On 6 September, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a fivefold increase in Greece's property transfer tax for non-EU buyers, from 3% to 15%, provisionally from 1 January 2027. The legislation itself has not yet been published. Here is what is confirmed, what remains open, and what it means if you are searching now.
This is market intelligence, not tax or legal advice. Every Pelagos mandate is supported by independent Greek legal counsel, and we would always confirm the current position with your own lawyer before you act on any of it.
Greece has announced the largest change to its property tax treatment of foreign buyers in years. Speaking from the podium of the Thessaloniki International Fair, the Prime Minister confirmed that transfer tax for buyers who are nationals of countries outside the EU will rise from 3% — 3.09% once the municipal duty is added, the figure most buyers are quoted today — to 15%. The government has proposed 1 January 2027 as the date it takes effect.
This is not yet law. It is a policy announcement, made in a set-piece speech, ahead of the legislation that will actually define its scope. That distinction matters, and we have written this report to keep it clear throughout.
A fivefold increase in transfer tax — from 3% to 15% — for buyers who are nationals of a country outside the EU. The government's stated reasoning is housing pressure: foreign buyers accounted for a meaningful share of Greek property transactions by value in 2025, and officials have pointed to this as one contributor to price growth, alongside constrained new-build supply and rising construction costs. The Prime Minister described the measure as a deliberate disincentive rather than a revenue-raising exercise.
The wording that will actually govern the tax has not been published. Several questions that matter to real buyers are unresolved:
Until the bill text is published, we would treat any specific figure quoted to you elsewhere — by us or by anyone else — as provisional.
The Greek Golden Visa is a non-EU programme by definition, so if the measure proceeds as announced, it would apply to essentially every Golden Visa purchase. It would also apply to British buyers. Since Brexit, UK nationals are non-EU for this purpose, and nothing announced so far points to an exemption. For a market where a significant share of buyers are British, that is not a footnote.
Current transfer tax — 3% (3.09% with municipal duty)
Proposed transfer tax, non-EU buyers — 15%
Proposed effective date — 1 January 2027
Extra cost on an €800,000 Golden Visa threshold purchase — €96,000, before legal, notary or agency fees
A separate, less-discussed change compounds the timing. The current suspension of 24% VAT on new-build purchases — the mechanism that routes many foreign buyers toward the 3.09% transfer-tax rate rather than VAT in the first place — is itself due to lapse at the end of 2026 unless the government extends it again. Buyers weighing a new-build purchase are, in effect, watching two deadlines rather than one.
It is worth holding two facts side by side. In the same window, Greece has been actively courting global finance. A new regime taxes qualifying bonuses and carried interest for relocating hedge fund and private equity executives at 5% rather than the standard 15%, provided the firm commits to at least €3m a year of genuine local operating spend. Billionaire hedge fund manager Chris Rokos's move of his tax residency to Greece this month is the highest-profile result so far.
Greece is simultaneously making itself more attractive to mobile capital and more expensive for non-EU property buyers — two sides of the same push toward substance over speculation.
If you are a non-EU buyer with a genuine, near-term intention to purchase, timing has just become a real factor in your decision — not a sales pitch, a fact. Completing before the rate changes, if that remains possible once the legislation is published, is worth raising with your lawyer now rather than in December. If you are further from a decision, this is a reason to have the conversation earlier rather than later, so the numbers you are working from stay current when it actually matters.
We will update this report as soon as the legislation itself is published.