Non-EU Buyers Could Pay More, But Nothing Is Law Yet
There is no law yet. There is no regulation yet. Greece’s government has proposed raising the property transfer tax for buyers from outside the European Union from 3% to 15%. As of today, that increase exists nowhere in Greek law: no bill has been published, and no one buying property right now is subject to it.
At the Thessaloniki International Fair in September 2026, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the audience: “We have decided to increase the property transfer tax from 3% to 15% when the buyers come from third countries outside the European Union.”
The line has already started travelling through property forums, relocation Facebook groups, and the inboxes of people mid-way through a Greek property search. It has also, in the days since, picked up coverage from Greek real estate and Golden Visa trade outlets, though general-interest English-language press has been slower to pick it up. So before anyone recalculates their budget or panics about a closing date, it’s worth being precise about what has actually happened, and what hasn’t.
What was actually said
Beyond the Prime Minister’s remarks, the government followed up with a more detailed written description of the measure: a new measure is being introduced to limit housing demand from third countries and ease pressure on property prices, raising the transfer tax from 3% to 15% for residential properties bought by citizens of non-EU countries.
Read closely, this already narrows the picture considerably. The measure, as described, targets residential property specifically, not real estate as a category. And the government’s own clarification points to exemptions: EU/EEA citizens are outside its scope, and so, apparently, are certain non-EU nationals who already hold long-term resident status in Greece. One question is what happens to dual nationals: a non-EU citizen who also holds an EU passport would, on paper, seem to fall outside the measure, but nothing official has confirmed how that will actually be treated.
Two dates, no confirmed one
The Prime Minister’s own speech pointed to January 1, 2027. The Ministry of National Economy and Finance has since floated a different date, July 1, 2027, in its own follow-up remarks. Neither date comes from a published law, and until one does, both should be treated as provisional. If anything, the fact that the government’s own timeline has already shifted once is a reason for more caution, not less, about predicting when this actually takes effect.
Why “announced” and “law” are not the same thing
In Greece, a policy this size moves from political statement to enforceable tax through a fairly specific sequence: a draft bill (σχέδιο νόμου) is written, published for public consultation, debated and amended, voted in Parliament, and finally published in the Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ) with an effective date. Only that last step makes a tax rate real for a notary, a tax office, or a buyer sitting at a closing table.
As of this writing, no draft bill on this measure has been published. That means there is no legal text to check the exemptions against, no way to know which of the two dates will hold, and no way to know whether the final version will match the Prime Minister’s framing at all. Announcements at Thessaloniki are, by tradition, big-picture policy signals. The fine print tends to arrive later, and sometimes arrives changed.
It’s also worth holding this timeline next to the political calendar. Greece is due for elections in spring 2027, and a measure announced now could still be reshaped, delayed, or renegotiated well before it reaches a Gazette page. None of that is a prediction. it’s simply a reason not to treat a September speech as a settled outcome.
The wider package it sits inside
The transfer tax increase wasn’t announced in isolation. It was framed as part of a broader housing package that also includes the abolition of the ENFIA annual property tax in small settlements, a separate measure worth watching in its own right, since it points to where the government’s housing priorities currently sit.
More About Property
If you’re weighing a Greek purchase against a shifting tax landscape, the Eleven Files Every Buyer Needs reading list walks through the rest of what a foreign buyer needs to know, including the objective value system this tax is calculated against.
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