# In uk. Buying a house on Rhodes help please



## katiemgc (Sep 1, 2013)

Hi everyone.
Hoping you could offer me some words of advice.
I am in the Uk. Long story short is we have the possibility of buying the villa we like to holiday in on Rhodes.
I know many of you must have been in the position we are now. I need a few facts before I can move forward from where we are.

I know we have a nice chunk of equity in our UK home, Good level of earnings. Combined we should have no issues releasing some for a deposit on the villa.
I am presuming at this point we would need to get that sorted and then apply for a new mortgage for the villa.
Prove we can market the property for rental and cover the mortgage (and if not prove we can cover any shortfall??) 
The property is in very popular tourist resort.
(a company have already offered a guaranteed rental offer to current owners..i need to get more details for that)

WHO do i go to at this point to discuss all of this? I have bought and sold in the UK a number of times , but am new to purchasing abroad and would really appreciate it if someone could tell me who I need to go to at this point?

Also with the financial situation like it is over there at the moment I would be interested to know about negotiating power?

I have always bought well in the UK, negotiated hard on properties and have worked our investments well, BUT i knew the boundaries, how and when to push them etc.

I know may properties aren't selling at the moment, and the property in question wasn't sold for their advertised price 2 years ago(hence why they had to rent it out).

Now from a 'heart' point of view.....we love the villa! we holiday there, it is our little piece of heaven. We always intend to retire to that area when we retire in 20 years or so. We pay obscene amounts of money every year for our family holiday. removing our family holiday rental costs for each year would remove a good few thousand from our outgoings 
The price they would like for their villa seems to be at the lower level prices of other comparable villas in the are that are currently being marketed for sale. so in light of history and financial status I feel it would be too high. Whilst we would need a good hard negotiate to make things work for us...I of course don't want to go in and cause offence 


Hope someone can spare a few minutes and share any useful bits of advice.
Thank you
Kate


----------



## nicklc (Nov 15, 2008)

Hi I would suggest your first port of call would be to find an English speaking lawyer in Rhodes. We found ours on the British consulate website for Rhodes. The lawyer can then advise you on tax and recommend a bank to approach. Please be aware that buying property in Greece is markedly more complicated than in uk. You must ensure that whatever you buy is legally constructed and owned fully by the person you consider the owner hence a lawyer is absolutely essential.


----------



## katiemgc (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you 
I emailed the consulate last night and had an email back first thing this morning with a list of lawyers.
Sent an email off to one earlier this morning. Now time to wait.
Spent yesterday researching (until my head turned to mush and I had to give up after hours of reading!) But I do feel a little more knowledgeable today. Feel like I am taking steps forward.
Thank you


----------



## Marinos (Aug 15, 2013)

nicklc said:


> Hi I would suggest your first port of call would be to find an English speaking lawyer in Rhodes. We found ours on the British consulate website for Rhodes. The lawyer can then advise you on tax and recommend a bank to approach. Please be aware that buying property in Greece is markedly more complicated than in uk. You must ensure that whatever you buy is legally constructed and owned fully by the person you consider the owner hence a lawyer is absolutely essential.





Be aware that Tax laws are changing rapidly 
there are also a number of new taxes being levied against houses which will bring this to a total of three seperate taxes (this is as of last week)

Im not sure anyone can predict what the end result will look like, but rest assured there will be taxes so I would advise keeping this in mind

good luck


----------



## katiemgc (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you 
Have been talking today and now have a personal recommendation for a lawyer, as well as me emailing another.
Few more steps taken in regards to organising phone calls/appointments to trying to get financial information here in the uk.
Found a specialist mortgage broker to speak with.

Rules regulations and taxes seem to be a minefield!

Can anyone shed any light on needing a licence to rent out a villa to tourists? another minefield from what I have been told :/


----------



## concertina (Oct 18, 2012)

*villa*



katiemgc said:


> Thank you
> Have been talking today and now have a personal recommendation for a lawyer, as well as me emailing another.
> Few more steps taken in regards to organising phone calls/appointments to trying to get financial information here in the uk.
> Found a specialist mortgage broker to speak with.
> ...


hi,you will need an EOT licence if you rent for 3 months and less,if its a longer term than that to a continuous renter you dont need that licence.3 months and less you must register as a small business with the tax office and longer than 3 months still you must register with the tax office but not as a small business.Bit complicated,but clearly the tax offices want to know all about you and how much you earn in Greece,get yourself a good accountant here so they can offset some of your earnings as overheads showing your profit after all your overhead deductions.We have a house for sale here in Greece and its quite normal these days to haggle with the price even if the owner has already dropped considerably.start low and gradually come up as you would in uk.Good luck


----------



## katiemgc (Sep 1, 2013)

Hi Concertina,
Thank you.
If we intended to offer the villa on the rental market throughout the year (besides the odd holiday for us for the next few years at l;east) would we still need an EOT?
I shall add the accountant thing in to my research. For information sake, do you know a rough idea of a yearly cost for what we would need an accountant for?

