Selling Property in Greece as a Non-Resident
A large share of the property in Chalkidiki belongs to people who do not live in Greece. German, Austrian and Swiss families who bought a summer house twenty years ago, Balkan owners who bought a coastal apartment, British and Israeli buyers from the 2000s, heirs scattered across three countries. When they decide to sell, the first question is almost always the same: can I actually do this from abroad, and what will Greece want from me?
The answer is that selling as a non-resident is entirely normal. Greek law does not restrict foreign owners from selling, and thousands of such transactions complete every year. What differs is administrative: your tax number must be active and correct, your property declaration must match reality, foreign documents need legalisation and translation, and if you will not attend the notary in person you need a properly drafted power of attorney.
This guide covers each of those requirements, plus the part owners worry about most — getting the money out of Greece and understanding what tax, if any, applies where.
Chalkidiki Real Estate works predominantly with international owners and handles the practical layer that is hard to manage at a distance: access for inspections, dealings with the municipality and utility providers, coordination of lawyer, engineer, accountant and notary. For legal, tax and accounting advice we work with qualified professionals in Greece, each responsible within their own competence.
Rules and administrative practice change, and your position depends on your nationality, residence and the property’s history. This is a planning guide, not individual legal or tax advice.
Do you own a property in Chalkidiki but live abroad, and want to sell without spending weeks in Greece? Contact me by phone, WhatsApp or email — in German, English, Greek, Russian or Turkish.
- Mobile: +30 693 470 9163
- WhatsApp: +30 693 470 9163
- Email: hb@chalkidikirealestate.com
- Location: Chalkidiki Real Estate
- LinkedIn: Hans-Jürgen Bahner – Over 17k Followers
- Bestselling Author: Find My Books Here
Most of our sellers live outside Greece. We handle access, documents, authorities and the practical side so that you do not have to travel.
On this page
Select a topic to see what non-resident owners need to arrange, and in what order.
Who Counts as a Non-Resident Seller
For these purposes a non-resident seller is someone who owns property in Greece but is not a Greek tax resident — typically because their permanent home, habitual abode and centre of vital interests are elsewhere, and because they do not spend more than the relevant number of days in Greece.
Nationality is not the test. A Greek citizen who has lived in Germany for thirty years is a non-resident owner; a German citizen who has moved permanently to Chalkidiki and registered as a Greek tax resident is not. What matters is your registered tax residence, and the tax office your AFM is attached to.
The distinction has practical consequences throughout the sale. Non-residents are registered with the tax office for non-residents rather than a local one, may need a tax representative in Greece, and file differently. It also determines which country taxes the gain, and whether a double-taxation agreement applies.
Owners in an intermediate position — those who spend long periods in Greece, or who have recently moved — should establish their residence status before the sale rather than assume it. Our guide to tax residency in Greece sets out the criteria.
What Actually Differs
The sale procedure itself is identical for residents and non-residents: valuation, document file, marketing, reservation, due diligence, notarial deed, registration. What changes is a set of administrative preconditions.
| Requirement | Resident seller | Non-resident seller |
|---|---|---|
| Greek tax number (AFM) | Held and active | Held, but often dormant or attached to an old address |
| Tax office | Local | Tax office for non-residents |
| Tax representative | Not required | Required in defined cases |
| E9 declaration | Usually current | Frequently outdated after inheritance or works |
| Attendance at the deed | In person | In person or by power of attorney |
| Foreign documents | Rare | Apostille and official translation required |
| Receipt of the price | Greek account | Greek or foreign account, with documentation |
| Access for inspections | Straightforward | Needs local arrangement |
None of these is difficult in isolation. What causes delay is discovering them late — particularly the E9 position and the powers of attorney, which are the two items that most often add months to a non-resident sale.
Your Greek Tax Number (AFM)
You cannot transfer Greek property without an AFM. If you bought the property you already have one; it was required for the purchase. The problem is rarely that it does not exist — it is that it has not been used for fifteen years.
Typical issues are an AFM registered at an address abroad that you have since left, a record still showing a former marital name, a tax office allocation that no longer fits your status, or a registration made through a representative who can no longer be reached.
All of these are correctable, and the correction is normally handled by an accountant or lawyer with a power of attorney or an authorisation. It requires identification documents, evidence of your current address, and in some cases translated and apostilled documents.
Start this early. An out-of-date AFM record blocks the ENFIA certificate, which blocks the deed, and the correction is a matter of weeks rather than days once foreign documents are involved. Our guide to the Greek tax number (AFM) covers the registration process itself.
