In short: Greece has announced that the property transfer tax on homes bought by individual third-country nationals will rise from 3% to 15%, taking effect on 1 July 2027. Including the 3% municipal surcharge levied on the tax itself, the effective rate moves from 3.09% to 15.45%. The measure was announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair on 5 September 2026, specified officially on 7 September 2026, and narrowed by ministerial clarifications on 8 September. It is a one-off purchase tax, not an annual charge, and it has not yet been legislated.

Four details are widely reported incorrectly, and each one matters if you are budgeting a purchase.

What exactly did Greece announce?

The official specification lists the measure among the government’s housing interventions: an increase in the property transfer tax from 3% to 15% for residences purchased by citizens of third countries (outside the EU). The stated purpose is to reduce demand pressure from foreign buyers on Greek house prices. The Ministry of Finance projects the measure will raise approximately €100 million per year from 2027 onward.

Following objections from the property sector, the political leadership of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance clarified the scope on 8 September: the increase applies from 1 July 2027 rather than 1 January, it applies to natural persons rather than legal entities, and ethnic Greeks and long-term residents are excluded. Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis framed the six-month deferral as avoiding a shock to the market; Deputy Minister Dimitris Markopoulos said the window allows transactions already under way to complete.

It sits inside a wider package that runs the other way for the property market: the VAT exemption on new-build purchases is being extended for 2027–2030, the “Spiti Mou III” first-home loan programme is capitalised at €2 billion, ENFIA is abolished in settlements under 2,000 residents from 2027, and short-term rental caps in central Athens and Thessaloniki are extended into 2027.

Does the 15% rate apply to all property, or only homes?

Only to homes. This is the single most misreported element of the announcement. The official specification is explicit that the increased rate concerns the purchase of residences. Commercial premises, building plots, land, and other categories of property are not covered by what has been announced.

For anyone structuring a commercial acquisition, a plot purchase, or a development site, the announced measure does not change the 3.09% position on the basis of the text published so far. What remains to be clarified in the bill is how properties that change use — an office or industrial building converted to residential — will be treated.

Does it apply to companies, or only to individual buyers?

Only to individuals. This is the clarification that most changed the picture after the initial announcement, and it came directly from the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, who stated that the measure will concern natural persons and not legal entities.

Companies and other legal entities therefore fall outside the increased rate as it has been described: the 15% applies only where the buyer is a natural person who is a citizen of a country outside the EU and EEA and does not hold long-term resident status.

Two cautions before anyone treats that as a route around the tax. First, nothing is law yet — the provision will be included in the omnibus bill carrying the full package of measures, which is expected to go to public consultation within the month, and the drafting stage is exactly where beneficial-ownership tests, corporate-participation rules and anti-avoidance provisions tend to appear. Commentators have already flagged purchases through legal entities and the verification of the ultimate beneficial owner as questions the framework has to answer, warning that a loosely drafted rule risks pushing buyers toward corporate structures rather than reducing demand.

Second, holding residential property through a company is a different tax position in its own right, with consequences for annual property tax, corporate income tax, distributions on exit, special real estate levies applicable to certain entities, and Golden Visa eligibility. It is a structuring decision for a Greek tax adviser and a lawyer, not a byproduct of the transfer tax rate.

What is the real rate: 15% or 15.45%?

The headline rate is 15%. On top of the transfer tax, Greece levies a municipal surcharge equal to 3% of the tax, which produces a total burden of 15.45%. The same arithmetic applies today: the 3% headline rate is 3.09% in practice.

Any budget built on a flat 15% understates the bill by roughly 3%.

The tax is calculated on the higher of the agreed price or the property’s state-assessed “objective value”, and is paid by the buyer before the notarial deed is signed.

Who is a “third-country national” for this purpose?

Third country means outside both the European Union and the European Economic Area. The EEA adds Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to the EU member states, so checking EU membership alone is not sufficient.

Countries whose nationals fall outside the EU and EEA include the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Switzerland, China, Hong Kong, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Canada, Australia and India.

Who is not affected?

The increase applies only where the buyer is a natural person who is a citizen of a country outside the EU and EEA and does not hold long-term resident status. Beyond that, the official specification ties scope to the categories that fall outside the existing first-home tax exemption. Those recognised for that exemption — and therefore outside the announced increase — include:

• Greek citizens
• Ethnic Greeks (omogeneis) from Albania, Turkey and countries of the former Soviet Union
• Citizens of EU and EEA member states
• Recognised refugees
• Third-country nationals holding long-term resident status in Greece
• Holders of a second-generation residence permit
• Companies and other legal entities, on the basis of the ministerial clarification

The specification also refers to individuals who are tax residents of third countries, which is a different test from citizenship. Whether the final law keys off nationality, tax residence, residence status, or a combination is one of the open questions below.

