03.09.2026
Buying an Off-Plan House in Greece from Abroad Explained
“How can I buy a house in Greece that is not built yet from abroad?”
That’s a very common question we receive from clients interested in buying an off-plan house.
Purchase Tips
What is the role of the notary in Greece? How is it different from the role of a lawyer, or from a notary in your home country? How much does a notary cost? Our legal experts answer these questions and more.
What is the Role of the Notary in Greece?
The notary has a more passive role in a property transaction than notaries in many other countries. They are the official appointed by the Greek state who makes sure the transaction happens as Greek law requires. The notary advises the parties to the transfer, helps calculate the objective value of the property, maintains the public property registers, calculates the taxes, passes the deed, and provides official copies to the parties. The role is more coordinating than executive.
How Does the Role of a Greek Notary Differ from Other Countries?
The role of a Greek notary in property transactions differs from that in most of Western Europe. It is not the Greek notary's job to receive the purchase amount, pay the seller and the agent, or pay the taxes. The buyer and their lawyer are responsible for those.
Notaries and Transfer of Payment
In many European countries, the buyer transfers the money to the notary's escrow account before the deed is signed, and in the following days the notary pays the seller. In Greece, notaries do not hold escrow accounts and are not allowed to receive the purchase sum into their bank account. So a different process is used to keep payment safe and reliable. Where both seller and buyer are Greek, the sum is usually transferred directly from the buyer's Greek bank account to the seller's during their appointment at the notary's office.
Alternatively, the buyer can issue a guaranteed bank cheque from a Greek bank and hand it to the seller on the day the deed is signed, and the seller cashes it with their own Greek bank. Most of our clients do not live in Greece or hold a Greek bank account, so the transferred funds will not appear immediately on the seller's account. For these cases we use a different method. The purchase deed includes special conditions giving the buyer a number of days to pay the seller. Once the amount is paid, a discharge deed is signed before the notary as proof of payment, completing the transfer. If the buyer fails to pay, the discharge deed is not signed, and the seller has the right to reverse the sale and take back ownership.
Notaries and Property Registration
Since 2023, following changes to Greek law, notaries have a more active role in property registration. In the past, registration could take months, or even up to two years, because many documents were submitted in person. In 2023 the government introduced the "Property Digital Folder", which lets the notary submit documents digitally and complete the registration of a deed in as little as one day.
Notaries and Tax Debts
Notaries in Greece can check whether someone has tax debts. They cannot see the amount, only whether a debt exists.
Notaries and Tax Calculations
The transfer tax you pay when buying property in Greece is 3.09%*. It applies to either the purchase price or the property's objective value, whichever is higher. The objective value itself is calculated by the notary, who submits the documents to the Greek tax authorities for approval before the transfer tax is paid.
*Important update: The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has announced that the property transfer tax for purchases by non-EU citizens is set to rise to 15%, with the change expected to apply from 1 January 2027. The implementing legislation has not yet been published, so the final scope, including how it may treat plots of land and commercial property, is not yet confirmed.
Can You Explain, in More Detail, a Process Involving a Greek Notary?
Preparing the notary purchase deed
When selling a home in Greece, you need a notary purchase deed. The seller's engineer creates an Electronic Building ID (E-ID) of the property, which holds all the necessary data about it. In parallel, the notary works with the seller's accountant to update the seller's E-9 tax form to reflect any changes. The notary also usually checks at this point whether the seller has any debts to the state.
Signing the final papers
The notary prepares the property transfer tax declaration and submits it to the tax office. Once the buyer pays the transfer tax, the final contract can be signed. At the signing, you need to be there in person or send a legal representative whom you have authorised by power of attorney.
How Much Does it Cost to Use a Notary in Greece?
For home sales, the minimum notary fees are set by Greek law. Notaries normally charge around 1% of the price or objective value, whichever is higher, plus VAT. The fee runs on a sliding scale, so the percentage is lower on higher-value properties. The cost to sign a power of attorney at a notary in Greece is about 100 to 150 euros, depending on the notary. A power of attorney can also be drawn up by a foreign notary, in which case an official Greek translation is needed.
What Else Can a Notary Do in Greece?
Notaries and e-auctions
Notaries in Greece can also manage online auctions for homes. We will not cover this in detail, as it is not relevant to most transactions.
Notaries and establishing a company
Notaries in Greece can also set up companies for an individual.
Notaries and paying taxes
We said earlier that notaries do not pay taxes in Greece. There is one exception: when the seller owes a debt to the Greek state. In that case, on the day of signing, the buyer transfers the amount matching the seller's debt to the notary's bank account, and the notary has three days to pay it to the state.
Notaries and Acceptance of Inheritance
In Greece, real estate is passed to the heirs by a notarial deed of inheritance acceptance. Since 2024, lawyers are also allowed to take part in the process, but this is rare, and acceptance of inheritance still mostly happens through a notary.
The process:
The heirs declare the death to the tax service.
The heirs obtain a Death Certificate from the registry office.
The heirs obtain a Certificate of Inheritance, which is issued by the court or, since 2024, by a designated lawyer.
The heirs visit the notary with the necessary documents, including the Death Certificate and the Certificate of Inheritance.
The notary files an Inheritance Tax Declaration, and the tax office calculates the inheritance tax.
The deed is signed.
What if the heirs live abroad?
If the heirs live abroad, they also provide the Greek notary with a Death Certificate and a Certificate of Inheritance drawn up by a public notary in the deceased's country of nationality, bearing an Apostille stamp, in an official Greek translation.
What if I want to sell the inherited home?
If you may sell the inherited home in future, have an engineer check the house to confirm its square metres. If you later sell and the home's specifications do not match the square metres in the Deed of Acceptance and the Tax Declaration, you may incur fines.
Notaries and Parental Donations
A parental donation is the immediate transfer of property from one person to another, usually from a parent to a child or another family member. It is treated favourably under Greek tax law, because you do not pay the transfer tax that applies to normal property transfers. The tax-free limit for such donations is 800,000 euros. Parental donations usually use a usufruct structure. The notary process for a parental donation is the same as for buying a home, with the notary fee and the land registry costs calculated on the objective value of the property.
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