Which Tax Office You Belong To
Greek taxpayers are administered by a specific tax office, and non-residents are generally handled by the tax office for residents abroad rather than by the office covering the property’s location.
This matters for practical reasons. Filings, corrections and certificates go through that office, its processing times differ from a local one, and an owner whose record sits in the wrong office will find that requests are refused or redirected — usually at the point when a deed date has already been agreed.
Owners who once lived in Greece and left, or who bought while resident and later moved away, frequently remain registered at a local office and must be transferred. Owners who moved to Greece and are now resident must do the reverse.
Your accountant will identify the correct office and arrange the transfer where needed. Like the AFM correction, it belongs at the start of the sale preparation.
The Tax Representative
Non-residents with Greek tax obligations are, in defined circumstances, required to appoint a tax representative in Greece. The role is administrative: a point of contact for the tax authority, for correspondence and for filings.
It is important to understand what the representative is not. They do not acquire any power over your property, they cannot sell it, and they are not liable for your tax. Appointing one is not a step towards losing control of the asset, which is a concern owners occasionally raise.
In practice the representative is usually the accountant who handles your E9 and ENFIA filings, or a lawyer. The appointment is made through the tax authority’s procedures and can be changed.
Whether a representative is required in your specific case depends on your circumstances and on current practice; your accountant will confirm. What is universally true is that someone in Greece needs to be able to act on the filings, because Greek tax administration does not work well across a postal address in another country.
The E9 and ENFIA Position
This is the most common source of delay in non-resident sales, and it is worth checking before anything else.
The E9 is the declaration of property holdings, and it is the basis for ENFIA. The ENFIA certificate — confirming that the property was declared and the tax settled — is required for the deed. If the E9 does not match the property, the certificate cannot be issued.
The recurring problems among owners abroad are a property that was never declared at all, square metres or descriptions that do not match the deed, an inheritance never reflected in the declaration, an extension or a demolition never recorded, and co-ownership shares entered incorrectly.
Each requires corrective declarations, potentially for several years, and each can generate additional ENFIA for those years. An accountant handles it, and the timeline is weeks rather than days.
Arrears must also be cleared before the certificate is issued. Empty properties frequently carry several years of ENFIA and municipal charges, and the amount surfaces at exactly the moment the certificate is requested. Establish it in week one.
A Greek Bank Account: Needed or Not?
Strictly, no. The purchase price can be paid to a foreign account, and many non-resident sales are settled that way.
In practice a Greek account makes several things easier: settling ENFIA and municipal charges to obtain the clearance certificates, paying utility accounts, paying the engineer, surveyor and lawyer, and receiving the price without a cross-border transfer on the day of the deed. Where the property has arrears and the owner is abroad, an account is often the difference between a smooth process and a series of failed payments.
Opening an account as a non-resident requires identification, an AFM, evidence of address and of the source of funds, and in-person attendance or an accepted remote process depending on the bank. It is not instantaneous, and banks have become more demanding in recent years.
If you already have a dormant Greek account from the purchase, reactivating it is usually faster than opening a new one — but expect the bank to update its compliance file. Our guide to opening a bank account in Greece covers the requirements.
Identity, Address and Name Changes
The notary works from documents, and everything must match. A passport whose name differs from the name on the title deed — after marriage, divorce or a legal name change — requires documentary evidence of the change, apostilled and translated.
The same applies to an address that has changed since the purchase, to identity documents that have expired, and to spelling differences arising from transliteration into Greek characters, which is a surprisingly frequent problem for names with umlauts or non-Latin scripts. Where the transliteration on the deed differs from the passport, the discrepancy must be resolved rather than explained.
Married sellers may be asked for a marriage certificate, and where the matrimonial property regime affects the ability to dispose of the property, evidence of that regime.
Check all of this at the start against the actual deed, not against memory. It is a two-minute comparison that prevents a two-week delay.
Attending the Deed or Sending a Representative
You can travel to Greece and sign in person, or you can authorise a representative — normally your Greek lawyer — through a special power of attorney.
Attending in person has advantages: you see the property one last time, you can handle the handover directly, and there is no document chain to go wrong. It also requires you to be available on a date that is not fixed until late in the process, which is difficult for owners with limited flexibility, and it requires an interpreter or a bilingual deed if you do not speak Greek.
Selling by power of attorney is the more common route for owners abroad, and for co-owners in several countries it is effectively the only practical route. The document must be drafted for the specific transaction, executed before a notary abroad with an apostille or at a Greek consulate, and translated into Greek.
