Greece Sets 15 Percent Property Transfer Tax for Non-EU Buyers From January 2027

Greece will raise the property transfer tax on buyers from outside the European Union from roughly 3 percent to 15 percent, a fivefold increase Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Saturday 5 September at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair. The measure is scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2027 and applies to third-country nationals only.

What changed

The transfer tax, known in Greece as the FMA, currently stands at 3 percent of the taxable value, or 3.09 percent once the municipal surcharge is included. Under the announced measure that headline rate rises to 15 percent for purchasers who are nationals of countries outside the EU and EEA. Buyers holding EU citizenship continue to pay the existing 3 percent.

The arithmetic is severe at every price point. On an 800,000 euro Athens apartment, the minimum qualifying investment in the capital's high-demand golden visa zones, transfer tax moves from about 24,000 euros to 120,000 euros. A 400,000 euro purchase elsewhere in the country goes from 12,000 euros to 60,000 euros. A 250,000 euro conversion or restoration project, the cheapest remaining golden visa entry route, goes from 7,500 euros to 37,500 euros. On a 300,000 euro property the tax rises from roughly 9,000 euros to 45,000 euros, and on a 500,000 euro property from roughly 15,000 euros to 75,000 euros.

Mitsotakis framed the measure around domestic housing affordability, saying that interest from buyers in China, Turkey and Israel may to a degree be welcome but has made it harder for Greeks to buy homes.

The mechanism

This is an announcement, not yet law. The detailed legislation has not been published, and until a bill is tabled the operative text does not exist. That matters, because the announcement leaves the parts foreign buyers most need settled unresolved: whether non-EU nationals who already hold a Greek residence permit are caught by the higher rate, how a joint purchase between an EU and a non-EU spouse is treated, whether a purchase made through a Greek or EU-incorporated company falls inside or outside the rule, and whether transactions already in progress on 1 January 2027 get transitional protection.

The measure also faces a constitutional question. Alexander Risvas of Risvas & Associates has argued the differential rate raises issues under Article 4(5) of the Greek Constitution, which governs the equal bearing of public burdens, and under European Convention standards, on grounds of equal treatment, tax equality and proportionality. A tax that turns on the nationality of the purchaser rather than on the property or the use is unusual in Greek practice, and litigation is a realistic prospect once the law is passed.

The transfer tax sits alongside a wider package Mitsotakis presented at the fair, costed at about 2.2 billion euros. That package runs in the opposite direction for Greek residents: the abolition of ENFIA annual property tax on primary residences expands in 2027 to settlements of up to 2,000 residents, and up to 2,200 in Western Macedonia, and a subsidised mortgage programme, My Home 3, launches in January 2027 with repayments intended to fall below market rent on comparable homes.

What it means for a foreign buyer

For a non-EU buyer with a purchase in view, the deadline is 31 December 2026, assuming the effective date survives into the final bill. Completing before that date locks in the 3 percent rate. A Greek purchase is not a fast process. An AFM tax number and a Greek bank account have to be in place before a deposit moves, and the notarial and land registry sequence runs for months after that. A buyer starting now is not comfortably ahead of the date.

The change also reprices the golden visa itself. At the 800,000 euro Athens threshold the tax bill rises by about 96,000 euros, taking the Athens entry cost to 920,000 euros before notary, land registry and legal fees. Buyers weighing Greece against Portugal, Spain or Italy will find the gap narrowed sharply, and the 250,000 euro restoration route, already the most operationally demanding option, absorbs a 30,000 euro tax increase on a base that was chosen for being cheap.

Existing owners are not affected. The tax is levied at acquisition, so nothing changes for a non-EU national who already holds Greek property, and nothing in the announcement touches ENFIA, rental income tax or capital gains treatment for foreign owners.

Context

Greece restructured its golden visa into a three-tier system built around an 800,000 euro threshold in the highest-demand zones including Attica, 400,000 euros across most of the rest of the country, and 250,000 euros for restoration and commercial conversion projects. Non-EU nationals face no restriction on buying Greek residential property outside designated border zones, where a permit from a defence ministry committee is required. The transfer tax has been the least contentious cost in a Greek purchase for years, a flat and predictable 3 percent. If the announced measure becomes law in its current form, it becomes the single largest transaction cost a non-EU buyer pays.