The cost of buying property in Greece: a realistic budget for UK buyers

The price is not the budget

A UK buyer financing a Greek purchase needs three separate sums of cash, and it helps to name them before anyone agrees a price. The first is the deposit, the part of the price the mortgage does not cover. The second is the purchase costs: taxes, notary, registration and professional fees. The third is everything spent before the purchase can happen at all, from a Greek tax number to translations and a power of attorney.

Only the first of those is shaped by the loan. As a third-country applicant your deposit is already larger than an EU resident's would be, and the purchase costs come on top of it in full, because Greek lenders do not add them to the loan. A budget that treats the costs as something to be absorbed by the deposit is short before the search has started.

Figures in this guide are there to show the shape of the budget. The numbers that matter are the ones a Greek notary, lawyer and lender put in writing for the specific property.

Transfer tax, or VAT on a new build

On most resale purchases the largest single cost is property transfer tax, charged at 3 per cent plus a municipal surcharge, which brings it to 3.09 per cent. It is calculated on the higher of the agreed price and the property's objective value, the state's own administrative valuation, so a low declared price does not reduce it. The tax is paid before the final contract is signed, which means it is cash you need in Greece ahead of completion rather than on the day.

Greece offers relief from transfer tax on a first home, but it is designed for people making Greece their main residence. A UK resident buying a holiday home or a future retirement property while still living in Britain should budget for the full tax and treat any relief as a question for a Greek tax adviser, not as an assumption.

There is also an announced change that matters specifically to British buyers. In early September 2026 the Greek government announced that transfer tax on homes bought by individuals from outside the EU and EEA would rise from 3 per cent to 15 per cent, about 15.45 per cent with the municipal surcharge, and the finance minister gave 1 July 2027 as the start date. Since Brexit a UK national buying in their own name falls outside the EU, so as announced the higher rate would reach you. As announced it covers homes only, not land or commercial property, and EU and EEA nationals, Greek expatriates and third-country nationals with long-term resident status would be outside it. As of 10 October 2026 this is an announcement, not law: it is expected to travel in an omnibus bill, and the treatment of preliminary agreements signed before the start date has not been published. Budget on the current rate for a deed you expect to sign before July 2027, do not use the old figure for anything that could complete after June 2027, and ask your lawyer in writing how an earlier preliminary agreement would be treated, because at 15 per cent the tax would dwarf every other cost in this guide.

New builds are different. The standard treatment is 24 per cent VAT, but Greece has suspended VAT on qualifying new residential property, most recently extending the suspension to 31 December 2026, in which case transfer tax is charged instead. The suspension is optional for the developer, so ask in writing which regime applies to the unit you are buying. If your completion could slip past the end of 2026, ask what happens then, because an unplanned move from transfer tax to VAT would change the budget by far more than any exchange rate.

Notary, registration and professional fees

Every Greek purchase completes before a notary, whose fee is set on a sliding scale by value and carries VAT, with additional charges for copies. The deed is then registered with the Hellenic Cadastre, the Ktimatologio, or with the local land registry where the cadastre has not yet taken over, and that registration has its own fee, again calculated on value.

An independent Greek lawyer is not compulsory, and the notary does not act for you. For a UK buyer instructing from abroad the lawyer is, in practice, the person who checks title, planning and debts on the property, arranges your tax number, and signs on your behalf when you cannot be there. Fees are negotiable and often quoted as a percentage with VAT on top, so ask for a fixed quote that states what is and is not included.

Agents' commission is commonly quoted at around 2 per cent plus VAT, and in Greece the buyer often pays their own share. Confirm this in the agency agreement before viewings rather than at completion. Add a civil engineer's survey, which is not mandatory but is the only reliable way to find unauthorised building work before it becomes your problem.

Put together, and with the transfer tax included at today's 3.09 per cent, buyers commonly find the purchase costs land somewhere in the region of 7 to 10 per cent of the price. Treat that as a sense check on a written estimate, never as a substitute for one.

What a Greek mortgage adds

Borrowing adds its own line to the budget. Expect a lender's valuation, paid whether or not the loan goes ahead, and in many cases an application or arrangement fee. The lender will also register its security over the property, typically as a prenotation of mortgage, and the legal and registration costs of doing so are normally the borrower's.

