Did you enjoy your last Greek summer holidays enough to believe that you found heaven on earth? Well, you are wrong, but, I guess, I won't be able to convince you NOT to try and buy a flat over there, thus, I can only explain you how to do it.
1. Flat search engines: The main websites are xe.gr and spitogatos.gr.
xe.gr keeps popping up some security puzzles since it assumes that everyone accessing it with a non Greek IP is evil but it is what it is.
2. Choosing the flat: This can be a very subjective point so just opining on it:
Age: Obviously, newer flats tend to be more expensive, however, you can always find older flats in a good shape. But, DO keep in mind that strong earthquakes are quite common in Greece and that insurance companies don't typically cover anything built before 1960 (reason is some construction law passed on this year making construction safer somehow).
Floor: Greeks consider ground floor flats as substandard. Indeed, if you buy something close to the seaside then expect a terrible amount of humidity on the bottom floor. The higher you go, of course, the more expensive it gets.
Location: That's obviously the trickiest bit so not much to advise here. Maybe, a few words if you are interested in an Athenian flat: The City is effectively a landmine - for example, you will have posh bars and cocktail bars in Kolonaki but right next to it you will have exarhia where the anarchists are exchanging molotov bombs and tear gas with the special police forces (called 'mat' - stay away from this police team, they are not there to protect you, everyone in Greece just hates them :))
Price : you will read here and there that Greek property prices are typically negotiable etc etc. That's not always the case: if the flat has been recently placed on the market and the seller is not in urgent need of cash then don't expect much price drop. Even worse, if you don't speak Greek people will assume that you are a rich foreigner and might even ask you for more than the asking price. Personally speaking, I am Greek living abroad, thus, keeping my greek phone active and always ask how negotiable the price is before mentioning that I am not residing in the country.
3. Process of Buying: Here, you have two ways to handle it. The easy way which involves assigning everything to a big law office who will handle the whole process and overcharge you for it or do everything yourself.
Regardless, even if you go for option 1, it's always good to know what is needed so here comes a list:
- Creation of a tax number, called 'AFM' (there are companies doing that for you against a small fee)
- Getting a good laywer who will:
- Do the legal checks. That's probably the single biggest risk with your purchase so it has to happen correctly. What happens is that, in Greece, buying a flat could potentially push to you the debts of the previous owner in case the flat has been hypothecated, thus, you have to pay a lawyer to check the registry if the property is 'clean'. Next question is what if the lawyer doesn't do his/her job correctly and misses to see the debt? Then, good luck, legally they don't have any consequences and, in any case, very few legal offices in Greece have an indemnity insurance. Thus, getting a second opinion from another lawyer might not be a bad idea. The lawyer needs to check the property before you give the deposit and the day when you will sign the final contract and pay the full amount.
- Create some contract before you pay the deposit. Do not take this contract too seriously even if the terms look against it. If you have to go to the court, they will typically ignore it since it has limited (to none) legal value (it mostly exists for psychological reasons). The deposit is normally around 5% of the purchase price. You can negotiate with the owner on how much it should be.
- Getting the flat checked via a civil engineer. This is especially useful with brand new flats or very old ones. Normally you get a quick check before paying the deposit and a more comprehensive one afterwards.
- Typically, the lawyer will suggest you a notary. Their job is to draft the final contract and collect all needed documents from the seller of the flat. If the deposit is too high, then they might work on this too (keep in mind that if that indeed happens then the 'deposit contract' does have legal value)
- Paying the tax to the public authorities circa 3% of purchase price (will be refundable if anything goes wrong)
- Attending the final signing meeting (actually, if you don't speak Greek, better just pay the laywer a bit more and given them a POA to be there without you - they just read the 20+ pages contract in Greek).Btw, it's not uncommon in Greece that the seller (or the buyer) would like to write down a lower value than what they pay - it's a bit dodgy, though, so better avoid it (remember the above point of debts from the side of the seller etc).
- Transferring the amount to the seller. This needs to happen on the spot during the contract signing meeting - Real time transfers do get accepted these days (just confirm that it works and for the amount you want it to happen in advance) Otherwise, you might end up paying extra amounts to notaries, lawyers etc. If you fully outsource that, then the process would be that the POA to the lawyer would cover opening a Greek bank account to your name and issuing a cheque (personally don't like to give POAs so much power to anyone)
- Finally, registering the flat with the public authorities (yes, extra fees are needed there of around 0.5%). Typically, the lawyer can do that for you against a small extra fee.
