# Buying a first home



## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

My husband and I are youngish (early 30s) and thinking about buying our first home. Are there any books (Greek or English) or websites that you know of that would give us information we need to get started learning about the process of buying real property in Greece? Neither of us has ever owned a house and we are literally starting at square one so any and all resources would be helpful. Any advice too would be helpful since we really know nothing... what little I know is irrelevant since I'm from USA. 

We're hoping to take advantage of some of the "good deals" right now, like no pothen esxes on a first home, low home prices due to the recession, but we're not in a huge hurry. We'd be looking in NE Greece, btw.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

I think I should clarify my post that I'm not really looking for the fluffy stuff about how to choose a region to live in and trying to decide if buying a house in Greece is for you and all that cr*p. I'm looking for up to date resources on the legal aspects, what kinds of inspections to get, how to go about dealing with water/sewer/electric, how to determine if the house is fully legal, info on property taxes, getting a mortgage through a Greek bank, etc. - and ANYTHING else relevant that I may not even know I should be asking about!! (my real problem, of course...)


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## samphire (May 20, 2011)

We have lived on an greek island for 3 years, so we thought we would buy a house.
We thought we knew all the problems that could occur, so we carfully went ahead.
The owners of the house and the estate agent both lied about what the house owned (not what described) and we were caught up in a deposit agreement of 8,000 euros.
Finally we had to pull out of the sale and say goodbye to our 8,000 euro's + lawyers costs.

Recommend - Rent somewhere for a least a year to make sure you have a winter there.
Do not get caught with a deposit agreement. check / check and re-check


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

My advice ? Dont buy.The process takes too long & is fraught with problems. Can you be sure your dream home will still be your dream home location in 2 - 5 years ?


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

samphire - thanks for that advice!

tpebop - it wouldn't be forever - we want to build a house at some point, maybe 15 yrs from now, so we were thinking of buying a small apartment in the next couple of years and then selling it later. If we don't buy in the next few years, we still want to buy land in the future to build our house, which is something we both want very much. What is it about the process that takes so long? Does it take more than 6 months? That's a reasonable amount of time in my mind. More than a year would be excessive to me. 

Do we need a real estate lawyer or would any lawyer be able to handle it? 

The main reason for buying an apartment, instead of renting, is that the price of purchasing an apartment appears to be less than or about the same as renting it for 15 years. We would not be getting something expensive. Something in the neighborhood of €60,000, probably in cash (depending on interest rates), just a 1 bedroom apartment. As long as we got ANYTHING for it when we left we'd have made a profit because of not renting during that time.

I'm trying to figure out also what the "real" price of owning an apartment would be in terms of property taxes and additional costs. The rent would be about €340/month with no other costs, unless the price fluctuates over the years - could go up, could go down, I don't know. The ones we were looking at were advertised around €60,000 which works out to €333/month for 15 years, but then we'd have something to sell. 

If the numbers look off it's because it's a university town where rent is MUCH higher than it should be but homes aren't that expensive to buy. Which also provides the opportunity to rent the apartment out if we decide to leave and live someplace else before we sell. Incidentally if we did this we would be doing it in a city where we haven't lived before but are moving to this summer - we wouldn't do this for at least a year of living there, of course, and after making sure we do in fact want to stay there for a long time. I'm just trying to learn about the process now since I have time to do it now.

As I said in my OP we really are just THINKING ABOUT this at this point - we need to a lot more information before we can decide.


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## samphire (May 20, 2011)

Sorry forgot to say - Greek people sell houses, I dont know of any Greek people who buy houses. If you buy a property you will only resell to another expat.
Most of the houses near me have been up for sale for a least 2 years with no interest.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Hmm... okay, I know many Greek families who have mortgages, including my in laws who bought their place about 4 years ago.


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## The Grocer (May 30, 2010)

wka said:


> Hmm... okay, I know many Greek families who have mortgages, including my in laws who bought their place about 4 years ago.