Greek banks usually require buildings insurance assigned to them, and some attach conditions such as life cover or holding an account with them. None of these is unusual, but each has a cost that continues after completion, so ask for the full list in writing before you accept an offer.

One risk sits outside the fee schedule. The loan is based on the lender's valuation, not on the price you agreed. If the valuation comes in below the price, the loan shrinks and the difference moves into your deposit. On an older island property or a renovation project that is a real possibility, and it is one of the better reasons to keep a contingency rather than planning to the last euro.

The costs that exist because you are buying from the UK

Some costs apply to any foreign buyer and some fall more heavily on British ones since Brexit. A Greek tax number, the AFM, is needed before you can do almost anything, and non-residents from outside the EU commonly appoint a tax representative in Greece, usually their lawyer, which may carry its own fee. A Greek bank account is normally required both for the purchase payment and for a mortgage.

If you will not be in Greece to sign, a power of attorney signed in the UK needs notarising and an apostille before it is accepted, and UK documents supplied to a lender or notary generally need official translation into Greek. If you do attend, budget for an interpreter at signing unless you read Greek. If the property sits in a designated border area, the clearance process adds legal work and time, both of which cost money.

Individually none of these is large. Together they are a few thousand pounds that tend to be paid early, from savings, before a single euro of the price has moved.

Moving the money from sterling

Greek purchases are paid through the banking system, with proof of payment recorded, so the deposit and costs will travel from a UK account to a Greek one. The price of that journey is mostly invisible: the difference between the rate you are given and the mid-market rate. On a transfer of tens of thousands of pounds, the gap between a high-street bank's rate and a specialist provider's can be worth comparing before you need it.

Timing matters as much as the provider. The transfer tax is due before signing and the deposit may be due earlier still under the preliminary agreement, so sterling may need converting weeks apart. Some buyers fix a rate in advance for a known sum and date; others convert in stages. Decide on an approach at the offer stage, and keep a margin in the budget for the rate moving against you between agreeing a price in euros and paying it. Expect your UK and Greek banks to ask where the money came from, and have the evidence ready.

The UK tax point few buyers budget for

Buying in Greece has no UK tax cost at the time. It can have one later. The higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax, currently a 5 percentage point surcharge in England and Northern Ireland, look at residential property you own anywhere in the world. Scotland's Additional Dwelling Supplement and the higher rates of Land Transaction Tax in Wales take overseas property into account as well.

For most owners moving from one UK main home to another at the same time, the Greek property will not change anything. It can bite if you sell your UK home and rent before buying again, if you buy a second UK property, or if you are buying jointly with someone who has never owned before, since first-time buyer relief is lost once a home is owned anywhere. If a UK purchase is likely in the years after a Greek one, take UK tax advice before exchanging, not after.

Once you own the property, the running costs begin. ENFIA, the annual Greek property tax, is charged every year, and municipal charges are commonly collected through the electricity bill. If you let the property, the income is taxable in Greece and must also be reported to HMRC through Self Assessment, with the UK-Greece double taxation convention there to prevent the same income being taxed twice in full. A Greek accountant and, often, a UK one belong in the annual budget rather than in the purchase budget, but they should be in one of them.

A worked example, and its limits

Take a resale property at €300,000 where the objective value is below the price, and a lender prepared to advance 70 per cent. The loan is €210,000, so the deposit is €90,000. Transfer tax at 3.09 per cent adds about €9,270. If the remaining purchase costs, mortgage costs and UK-side items take the total to 8 per cent of the price, the cash needed is roughly €114,000 before any contingency, not the €90,000 the loan-to-value figure suggests.

Change any one assumption and the answer moves. A lower valuation raises the deposit. A 60 per cent lender adds €30,000. A new build outside the VAT suspension changes the tax entirely. If the announced 15 per cent rate for non-EU buyers (about 15.45 per cent with the surcharge) applies by the time you complete, the transfer tax alone rises from about €9,270 to about €46,350. The point of the example is not the total; it is that the gap between the deposit and the cash requirement is large enough to decide whether a property is affordable at all.

Questions UK buyers ask

Continue your research

• Brexit and Greek mortgages: what actually changed
• Buying in a Greek border area: the clearance UK buyers now need
• Using UK home equity to buy in Greece
• Start a personal Greek mortgage scan