The procedure, the scope the document should have and realistic timings are set out on selling property in Greece remotely.
Your local contact in Chalkidiki
Get in Touch with Hans-Jürgen Bahner
Do you own a property in Chalkidiki but live abroad, and want to sell without spending weeks in Greece? Contact me by phone, WhatsApp or email — in German, English, Greek, Russian or Turkish.
- Mobile: +30 693 470 9163
- WhatsApp: +30 693 470 9163
- Email: hb@chalkidikirealestate.com
- Location: Chalkidiki Real Estate
- LinkedIn: Hans-Jürgen Bahner – Over 17k Followers
- Bestselling Author: Find My Books Here
Most of our sellers live outside Greece. We handle access, documents, authorities and the practical side so that you do not have to travel.
Documents Issued Abroad
Any document issued outside Greece that will be used in the transaction generally needs legalisation and official translation before a Greek notary will accept it.
For countries party to the Hague Apostille Convention — which includes all EU member states, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Israel, Serbia and most of the Balkans — legalisation means an apostille issued by the competent authority in the country where the document was created. For other countries, consular legalisation applies instead.
Translation must be official: by a lawyer entitled to certify translations, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs translation service, or by a certified translator, according to what the notary accepts. An uncertified translation will be refused.
The documents most often affected are powers of attorney, death and marriage certificates, certificates of heirs, foreign company documents and evidence of name changes.
Order of operations: obtain the document, then apostille it, then translate it — the translation must cover the apostille as well. Doing it the other way round means paying for the translation twice.
Capital Gains for Non-Residents
Greek income tax law provides for a 15 per cent tax on capital gains realised by individuals on transfers of real estate, and it applies to residents and non-residents alike. Its application has been suspended repeatedly since it was introduced, with the suspension extended year after year; at the time of writing it runs to the end of 2026.
In practice, therefore, a non-resident individual selling a Greek property today generally pays no Greek tax on the gain, and there is no withholding at the deed corresponding to such a tax. This is a suspension rather than an abolition, so the position for the year in which you actually sign must be confirmed with a Greek accountant — particularly where a sale is agreed in one year and completed in the next.
Two qualifications matter. The suspension concerns individuals: sales by companies, and sales that form part of a professional activity in real estate, are taxed under different rules. And the absence of Greek tax does not remove the obligation to declare the transaction correctly, nor does it affect your position at home.
Whatever the Greek position, keep the evidence of what you paid for the property and what you spent improving it. That documentation determines the taxable gain wherever it is eventually assessed.
Tax in Your Country of Residence
This is where non-resident sellers are most often caught out. Most countries tax their residents on worldwide income and gains, subject to a double-taxation agreement with Greece, and the fact that Greece currently charges nothing does not make the gain untaxed.
Whether and how the gain is taxed at home depends on the treaty, on domestic holding-period rules, on whether the property was ever your principal residence, on how your country calculates the gain, and on what deductions it allows for acquisition costs and improvements. Some countries exempt a gain after a minimum holding period; others do not. Some allow the Greek transaction costs as a deduction; others require specific evidence.
United States citizens and residents remain subject to worldwide taxation and to reporting obligations irrespective of where they live, and should take advice from a US adviser alongside a Greek one. Sellers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom should establish their position before agreeing terms, since the timing of completion can change the outcome.
What your adviser will need is the original purchase deed, evidence of the price paid, records of improvement expenditure, the sale deed and the transaction costs. Assemble it during the sale, not two years later.
Transferring the Proceeds Abroad
There are no exchange controls preventing you from moving the proceeds of a Greek property sale out of the country. What there is, on both sides of the transfer, is a compliance process.
The Greek bank paying out or transferring the funds, and the foreign bank receiving them, will each want to understand where the money came from. In practice that means the notarial deed of sale, evidence of how you originally acquired the property — the purchase deed, or the acceptance of inheritance and inheritance tax filing — and confirmation of your tax position, typically the ENFIA and E9 documentation.
Where the property was inherited decades ago, or acquired by a chain of family transfers, assembling that evidence takes time. It is far easier to do it during the sale, when the lawyer and accountant are already handling the file, than afterwards from another country.
Sellers occasionally propose receiving part of the price outside the banking system to avoid this process. Beyond being unlawful, it defeats the purpose entirely: money that cannot be documented is money that cannot be moved or invested anywhere reputable.
Anti-Money-Laundering Documentation
Banks, notaries and real estate agencies in Greece are subject to anti-money-laundering obligations, which means identity verification and, for larger transactions, documentation of the source of funds and of wealth.