When I bought my property (a shell & 1 acre of land) the procedure here was quite simple. I opened a bank account & got my "tax number". I employed an interpretor (cost 40 euros). A visit to the notary giving a sort of power of attorney to handle the purchase in my absence (I had to return to the UK), and sorted out a lawyer. The whole process took just four weeks........
A strong word of advice, buy from a reputable real estate agency. Yes you have to pay 2% commission (on average), but the risks of buying here private are high. All to often families have left "part" of their home to relatives and the legal side of selling property is fraught with problems.......


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

The Grocer, thanks for that advice.

Things have progressed a little since I last posted. We've worked out a basic timeline. Our current plan is to rent from September (probably 1 year) and use that time to househunt. Obviously if we decide we don't want to stay there, after spending the winter there, we can back out and keep renting. 

I'm stuck on an island very far away and can only look at online ads. Most of the apartments in our square footage (about 50-60 m2) run around €40,000 - €70,000 depending on the year of construction. I would like to pay under €1000/m2 but I am concerned about the year of construction.

We have a short list of "demands." They are: 1 br, 1 bath, kitchen-living area, balcony + individually-controlled heating (not central to the building) + not on the ground floor or lower (area has flooding concerns) + kitchen should be able to be renovated/expanded (I want a larger kitchen than what is put into Greek apartments) + minor location requirements (not too close to a gas station, power lines, that sort of thing).

Unfortunately the individually-controlled heating demand means we'd probably have to go 2000 or later construction from what I've been able to judge, and that seems to push the prices over €1000/m2. 

Anyway, we've decided that we're basically unwilling to assume a mortgage so will be limited by that, but that also should make it a little easier since we'd be cutting out part of the process. I'm still trying to find resources to learn about inspections - for example, how do I find out what the energy rating of the apartment is if they don't give me the certificate? Can I require the seller to pay for that inspection? What about seismic rating? What about the imiypaithrio situation - how do I find out whether the quoted square footage is the same as the actual square footage, and how do I find out what part of that is taxable? I get it that the minimum for property tax is appraised value €200,000 and a €50-60,000 property won't be involved in that but I am also aware that this could easily change (as it just did already). How do I verify that the entity selling the property has 100% ownership of it and there are no loans on it? All that sort of thing I'm still vague on.

I understand that buying is risky and I am trying to get a better understanding of all the risks and benefits. However, I am not prepared to rent until I die.


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

Well , we will be paying rent till we die.Why wouldnt we @ less than 10 € a day.
If anything should go wrong & needs fixing our landlord will pay


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Not sure if that was a question... but it's just cheaper to own than to rent. It would be a financial decision for us.


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

Dont know how you figure that.
Ten euros a day over 40 years say is only 14600.
You wont buy much for that sum


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

146,000 euros is enough to buy a whole house... I'm not really sure what you mean?


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

my point is that I'm not sure what it's like in Rhodes but in the city we're looking in, a place that rents for €10/day sells for about €40-60,000.


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

wka look here
savvaidis.com


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

I'm not moving to Rhodes, though. That's interesting I guess but I don't see how it affects me? I wasn't questioning your decision to rent where YOU are. I'm just trying to do what's most financially responsible for me. I live on a Cycladic island with an inflated housing market (for no good reason - the houses are horribly built), and I would never want to buy one. But again, we're moving to a city with a moderately depressed housing market but a very tight rental market.


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## elainek (Jun 22, 2011)

I bought an apartment 3 years ago - HUGE mistake!

I bought in a new building that was almost complete - I have 3 different contracts signed by the builder stating that completion would be end of September 2009 and here we are in June 2011 and it's still not complete. The way things are going it's not likely to be finished any time soon either.

All the utilities were delayed even though the builder got his money on time - 6 months to get the electricity meters, 18 months to get water meters and almost 2 years to get phone lines. 

The builder has now disappeared and we (the owners) have found out that he hasn't paid for the lift and he owes a lot of money to the water company for water used in the construction - so the community water has been cut off.

A total nightmare! 

Also some of the people who paid for their apartments outright have a problem because the builder hasn't paid the money he borrowed from his bank against the apartments - they could lose their homes!

I would advise extreme caution, a really good specialist lawyer and check out that any claims made and assurances given are in fact truthful.


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