Costs and Taxes When Selling Property in Greece

Chalkidiki Real Estate gives owners a written cost estimate at the start of an instruction, so that the price and the timetable are set with the full picture in view. For tax filings and advice we work with qualified Greek accountants and lawyers, each responsible within their own competence.

Rates, exemptions and suspensions change, sometimes annually. This page is a planning guide, not individual tax or legal advice, and every figure should be confirmed for the year in which you actually sign.

On this page

Who Pays What in a Greek Sale

The Greek allocation is stable and rarely negotiated. The buyer carries the transaction costs of transferring ownership; the seller carries the costs of proving that the property can be transferred.

Two practical consequences. First, a buyer’s total outlay is roughly five to seven per cent above the purchase price, which is a real constraint on what they can offer — a buyer with €320,000 available is not a €320,000 buyer. Second, because those costs are calculated on the higher of the declared price and the objective value, a property with a high objective value is more expensive for the buyer to acquire, which affects demand at the margin.

The Seller’s Cost Overview

The seller’s costs fall into three groups: the file, the sale, and the arrears.

The file — engineer, electronic building identity, energy certificate, topographic plan and any legalisation — is paid during preparation, before there is a buyer. It is the money that has to be committed on faith, and it is the reason some owners try to postpone it. It is also the money that most reliably returns itself.

The sale — agency commission and any legal fees — is paid at or around completion and is proportional to the price.

The arrears — outstanding ENFIA, municipal charges, utility bills, building shared costs and, where applicable, the settlement of a mortgage — is whatever has accumulated. For a property in regular use it is nothing; for a house left empty for years with an account in a deceased owner’s name, it can be substantial and it is discovered late, at the moment the clearance certificates are requested.

The one figure worth establishing at the very start of the process is therefore not the commission percentage. It is the arrears position.

Agency Commission

Real estate agency in Greece is a regulated activity and commission is payable on the basis of a written agreement. The percentage, whether VAT is added, the duration, exclusivity and the trigger for payment are all matters for that agreement, and they should be read rather than assumed.

Greek market practice differs from several northern European markets in one respect that surprises foreign owners: it is common for the agency to be remunerated by both sides, each under its own agreement. What the seller pays is therefore not necessarily the whole of the agency’s remuneration, and it is a fair question to ask before signing.

What the commission should buy is worth stating explicitly in the agreement: the valuation and pricing evidence, professional photography and floor plans, the multilingual listing, distribution to named channels, outreach to the buyer database, handling of enquiries and viewings, negotiation, and coordination of the professionals through to the deed. A percentage attached to nothing more than a portal upload is expensive whatever the number.

Commission normally becomes payable on signature of the notarial deed. Where an agreement makes it payable earlier — at reservation, for instance — understand what happens if the transaction then fails.

Engineer and Building Identity

The engineer’s work is the seller’s largest fixed cost and the least predictable one. It covers the inspection and measurement of the property, reconciliation with the building permit and drawings, preparation and submission of the electronic building identity, and the certification concerning arbitrary constructions that the notary requires.

The fee depends on the property type, its size, whether it is a single unit or a whole building, and above all on the state of the permit archive. A modern apartment with complete drawings is at the low end. An older detached house with successive additions, a partially lost permit folder and undocumented works is at the high end, and the initial fee may be followed by legalisation costs.

Two pieces of practical advice. First, instruct the engineer at the start of the process, not when a buyer is waiting — the file takes weeks and it determines whether you can sell at all. Second, ask for the assessment before the full submission: a competent engineer can inspect and tell you what will be found and roughly what it will cost to settle, which lets you price the property with the information rather than discover it under pressure.

Energy Performance Certificate

The energy performance certificate is mandatory for a transfer and is issued by a certified inspector following an on-site assessment. The fee is modest and scales with the size of the property; it is one of the smaller items in the seller’s budget.

It is valid for ten years unless the building is substantially altered, so a certificate obtained when you bought or renovated the property may still be usable. Check the date before paying for a new one.

Because the certificate feeds into the electronic building identity file, instruct the energy inspector and the engineer together. Doing them sequentially adds weeks for no benefit.

The certificate must also be quoted in property advertisements, so it has to exist before the property is published — another reason the file work belongs at the start.

Legalisation of Arbitrary Works

Where the building deviates from its permit, the deviation must be settled before a transfer. The cost has two components: the engineer’s fee for assessing, calculating and filing, and the statutory settlement fee, which depends on the category and extent of the deviation, the area involved and the applicable coefficients.

Small items — a modest change to an opening, a minor discrepancy in dimensions — are inexpensive. Substantial unauthorised construction, an enclosed veranda counted as living space, a basement converted into bedrooms, or an undeclared auxiliary building are materially more. Some constructions cannot be settled at all: those in forest areas, on beach setbacks, in protected zones or on public land.