For a seller this is generally straightforward: you are receiving money for an asset you own, and the deed is the primary evidence. The questions become more detailed where the property was acquired long ago without a clear paper trail, where ownership passed through several family transfers, where a company is involved, or where the seller is resident in a jurisdiction subject to enhanced scrutiny.
The practical advice is to treat document requests as routine rather than as suspicion. Banks ask everyone, they ask in a fixed sequence, and refusing or delaying simply extends the process.
Prepare in advance: a current identification document, evidence of your address, your AFM, the acquisition documentation, the E9 and ENFIA position, and — once signed — the sale deed. With that file in hand, a transfer that could otherwise take weeks usually takes days.
Currency and Timing
If your home currency is not the euro, the exchange rate becomes part of your result, and on a property-sized sum a few percentage points of movement can outweigh the entire cost of the sale.
Three things are worth deciding in advance rather than on the day. First, where the funds will land: a euro account you already hold, or a direct conversion. Second, who converts: a bank’s standard retail rate on a six-figure sum is rarely the best available, and regulated currency specialists exist for exactly this purpose. Third, whether you want certainty: forward arrangements can fix a rate ahead of a completion date, which suits sellers who have committed the proceeds to a purchase elsewhere.
Timing also interacts with the deed date, which is not fixed until late in the process and can move. Any arrangement that depends on a specific date needs flexibility built in.
This is not advice about whether to convert or when — that is a matter for you and a regulated adviser. It is a reminder to decide it deliberately, because a seller who has not thought about it converts at whatever rate the receiving bank happens to offer on the day.
Non-Resident Heirs
The combination that produces the longest timelines in Chalkidiki is inherited property with heirs abroad. Everything described above applies, multiplied by the number of co-owners, and preceded by the succession itself.
Before a sale is possible the heirs must accept the inheritance by notarial deed, register that deed, file the inheritance tax declaration and update their E9 declarations. Each heir needs an AFM — which for heirs who have never owned Greek property means registering for one. Foreign death certificates, certificates of heirs and wills need apostilles and translations. And every heir must then either attend the deed or grant a power of attorney.
Where one heir is unwilling, unreachable or has died in the meantime, the process stops until it is resolved. This is why the practical advice for heirs is always the same: establish the position and start the paperwork long before anyone wants to sell, because the property cannot be marketed credibly until it can actually be transferred.
The full sequence is on selling inherited property in Greece.
EU and Non-EU Sellers
For the act of selling, the distinction matters less than owners expect. An EU national and a non-EU national selling the same house follow the same procedure, produce the same documents and face the same tax position.
Where nationality does matter is in the surrounding administration. EU citizens benefit from simpler rules on residence and on the mutual recognition of certain documents; non-EU sellers more often need consular services, visas for a trip to attend the deed, and occasionally additional formalities. Non-EU sellers should also check whether their own country imposes reporting obligations on foreign asset disposals.
There is one area where the buyer’s nationality affects you as a seller: restricted zones, described below.
Sellers who are themselves considering a move to Greece, rather than out of it, will find the residence and tax framework in our Moving to Greece hub.
Border Areas and Restricted Zones
Greece designates certain areas as border regions, in which acquisitions by nationals of countries outside the EU and EFTA require an administrative approval procedure. The restriction applies to the buyer rather than the seller, but it affects a seller directly, because it narrows the pool of purchasers and adds time to any transaction with an affected buyer.
If your property lies in such an area, this should be established at the valuation stage rather than discovered when an offer arrives from a non-EU purchaser. Your lawyer will confirm the position for the specific parcel.
Similar considerations apply to plots affected by forestry classification, archaeological zones, coastal setback lines or other protection regimes: they do not prevent a sale, but they define who can buy and what they can do, and they belong in the marketing material rather than in a late disclosure.
For plots in particular, see selling land in Chalkidiki.
Managing an Empty Property During the Sale
A property that stands empty while it is on the market presents practical problems that owners abroad cannot solve remotely, and they have a direct effect on the sale.
Inspections need access: the engineer, the energy inspector and possibly the surveyor each need to enter, and viewings need to happen at short notice when a buyer flies in for three days. A house that cannot be shown on Wednesday because the key is in Munich loses buyers silently.
Condition also deteriorates. Damp accumulates over winter in closed coastal houses, gardens become overgrown, pools turn, shutters seize and small leaks become large ones. A property that photographs well in April and is viewed in July after three months of neglect disappoints, and the disappointment is priced.
