lawyer, the engineer and the agency are left out because no law sets their fees.
In Greca House's research snapshot of 1 October 2026 (asking prices, not sale prices), 95 of its properties asked between 200 000 and 300 000 euro. Of those, 71 were apartments with a median floor area of 75 m², and the median home in that range was built in 1981. The report, What €250k, €400k and €800k buy in Greece, publishes its method and sample sizes, with CSV files that anyone may reuse under a Creative Commons licence.
One change is announced but not yet law. In September 2026 the government set out a transfer tax of 15 per cent on homes bought by citizens of countries outside the EU and the EEA (people of Greek descent and long-term residents excluded), to apply, the Minister of National Economy and Finance said, to individuals only and from 1 July 2027. No law had been published when Greca House last checked, on 8 October 2026, so the example uses the 3 per cent in force.
The agent's fee
An estate agent in Greece works under a written brokerage contract, and the fee (the μεσιτική αμοιβή) is freely negotiable, with no legal minimum, as an amount or a percentage set in that contract (law 4072/2012, article 200). The deed then records, in a declaration, whether an agent took part and, if one did, the agent's details and the fee. The Greca House calculator adds an agency fee only from a written quote, and the agency's guide advises asking each professional (the lawyer, the engineer, the notary and the agent alike) for one at the start.
How long it takes, and where Greca House comes in
The whole purchase has no fixed length, as buyer and seller agree the timetable in writing, and the pace seems to depend mostly on the documents: the tax number, the checks before any commitment, the tax, then the deed and the Cadastre. Most of it can be prepared from abroad.
Greca House, a real-estate agency in Athens since 2008 (continuing the brokerage Iryna Rondyak set up that year), had 661 properties for sale on 15 October 2026, in listings published in six languages (English, Greek, Russian, Hebrew, Chinese and Arabic). It shortlists from them against your brief, views homes for buyers who cannot travel and reports back, negotiates, and coordinates the lawyer, the engineer and the notary up to the deed. To start, write to Greca House with your budget, the areas you have in mind, the kind of home and roughly when you hope to buy.