Owners regularly ask whether it is cheaper to leave the problem for the buyer. It is not. A buyer who discovers unlegalised construction prices both the works and the delay, and their estimate is invariably worse than the actual cost — typically several times the settlement fee. Disclosure with a completed settlement is a selling point; disclosure at due diligence is a discount.

Topographic Plan and Surveyor

A current topographic plan, prepared in the national coordinate system by a licensed surveyor or engineer, is required for plots and in practice for almost every detached house on its own land. Apartments generally do not need one.

The fee depends on the plot size, the terrain, how accessible the boundaries are and whether an existing plan can be updated rather than redrawn. Sloping, wooded or irregular plots cost more to survey than a flat rectangle.

For a plot sale this is not an administrative expense but a commercial investment: the plan establishes the real area and frontage and is the basis for calculating what may still be built, which is what the buyer is actually paying for. Plots offered without a current plan attract fewer and lower offers.

Allow one to three weeks, and more during the summer, when surveyors in Chalkidiki are heavily booked.

Legal Fees for the Seller

A lawyer is not obligatory for the seller in the way it is customary for the buyer, and for a straightforward sale of a clean property some owners proceed without one. For anything else it is money well spent, and for several situations it is effectively unavoidable: inherited property, several co-owners, a company as owner, a sale by power of attorney, a mortgage to be released, a cadastral correction, or any dispute over boundaries or access.

Fees are agreed either as a fixed amount or as a percentage of the price, and the basis should be settled in writing at the start. What the seller’s lawyer typically does is review and negotiate the reservation agreement, prepare or supervise the power of attorney, obtain registry documents, coordinate the corrective procedures where they are needed, and check the draft deed before signature.

The economic argument is simple. The buyer will have a lawyer examining every one of your documents and drafting terms in their client’s favour. An unadvised seller signs those terms.

Power of Attorney and Translations

Selling from abroad adds a small, predictable set of costs: the notarial fee for executing the power of attorney in your country or the consular fee at a Greek consulate, the apostille fee where the document is executed before a foreign notary in a Hague Convention country, and the official Greek translation.

Each co-owner needs their own document, so for inherited property with four heirs the cost multiplies — and so does the time. Consular execution avoids the apostille step but requires an appointment, which in some consulates means a wait of weeks.

The same applies to any other foreign document used in the transaction: death and marriage certificates, certificates of heirs, company documents, name-change documents. Obtain the document, apostille it, then translate it, so that the translation covers the apostille.

The procedure and the realistic timings are on selling property in Greece remotely.

Outstanding ENFIA, TAP and Utilities

This is the cost that catches owners out. The ENFIA certificate confirms the property was declared and the property tax settled; the municipal clearance confirms municipal charges are paid. Neither certificate is issued while money is owed, and both are required for the deed.

For a property in regular use with a paid electricity account, this is a formality. For a house that has stood empty, that has an electricity account in a deceased owner’s name, or whose E9 was never corrected after an inheritance or an extension, it is not. Arrears can cover several years, and corrective E9 filings can generate additional ENFIA for those years.

Apartments add shared building charges, which the building manager will confirm and which buyers routinely ask about.

The remedy is to check the position in the first week of the sale preparation — the ENFIA position through the accountant, the municipal position through the municipality, the utility accounts through the providers — rather than in the week the deed is scheduled.

Releasing a Mortgage or Prenotation

Where a mortgage or prenotation is registered against the property, it must be dealt with before or at the transfer. The normal arrangement is that the outstanding loan is settled from the proceeds at the deed and the security released, which is organised in advance between the lawyers, the bank and the notary.

The costs are the bank’s own charges, any early-repayment cost under the loan agreement, the legal work of arranging the release, and the registry fees for removing the entry.

The timing is the more important issue. Banks require notice and their internal process is not fast, so a deed date agreed without consulting the bank is a deed date that slips. Tell your agent and lawyer about any registered security at the very start.

The same applies to entries you may have forgotten: an old prenotation from a loan repaid years ago that was never formally removed is a common finding in due diligence and takes time to clear.

Your local contact in Chalkidiki

Get in Touch with Hans-Jürgen Bahner

Would you like a written estimate of what your sale will cost — including the document file and any outstanding charges on the property? Contact me by phone, WhatsApp or email.

• Mobile: +30 693 470 9163
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Transparent cost estimates for owners selling in Chalkidiki, prepared before the property goes to market.

What the Buyer Pays

The buyer’s side of the ledger matters to you, because it constrains what they can offer and because it explains why they scrutinise your documents so closely.

A buyer acquiring an existing property budgets the transfer tax of 3.09 per cent, notary fees, land registry or cadastre registration fees, and their own lawyer — together commonly in the region of five to seven per cent above the price, depending on the value and on the fees agreed. A buyer requiring financing adds the lender’s valuation and arrangement costs, and a buyer purchasing through a company adds corporate costs.

