Retiring to Greece from the UK: the permit, the pension tax and the mortgage

Why retiring is a different project from owning a holiday home

Owning a house in Greece and living in it are separate legal facts. A UK national without a Greek residence permit or national visa can spend up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period in the Schengen area, and buying a property does not add a day to that. A holiday home fits inside the allowance. A retirement does not.

That is the reason this guide starts with immigration rather than with the mortgage. Before 2021 a British pensioner could move to Corfu or Crete much as a German or Dutch one still can. As our guide to what Brexit changed for UK buyers explains, that freedom has gone, and with it the assumption that the house comes first and the paperwork follows. For anyone who arrived after 2020 the order is now: secure a route to stay, understand what moving does to your tax position, and only then commit to a property and the finance behind it.

The route most British retirees look at: the financially independent person permit

Greece has a residence permit for people who live on income they do not earn in Greece, known in English as the financially independent person or FIP permit. It is the route that fits a retiree whose income is a pension, rent from a UK property, or investment income, and it does not require you to buy anything.

The income test is the part that has moved. Older guides quote €2,000 a month. Current reporting puts the threshold for a single applicant at about €3,500 a month, with the figure commonly described as rising by 20 per cent for a spouse and 15 per cent for each dependent child included in the application. Some advisers describe the figure as net rather than gross, and savings can reportedly be used in place of income in some cases. Treat all of that as the shape of the rule: the definitive figures sit with the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and the Greek consulate that takes your application, and they should be confirmed for your own file before you plan around them.

Two features matter for the financial plan. The permit does not give you the right to work in Greece, which is rarely a problem for a retiree but does rule out the part-time consultancy some people imagine. And renewal is reported to depend on continuing to meet the income test and on genuinely living in Greece, so it is a permit for people who are moving, not for people who want an option. That is the opposite of the Golden Visa, which has no minimum stay but requires the qualifying amount in your own cash, and the comparison is worth making on paper. For most retirees the FIP route keeps capital free; the Golden Visa ties up €400,000 or more in a property you cannot let on short-term platforms.

Moving makes you Greek tax resident, and that changes your pension tax

Spending more than 183 days in Greece in a period of twelve months generally makes you tax resident there, and a Greek tax resident is taxed in Greece on worldwide income. For a retiree that is the step that matters most, because it decides where your UK state pension, workplace pension and any drawdown are taxed.

The general answer comes from the double taxation convention between the UK and Greece, which dates from 1953. As it is commonly described, most private and state pensions paid to a Greek resident are taxable in Greece, while pensions from UK government service, such as civil service or armed forces pensions, are a well-known exception that commonly stays taxable in the UK. How a specific scheme is treated, and whether HMRC will pay a private pension gross once you have moved, is a question for an adviser who works on both sides; the treaty is old and its wording does not always map neatly onto modern pension products.

On top of the general rules, Greece runs a special regime for foreign pensioners under Article 5B of its income tax code. In outline, qualifying foreign pension income is taxed at a flat 7 per cent for up to 15 tax years. The conditions, as restated in an AADE decision published in September 2026 (A.1192/2026), include not having been Greek tax resident in five of the six years before the move, and moving from a country with which Greece has an administrative tax cooperation agreement. The regime has to be applied for, it has a deadline in the year you transfer your residence, and that deadline has already been revised once in 2026. If the 7 per cent rate is part of why you are moving, a Greek tax adviser should confirm eligibility and the application timetable before you give up your UK address, not after.

The UK state pension itself is the easier part. Greece is in the EEA, and UK state pensions paid to people living there are reported to keep receiving the annual increase under the arrangements agreed with the EU after Brexit. That is worth checking with the International Pension Centre for your own claim, because it is the difference between an income that keeps pace and one that is frozen for the rest of your life, which is what happens in some other popular retirement countries.

Healthcare: the S1 form, and when it applies

A UK state pensioner who lives in Greece may be entitled to UK-funded state healthcare there through an S1 form. According to the UK government's guidance on healthcare in Greece, you request the form from NHS Overseas Healthcare Services, register as a resident, obtain an AMKA social insurance number, and then register the S1 with EOPYY, the Greek public health insurer. Once registered, you and your dependants are covered on the same basis as insured Greek citizens.

The gap in the plan is usually the years before state pension age. Someone retiring at 60 on a workplace pension is not yet entitled to an S1, and will normally need private health insurance, both for daily life and because proof of cover is commonly part of a residence permit application. Price that insurance before you decide what you can afford to borrow, because it is a monthly cost that a lender will see on your bank statements.

What age does to a Greek mortgage

Greek lenders look at the age you will be when the loan ends, not the age you are now. Most are commonly described as wanting the loan repaid by the time the youngest, or in some banks the oldest, borrower reaches somewhere between 70 and 75. At 65 that leaves a term of five to ten years, and a short term means a high monthly payment on even a modest amount.

For a non-resident buyer there is a second cap. Terms for borrowers living outside Greece are commonly reported at 15 to 20 years and loan-to-value at around 60 to 70 per cent, so a retiree who buys before moving faces both limits at once. Becoming resident does not make the age limit go away, but it can change which products and terms a bank will discuss, which is one more reason to sort the residence question first.

A pension is good income in a lender's eyes: it is regular and does not stop when the economy turns. The difficulty is evidence and currency. A Greek bank has to verify a sterling pension paid by a UK provider, and it will apply a margin for the exchange rate, so the income it counts may be noticeably below what you receive. Drawdown income from a pension pot is harder still, because it is a choice rather than an entitlement and some lenders treat it more like savings than like income.

The arithmetic often points away from a Greek mortgage altogether. A retiree who still owns a UK home, or has just sold one, is frequently better placed to raise the money in sterling against UK property, or simply buy outright from the sale proceeds. The UK market has more products designed for later life, including retirement interest-only mortgages and equity release, which have no Greek equivalent. Each has its own costs and risks, and equity release in particular is a decision to take with a UK adviser qualified in it.

The budget beyond the price, including a tax still being written

A retirement purchase carries the same costs as any other Greek purchase, and those commonly land in the region of 7 to 10 per cent of the price once transfer tax, notary, lawyer, engineer and land registry fees are added. Retirees tend to forget the costs that come after the purchase: ENFIA property tax every year, building insurance, and the cost of maintaining an older house in a climate that is hard on roofs and render.

One cost is not settled. In September 2026 the Greek government announced that transfer tax on homes bought by individuals from outside the EU and EEA would rise from about 3 per cent to 15 per cent, with the start date reported as 1 July 2027. Reporting says long-term residents would be exempt, but how a long-term resident is defined, and whether a recent holder of a residence permit counts, had not been published when we checked on 6 November 2026. For a British retiree that creates a real timing question: buying before the change, or being resident long enough to fall outside it, could be worth more than any difference in mortgage rates. Ask your Greek lawyer for the current text before you fix a completion date.

A sensible order of work

Put together, the steps fall into a sequence. First, decide whether you are moving or visiting; if you are moving, pick the residence route and check the income test against what you will actually receive after tax. Second, have your pension and tax position modelled on both sides, including whether the 7 per cent regime is available and how its deadline fits your moving date. Third, sort healthcare for the years before and after state pension age. Only then fix a budget, choose between buying outright, borrowing in the UK and borrowing in Greece, and start making offers.

Many people rent first for a winter. It is a modest cost against a large decision, it lets you test a town outside the summer months, and it gives you an address for the permit and tax applications while you look.

Questions UK retirees ask

Continue your research

• The Greek Golden Visa and a mortgage
• Using UK home equity to buy in Greece
• The cost of buying property in Greece: a realistic budget
• Start a personal Greek mortgage scan