The solutions are unglamorous: a local keyholder, a caretaking arrangement, periodic airing and garden maintenance, and a check after storms. Our maintenance and garden service exists largely for owners in exactly this position, and it is worth having in place for the duration of the marketing rather than only after a sale is agreed.
Time Zones, Language and Availability
Completion runs on deadlines set by other people: the notary’s availability, the buyer’s bank, certificate validity, the consulate’s appointment calendar. A seller who answers messages once a week becomes the bottleneck, and buyers read slow responses as reluctance.
Before the property goes to market, settle the practicalities: who is the single point of contact on your side, what hours you are reachable, which language you want the correspondence in, and who may be contacted if you are travelling. Where several co-owners are involved, nominate one of them to coordinate rather than having the agent chase four people in three countries.
Language matters more than it seems. Greek documents, Greek notaries and Greek administration operate in Greek, and every step where you personally must understand what you are signing requires either a bilingual document or a competent intermediary who works in your language.
Our team works in German, English, Greek, Russian and Turkish, which removes most of this friction from the seller’s side.
Common Mistakes
- Assuming the AFM is fine. It is usually dormant, at an old address, or in the wrong tax office.
- Leaving the E9 until an offer arrives. No correct E9, no ENFIA certificate, no deed.
- Ignoring arrears. Empty properties accumulate ENFIA, municipal charges and utility debts that surface at certificate stage.
- Requesting powers of attorney last. For co-owners in several countries this is the longest step in the transaction.
- Translating before apostilling. The translation must cover the apostille; doing it in the wrong order means paying twice.
- No local access. Inspections and viewings both fail without a keyholder.
- Assuming no Greek tax means no tax. Your country of residence may well tax the gain.
- Leaving the funds transfer to the last minute. Bank compliance is a process, not a formality.
- Being unreachable. Completion deadlines do not wait for a weekly email.
How Chalkidiki Real Estate Can Help
Most of our sellers do not live in Greece, so the process is built around that. We check the AFM, tax office, E9 and arrears position at the start, through an accountant, and tell you what has to be corrected before anything else happens. We coordinate the lawyer for the title, the engineer for the technical file, the surveyor and the energy inspector — and we arrange access for every one of those visits, so that none of it requires you to travel.
We handle the property itself while it is on the market: keys and access, airing, garden and pool preparation before photography and viewings, meter readings, and dealings with the municipality and the utility providers.
We manage the marketing in the languages your buyers actually use, run video viewings for buyers abroad, and coordinate the power of attorney logistics with your lawyer so that the document arrives with the right scope and in time for the deed.
And we tell you early what the sale will cost and what will be left, because for an owner abroad the useful question is rarely the headline price — it is what arrives in your account and when.
Frequently Asked Questions About Selling as a Non-Resident
Can a foreigner sell property in Greece?
Do I need to travel to Greece to sell?
Do I need a Greek bank account?
What is a tax representative and do I need one?
Will Greece withhold tax at the deed?
How do I get the money out of Greece?
My AFM is from 2004 and I have moved since. Is that a problem?
The property was never declared in my E9. What happens?
Do I pay tax at home on the sale?
Who can let the engineer and buyers into the property?
My co-owners live in three different countries. Does that work?
Can you handle everything for me if I cannot come to Greece at all?
Official Sources and Important Notice
Requirements for non-resident taxpayers, representation rules and administrative practice change, and your position depends on your nationality, tax residence and the property’s history. Confirm the current position with a Greek accountant and lawyer before acting.
- AADE – information for Greeks abroad and non-residents
- gov.gr – Hellenic Cadastre and land registration
- Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs – consular services and legalisation
Professional notice: This guide provides general information for non-resident owners selling property in Greece and is not individual legal, tax or financial advice. Use qualified professionals in Greece and in your country of tax residence.
Do you own a property in Chalkidiki but live abroad, and want to sell without spending weeks in Greece? Contact me by phone, WhatsApp or email — in German, English, Greek, Russian or Turkish.
- Mobile: +30 693 470 9163
- WhatsApp: +30 693 470 9163
- Email: hb@chalkidikirealestate.com
- Location: Chalkidiki Real Estate
- LinkedIn: Hans-Jürgen Bahner – Over 17k Followers
- Bestselling Author: Find My Books Here
Most of our sellers live outside Greece. We handle access, documents, authorities and the practical side so that you do not have to travel.
Continue the Sell With Us Cluster
Selling from abroad touches every part of the process. Continue with the power of attorney, the document file, costs or valuation.