Two consequences follow for the seller. First, the buyer’s available budget is not the price they can offer, and a negotiation that ignores this stalls. Second, everything the buyer pays is calculated on the higher of the declared price and the objective value, so where the objective value is above the market price — which happens inland — the buyer’s costs are inflated relative to what they are actually paying, and demand suffers accordingly.

Knowing the buyer’s cost structure is also useful in negotiation: a seller who understands that a purchaser must find another six per cent in cash can propose a workable timetable rather than reading a delay as hesitation.

Transfer Tax and the Objective Value

The property transfer tax is 3.09 per cent, paid by the buyer and calculated on the higher of the price declared in the deed and the objective value of the property. The notary verifies payment before drafting.

The objective value is the administrative value derived from official zone prices per square metre and a set of coefficients for floor, age, frontage, surface and other characteristics. It is not a market valuation. On the Chalkidiki coast it usually sits below market value; inland and in declining settlements it can sit above it.

The seller’s interest in the number is twofold. It sets the minimum price that may be declared, so a sale below the objective value is still taxed on the objective value. And where the objective value exceeds the realistic market price, buyers face costs on money they are not paying, which weakens demand and should be reflected in the pricing strategy.

Establish the objective value at the start, through your accountant or notary. It takes minutes and it prevents an unpleasant discovery at the deed.

VAT on New Builds

First sales of newly built property by a developer can fall under a VAT regime instead of the transfer tax regime. Whether it applies depends on the date of the building permit and the status of the seller as a builder or developer.

Greece has repeatedly suspended the application of VAT to new buildings, extending the suspension by successive measures, so at any given moment the treatment depends on the current legislative position. It is not a question to answer from memory or from an article: for any property that could fall into this category, the position must be confirmed by an accountant before terms are agreed, because it changes the buyer’s total outlay materially.

For the overwhelming majority of Chalkidiki sellers — private individuals selling an existing house, apartment or plot — the transfer tax regime applies and VAT does not arise.

Where VAT is in play, it also affects the seller’s ability to deduct input VAT on construction costs, which is an accounting question rather than a conveyancing one.

Capital Gains Tax

Greek income tax law provides for a 15 per cent tax on capital gains realised by individuals on transfers of real estate. In practice it has never been collected: 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.

Three points follow. First, an individual selling today generally pays no Greek capital gains tax on the gain. Second, this is a suspension and not an abolition, so the position for the year in which you actually sign must be confirmed with a Greek accountant — particularly for a sale agreed in one year and completed in the next. Third, the suspension concerns individuals; companies and those trading in real estate professionally are taxed under different rules.

Even where no Greek tax arises, keep the evidence of your acquisition cost and of improvement expenditure. If the suspension ends, or if your own country taxes the gain, that documentation is what determines the taxable amount, and it is far easier to assemble now than years later.

Do not confuse absence of tax with absence of obligation. The transaction is still declared, the price still has to be the real price, and your country of residence may tax the gain regardless of the Greek position.

Companies and Professional Sellers

Where the seller is a legal entity, the profit on a property sale is dealt with under corporate income tax rules rather than the suspended individual capital gains regime. The same applies to individuals whose activity amounts to trading in real estate rather than disposing of a private asset.

The distinction is not always obvious. An individual who buys, renovates and sells repeatedly may be treated as carrying on a business, with consequences for income tax, VAT and social security contributions. If your activity is anywhere near that line, take accounting advice before the sale rather than after the tax return.

Company sales also add costs: corporate documents and certificates, resolutions, representation evidence, and — for foreign companies — apostilles and translations. Depending on the structure, distributing the proceeds to the owners can trigger a further layer of taxation, which is the part most often overlooked when a property was placed in a company years ago for reasons that no longer apply.

Where a property is held in a foreign company, the interaction between Greek rules and the company’s home jurisdiction needs advice in both countries.

Tax in Your Country of Residence

The absence of Greek capital gains tax says nothing about your position at home, and this is the single most expensive misunderstanding among foreign sellers in Chalkidiki.

Most countries tax their residents on worldwide income and gains, subject to a double-taxation agreement with Greece. Whether the gain on a Greek property is taxable in your country depends on that treaty, on holding-period and exemption rules for second homes, on whether the property was your principal residence, and on how your country calculates the gain — which may not be the way Greece would.

German, Austrian, Dutch, British and other European sellers should establish their position before agreeing terms, since timing can matter: a sale completed a few months later may fall under different rules or a different tax year. United States citizens and residents remain subject to worldwide taxation and to reporting obligations regardless of where they live, and should take advice from a US adviser as well as a Greek one.

What your adviser will need is the acquisition documentation, the evidence of improvement expenditure, the deed, and the transaction costs. Assemble it during the sale.

