A slight exaggeration, you don't need one if you're just visiting the country, but if you want to buy property in Greece, then you definitely need to obtain an AFM because without it you can't even open a bank account let alone pay for a house.

If you're a property owner in Greece but don't live in Greece, we strongly advise you to pass through the "something to declare gate" at customs when you enter Greece and declare any cash you have in your purse or wallet.

Anyone owning property in Greece must declare it on form E9.

This applies to new buyers and existing owners.

The form only needs to be submitted to your local tax office once, but if you buy additional property, you will have to submit again with the updates. In other words, the E9 form is a record of all the property an individual owns in Greece. It is the responsibility of the owner to declare all their property - they will not be reminded to do it, the Greek computer systems aren't as yet able to cross reference the information. And if you don't submit it and then keep it up-to-date - YOU WILL BE FINED.

In Greece a seller can advertise their property for sale themselves as For Sale By Owner (FSBO) with an advert in the newspapers, on the internet, with a sign and contact number painted on the side of their property or by good old word of mouth. Alternatively they can ask their lawyer to represent them or they can use a real estate agent to give them as wider window as possible. They cover the advertising costs themselves or if a lawyer or real estate agent represents them, they will pay a fee. The fee whether to lawyer or agent is normally a percentage based on the selling price. It is common practice in Greece for an agent to charge both the seller and the buyer approximately 2% of the selling value although this is negotiable either way.

In some areas the asked for selling price of property for sale in Greece can be much higher or conversely much lower than the "official" objective value or even what your euro would buy in another country. In Greece real estate is still very much driven by market demand which often has no relation to offical Greek tax values or bank surveyed estimates of value.

24-Aug-08 - On a contract of sale there are two values noted. The first is the Objective Value and the second is the agreed selling price which is negotiated between the buyer and the seller. By law, the buyer is required to pay Property Purchase Tax on the HIGHER of the two values. If the Objective Value of the property is €200,000 but the agreed selling price is €400,000, both values are noted on the contract of sale but the expenses for both the seller and the buyer are calculated on the higher selling price value, ie the buyer will pay property purchase tax at about 11% on the €400,000.

Terrorism and international fraud have caused strict laws to come into place throughout the world. Greece is no exception. This article refers to the current laws in place concerning the conduct of bank accounts in Greece as described by the Hellenic Bank Association and applicable to any Greek Bank you might do business with.  If you have, or will need, a Greek bank account please read the rest of this article and TAKE ACTION NOW - it’s important.

24-Aug-08 - You must budget for costs on top of the purchase price of the property you want to buy in Greece. As a way of estimating costs, you should add approximately 20% of the contract value. The 20% will include; 11% for purchase tax (payable to the tax office), 2% for your lawyer, 1.22% for legal council fees, 2% for the Public Notary, 1.5% for land registry and 2% for real estate agent fees. Fees are often negotiable and if you buy direct from the owner without using an agent, then your costs will go down. But as a worse case scenario, adding 20% to the actual selling price (as strictly speaking that is what the contract value should be) will ensure that you have enough money to buy a house in Greece.