So “every foreign buyer pays 15%” is wrong. A more accurate framing: the increase targets purchases of homes by third-country nationals who do not fall into one of the recognised categories above.

What does this mean for the Greece Golden Visa?

Every real-estate investor in the Greece Golden Visa is by definition a third-country national, so unless the implementing legislation carves out an exemption, the higher rate would apply across the programme’s property route.

Current minimum investment thresholds are €800,000 in Attica, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with populations above 3,100; €400,000 in most other regions; and €250,000 for certain qualifying conversion and restoration projects. At 15.45%, an €800,000 acquisition carries roughly €123,600 in transfer tax rather than roughly €24,720 — a difference of about €99,000 on the same property.

Greek practitioners have argued publicly that the final law should exclude investments that add to the housing stock, such as conversions of old industrial buildings into residences, on the grounds that penalising them works against the supply-side goal the measure is meant to serve.

What has not been confirmed yet?

This is an announced measure awaiting legislation, and the ministerial clarifications have already narrowed it substantially from what the market first feared. What remains open:

• Corporate purchases in the final text. The minister has said the measure targets natural persons, but the bill has not been drafted. Beneficial-ownership and anti-avoidance provisions are the obvious place for that position to tighten.
• The €250,000 Golden Visa category. Conversions of commercial and industrial buildings into homes, and restorations of listed buildings, sit awkwardly: the building is not residential when bought, but may be by the time it is transferred on. Market bodies are asking for either an exemption or an intermediate rate — 8% has been floated.
• Change-of-use properties generally. How a building that becomes residential between acquisition and transfer is treated.
• Dual nationals. An Israeli buyer who also holds French or German citizenship may or may not be treated as an EU buyer. The law will need to specify which nationality governs.
• Preliminary contracts. The 1 July 2027 date was chosen partly to let transactions already in motion complete, but the treatment of signed pre-agreements still needs to be written down.
• Documentation and timing. Which documents establish a buyer’s status, and at what point in the transaction it is assessed.

Until the final text is in force, the current 3.09% regime applies. Nobody is paying 15.45% today, and a broker’s assurance that a deal will “close at the old rate” is not a substitute for a notary confirming the transitional provisions.

Will this actually make Greek homes more affordable?

The government’s rationale is that demand from third-country buyers pushes prices up and squeezes local residents. Bank of Greece figures cited in the official specification put third-country real-estate investment at roughly €1.2 billion in 2025, of which an estimated €800 million went into residential property.

Critics within the sector argue the causal link is thinner than the framing suggests. Greek housing costs have moved further below the EU average over the past decade even as domestic prices rose, and foreign purchases are one input among many — supply constraints, construction costs, short-term rentals and mortgage availability all feature. Reduced foreign demand lowers one source of pressure; it does not by itself add housing stock. That is the gap the €2 billion Spiti Mou III programme and the build-to-rent incentives in the same package are meant to close.

What buyers should do before the law lands

1. Confirm your own status — whether you are buying as an individual or through an entity, plus nationality, tax residence and any Greek residence permit — against the exemption categories, rather than assuming the country on your passport decides it.
2. Check the asset class. Homes are in scope; commercial property, plots and land, on current information, are not.
3. Model at 15.45%, not 15%. If a deal only works at the lower figure, it does not work.
4. Ask your notary about transitional provisions. The 1 July 2027 date is a ministerial statement, not yet enacted text, and the handling of pre-agreements is still to be written.
5. Watch the consultation, not the headlines. The measure goes into the omnibus bill covering the whole package, expected in public consultation within the month. The details that determine your position — corporate purchases, dual nationality, pre-agreements, the €250,000 Golden Visa tier — will be settled there.

For buyers weighing Greece against other Mediterranean markets, it is worth noting that Cyprus is an EU member state and this Greek measure applies to purchases of property in Greece. Cross-market comparisons should be run on each jurisdiction’s own transfer duty, VAT treatment and residency rules rather than assumed.

Last updated: 8 September 2026

Sources: Hellenic Government, official specification of the economic measures announced by the Prime Minister at the 90th TIF, 7 September 2026 — gov.gr , Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), property transfer taxation (ΦΜΑ) — AADE, EUR-Lex, definition of the European Economic Area — eur-lex.europa.eu, Bank of Greece, net foreign direct investment in real estate, as cited in the government's specification