Inherited Property and Gift Tax

Where the property was inherited, tax enters the picture before the sale rather than at it. The inheritance tax declaration must be filed and any tax settled or the exemption established, and the acceptance of inheritance must be executed and registered, before the heirs can transfer.

Inheritance and gift taxation in Greece is assessed on the objective value and depends on the relationship between the parties, with substantial allowances between close relatives. The practical consequence is that the tax base can be far below the market price on the coast, and above it inland.

The cost of the acceptance procedure itself — notarial fees, registration, legal work — falls on the heirs and is part of the sale budget even though it precedes the sale.

Heirs sometimes ask whether it is cheaper to have the property transferred to one sibling first and sold by them alone. Sometimes it is; often the additional transfer tax or gift tax outweighs the convenience. It is an accountant’s calculation, and it should be made before anything is signed. See selling inherited property in Greece.

Rental Income Loose Ends

If the property has been rented, the sale is a good moment to make sure the rental history is clean, because the buyer’s lawyer will look and because your own filings should match what you tell them.

That means declared income, registered leases where registration applies, correct treatment of short-term rental activity under the current framework, and a clear position on any tenant deposit. Where the property is sold with a tenancy in place, the lease and its terms transfer with it and must be disclosed.

Undeclared rental income is a problem that surfaces at the worst possible moment. It is also a poor negotiating asset: an owner who presents undocumented income as evidence of yield weakens their credibility on everything else.

Where the property has been let short-term, the operational and tax framework is summarised on our short-term rental management page.

A Worked Example

Consider a detached holiday house in Kassandra sold by a non-resident individual for €300,000. The permit file is intact, one small deviation must be settled, the property has stood empty for two winters, and the owner sells by power of attorney from Germany.

The pattern is consistent: the seller’s controllable costs are commission plus a file that runs into the low thousands, while the two variables that actually move the outcome are the arrears position and whatever tax applies at home.

Where Sellers Can Legitimately Save

• Reuse a valid energy certificate. Ten-year validity; check the date before paying again.
• Update rather than redraw the topographic plan where an existing plan is usable.
• Instruct the engineer and the energy inspector together — one visit, one coordinated file, weeks saved.
• Settle deviations early. The settlement fee is fixed; the negotiation discount is not.
• Clear arrears before requesting certificates, so that penalties and interest stop accruing.
• One power of attorney with the right scope instead of two documents and two consular appointments.
• Correct the E9 at the start, when it is an accountant’s routine filing rather than an emergency.
• Agree the commission trigger and the marketing deliverables in writing, so you pay for work that is actually done.

What does not save money is postponing the file. Every item on it will be required before the notary signs; the only question is whether you obtain it calmly or under a deadline set by someone else.

What Not to Do

Do not understate the declared price. The price in the deed must be the real price and cannot fall below the objective value. Undeclared side payments expose both parties to reassessment and penalties, destroy the buyer’s ability to document the source of funds, and are refused outright by serious international purchasers.

Do not accept cash outside the banking system. Payment above the statutory limit must go through banks and the method is recorded in the deed. A cash arrangement also makes it impossible to move the proceeds abroad, since the receiving bank will ask exactly the questions the arrangement cannot answer.

Do not conceal a deviation, an encumbrance or arrears. The engineer signs a declaration, the buyer’s lawyer searches the register, and the municipality issues the clearance. Everything is found; the only variable is when and at whose cost.

Do not agree a deed date before checking the bank, the municipality and the accountant. A date that slips damages trust and gives the buyer a reason to reopen the price.

How Chalkidiki Real Estate Can Help

We give owners a written estimate of the full cost position at the start of an instruction: the file costs with the engineer’s preliminary assessment, the arrears position from the municipality, the utility accounts, the ENFIA and E9 status through an accountant, and any registered security on the title. That estimate is what allows the asking price and the timetable to be set with the whole picture in view.

We then coordinate the professionals who do the work — engineer, energy inspector, surveyor, lawyer, accountant, notary — and keep the sequence in the right order, so that certificates with limited validity are not obtained too early and bottlenecks are not discovered too late.

For owners abroad we handle the practical layer: access for every inspection, meter readings, dealings with the municipality and utility providers, and the logistics of the power of attorney.

The cost and document assessment is part of our free valuation, and nothing is instructed without your approval.

Official Sources and Important Notice

Tax rates, exemptions, suspensions and objective values change, sometimes annually, and the treatment depends on the property, the seller’s status and the year of signature. Confirm every figure with a Greek accountant before relying on it.

• AADE – Independent Authority for Public Revenue
• gov.gr – property and taxation services
• gov.gr – Hellenic Cadastre and land registration

Professional notice: This guide provides general information about the costs and taxes of selling property in Greece and is not individual tax, legal or accounting advice. Use qualified professionals in Greece and in your country of tax residence.