Think I am going to need to haggle to make it viable for us :/ just don't want to go in to low in the first place and get peoples backs up.
Thanks again
kate


----------



## concertina (Oct 18, 2012)

katiemgc said:


> Hi Concertina,
> Thank you.
> If we intended to offer the villa on the rental market throughout the year (besides the odd holiday for us for the next few years at l;east) would we still need an EOT?
> I shall add the accountant thing in to my research. For information sake, do you know a rough idea of a yearly cost for what we would need an accountant for?
> ...


kate,if your renters are in the villa for less than 3 months at a time,continuously changing, then yes you do,if they are 1 weekers,2weekers etc,yes and maybe with the EOT there will be safety measure documents for you to apply for,boiler,electrics,carbonmonoxide leakage checks etc....remember people have been killed in holiday homes from fumes,the boiler.And have you thought about insurance,Im scared to rent my house because of fire,people smoke ,the cooker etc..Your right about not insulting people with too low a price,difficult.


----------



## concertina (Oct 18, 2012)

The accountant will be a one off fee when you use them once a year for your tax return,its not so much


----------



## katiemgc (Sep 1, 2013)

Frustrated this morning. I nearly fell off my chair at the fees we will need to pay to purchase. I knew it was a lot....but I fear as it was higher than I had hoped...we may have just found our stumbling block.
I shall now carry on looking into clutching at straws!


----------



## Marinos (Aug 15, 2013)

katiemgc said:


> Frustrated this morning. I nearly fell off my chair at the fees we will need to pay to purchase. I knew it was a lot....but I fear as it was higher than I had hoped...we may have just found our stumbling block.
> I shall now carry on looking into clutching at straws!


personally I would seek advice from more than one accountant as there is a degree of creativity that goes with this excercise

I would also get the current owner of the place you are looking at to help you as it is in his interest to make this happen

there are a number of initatives and grants for new startup tourist centric operations

need to be a bit careful with this as you are expected to pay up front and get 50% (needs confirming) refunded
I have been told the refund is not always landing within promised time lines


Last week there was another announcement(news) along the above lines but based on a low interest loan (below the 3% mark)

this is based on the size of the tourist industry on the given island
(as this is only a recent announcement I woud suspect it may be difficult to get more details at this point)


on a side note my uncle has rentals so a point to be aware of
if you are planning to use Tour operators as a source, they have a requirements list as well and the contract is reviewed every season (as far as i recal)

what we found was year one they were ok with the day rate being offered, however once they had him hooked they began to erode the day rate to a point it was no longer viable......he then looked to the local Greek market and repeat business

I would assume this needs to be factored in to your projections


basically you will get really frustrated however you just need to keep pushing through while gaining as many useful local connections as possible.
who you know is more inportant than what you know


----------



## katiemgc (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you. I will add that to my research.(do you have a link for a webpage with anything about about these grants? just something I can start from)

I know the villa in question has been turning down a large villa holiday firm, they have given quotes for guaranteed rental. Owner wanted to rent out privately though. My partner and I have been discussing this and the chance of them doing what was done to your uncle.

We haven't given up yet though!


----------



## The Grocer (May 30, 2010)

katiemgc said:


> Frustrated this morning. I nearly fell off my chair at the fees we will need to pay to purchase. I knew it was a lot....but I fear as it was higher than I had hoped...we may have just found our stumbling block.
> I shall now carry on looking into clutching at straws!


When I bought my property all the additional extra, ie Real estate agent fees, notary, solicitor, taxes etc. were just over 15% of the property price...


----------



## Marinos (Aug 15, 2013)

The Grocer said:


> When I bought my property all the additional extra, ie Real estate agent fees, notary, solicitor, taxes etc. were just over 15% of the property price...


Tourist Rentals have a bunch of licenses that are needed as well :-(


----------



## Marinos (Aug 15, 2013)

katiemgc said:


> Thank you. I will add that to my research.(do you have a link for a webpage with anything about about these grants? just something I can start from)
> 
> I know the villa in question has been turning down a large villa holiday firm, they have given quotes for guaranteed rental. Owner wanted to rent out privately though. My partner and I have been discussing this and the chance of them doing what was done to your uncle.
> 
> We haven't given up yet though!



I found this
ESPA Government funding for tourism in Greece | The Greek Property Experts

you will need to seek further advise from local resources


cheers


----------



## katiemgc (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you for your continued advice.
I seem to be covering everything and have sent more emails out.
Sent a message direct to the owner this morning 
It's the conveyance tax that made me recoil in fear 

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who had to get a mortgage on the property they purchased. Who they went with in the end?
Thanks again


----------

