Greece Property Transfer Tax: The 15 Per Cent Plan for 2027

Greece has said it will raise the tax a buyer from outside the European Union pays to transfer a home into their name. The Greece property transfer tax stands at 3 per cent today. The announced figure is 15 per cent.

Turkish readers often call this stamp duty. Greece does not. The tax is the φόρος μεταβίβασης ακινήτων, the property transfer tax, and it is charged when the property changes hands.

The announcement came from the top. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis addressed the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair on 6 September 2026. Speaking in Greek, he said the government had taken the decision "to raise the transfer tax from 3 per cent to 15 per cent when the buyers come from third countries outside the European Union". He named China, Türkiye and Israel. Their interest was welcome to a degree, he said, but it had made it much harder for Greeks to buy a home of their own in several parts of the country.

What was announced, and what has not happened yet

This is the part most coverage skips. Nothing has changed. A tax rises when a law says it rises, and no such law has been published. The Ministry of National Economy and Finance briefed reporters two days after the speech that the measure would go into a wider bill, then to public consultation, then to parliament.

• Transfer tax, EU and EEA buyers. Today: 3 per cent. As announced: 3 per cent.
• Transfer tax, buyers from outside the EU and EEA. Today: 3 per cent. As announced: 15 per cent.
• Municipal surcharge on the tax. Today: 3 per cent. As announced: 3 per cent.
• Effective burden on those buyers. Today: 3.09 per cent. As announced: 15.45 per cent.
• Legal status. Today: in force. As announced: not drafted, not voted.
• Start date. Today: applies now. As announced: 1 July 2027.

Rates and legal status as at 27 September 2026.

The right-hand column is a plan, not a rule. Rates, exemptions and dates all change between a podium and a statute, and this one has moved already. Reporting straight after the speech pointed to 1 January 2027. The ministry then settled on 1 July, a six-month slip before a draft had even been written.

Greece tax for non EU buyers: who would pay it

As briefed on 8 September 2026, the measure would be narrower than the speech suggested. The trigger described is citizenship rather than residence.

• It would fall on natural persons who are citizens of countries outside the EU and the European Economic Area. Purchases by legal entities would stay at the current rate
• It would fall on homes only. Commercial space, offices, industrial buildings and land would be outside it
• Greek diaspora buyers would be exempt
• Holders of EU long-term resident status would be exempt

Living in Greece is not itself on that list. The only residence-based relief named is EU long-term resident status, which is a separate European status with its own qualifying conditions. The briefings did not place golden visa holders in any exempt group, and did not say they fall outside one either.

This is a transfer tax, so it would land on the cost of buying rather than the cost of owning. Annual bills for people who already own in Greece would be untouched.

If you have signed a preliminary contract

The announced start date is 1 July 2027 and nothing published says which date would govern a transaction straddling it. The deputy minister said the timing was chosen to let transfers already set in motion complete, which is an intention rather than a transitional clause.

If you are buying to qualify for the golden visa

Our Greece golden visa page sets out what the programme requires today. What it cannot yet tell you is which rate would apply on completion, because the exemption list does not mention investor permits.

If you are considering a company purchase

Legal entities were briefed as outside the measure. That is a structure with its own costs and its own tax consequences, and it is a question for a Greek lawyer rather than an agent.

Greece golden visa 2027: what the numbers would look like

The Greek investor permit sets its minimum by location. Under article 100 of law 5038/2023, the EUR 800,000 threshold covers Attica, the regional unit of Thessaloniki, the regional units of Mykonos and Thira, and islands with more than 3,100 inhabitants. The rest of the country sits at EUR 400,000. Both of those tiers require at least 120 square metres of main space where the property is built or has a building permit.

The EUR 250,000 threshold applies where the main spaces of a property change use to residence, and to the restoration of a listed building. The 8 September briefings described that route as covering conversions from commercial and industrial space.

Apply the two rates to those thresholds and the scale of the change is easy to see.

• EUR 800,000. At 3 per cent: EUR 24,000. At 15 per cent: EUR 120,000.
• EUR 400,000. At 3 per cent: EUR 12,000. At 15 per cent: EUR 60,000.
• EUR 250,000. At 3 per cent: EUR 7,500. At 15 per cent: EUR 37,500.

Thresholds as published in law 5038/2023, read on 27 September 2026. The figures apply the announced rates and exclude the municipal surcharge.

An extra EUR 96,000 on an EUR 800,000 flat is not a line item. It is a different decision.

The part that is still open

Two questions have no answer yet, and the sources treat them as one.

The golden visa and the EUR 250,000 route. Industry bodies have asked for that route to be exempted, or charged at an intermediate rate reported as possibly 8 per cent. Their argument is that a converted office adds housing rather than competing for it. Until the draft text is published, that is a request rather than a rate. The exemption list decides whether the programme still works at its published thresholds, so the answer is not a detail.

Deals already under way. The deputy finance minister, Dimitris Markopoulos, said the July 2027 date gives the necessary time for transfers already set in motion to be completed. A buyer with a signed preliminary contract needs a transitional clause rather than a stated intention, and no such clause has been published.

What to check before you sign anything in Greece

1. 1.Watch the consultation, not the headlines. The draft text is where the exemptions become real. Until it is published, every number in circulation is at briefing level.
2. 2.Work out which side of 1 July 2027 your transfer would land on. Nothing published says which date would govern, and completion dates slip.
3. 3.Ask your notary to put the tax assumption in writing. If a purchase only works at 3 per cent, that assumption belongs in the file rather than in your head.
4. 4.Check whether a company purchase is really open to you. It is a different structure with different consequences, and it is a legal question.
5. 5.Price the alternative honestly. If the reason for buying in Greece was the residence permit rather than the building, compare the total cost against programmes whose published rules have not moved. Our comparison of the Dubai golden visa and the investor visa is one place to start.

Where this leaves a buyer looking at Europe

Greece has not raised this tax. It has said it intends to, from July 2027, for buyers from outside the EU and the EEA, and the draft text is where the exemptions become real. Our Dubai golden visa page sets out a route whose published rules have not moved, and our listings across the Emirates sit behind it. SmartDecision Properties will update this article when the Greek draft is published.

This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice. The measure described here has been announced but not enacted, and its final terms may differ from the briefings reported so far. Verify your own position with a lawyer and a tax adviser licensed in Greece before you commit money or sign anything.