What €1.15 Million Actually Costs

A firm in this industry recently published the full cost breakdown of a relocation: a €1,150,000 house in Glyfada, bought by a family of three moving out of the United Kingdom, with every fee itemised and a stated total of €1,211,883.

Every line in it is right. The transfer tax at 3.09%, the land registry at 0.6%, the notary at 1.5%, immigration fees of €2,150 for the family, residence cards at €16 each. That is a more honest disclosure than most, and it is worth saying so before doing anything else with it.

It is also, as a picture of what the year costs, about a third short. Here is the rest.

The lines that are there, and are correct

• Transfer tax: 3% plus a 0.09% municipal surcharge, so 3.09%. On €1,150,000 that is €35,535.
• Land registry: 0.6%, or €6,900.
• Notary: about 1.5%, or €17,250.
• Immigration fees and cards: a couple of thousand for a family, and trivially small against the rest.

One thing worth knowing that no table mentions, because it is temporary. VAT on new buildings is suspended in Greece until 31 December 2026, and a new-build or off-plan purchase completing inside that window pays 3.09% transfer tax rather than 24% VAT. On this purchase that is the difference between €35,535 and something over a quarter of a million. It is the single largest number in this entire piece and it has an expiry date.

The first line that is missing

Agency commission. Greek practice is 2% plus VAT from each side, so a buyer on €1,150,000 is paying roughly €23,000 plus VAT — about €28,500.

That is a real cost, it is standard, and it is absent from the table. Whether it is absent because the firm is also the agent is a question worth asking directly, because it is the disclosure question that applies to every intermediary in this process.

The two lines marked "on request"

The published table gives the immigration adviser as "determined on a case-by-case basis" and the tax adviser as "calculated upon request". Both are legitimate — these are genuinely bespoke — and both are also the two largest professional fees in the transaction.

A total that excludes the two biggest professional fees is not a total. It is the part of the invoice that was easy to publish.

We are not going to invent a figure for either, because no reliable published range exists and constructing one would be exactly the thing this site refuses to do. But a buyer should ask for both as a fixed quote before signing anything, and should notice that a table which itemises a €48 card fee and leaves the adviser blank has told you something about which numbers it wanted you looking at.

The line that is not a fee at all

The annual tax, which begins immediately and is the whole point of the exercise.

Article 5A costs €100,000 a year on all foreign-sourced income, plus €20,000 for each additional adult family member. Minor unmarried children living with the applicant are presumed to share their residence and are not charged. So a couple with a fifteen-year-old pays €120,000 in year one, and every year after that for fifteen years.

That is not a transaction cost and no purchase table should be expected to carry it. But it is the number that determines whether the move makes sense, it starts in the same calendar year as the purchase, and a household budgeting €1.21 million for the year is out by an order of magnitude on the recurring side. Whether the €100,000 is a bargain or a waste depends entirely on the shape of your income.

The real first-year number

Take the published €1,211,883. Add roughly €28,500 of agency commission. Add the immigration adviser and the tax adviser, both unquoted. Add €120,000 of flat tax for a couple with a minor child.

Before either professional fee, that is over €1.36 million in the first year against a stated €1.21 million — a gap of about 12%, and the two missing fees sit on top of it. Nothing in that is hidden or improper. It is simply what a cost table is for and what it is not for.

What else lands later

• ENFIA, the annual property tax, which on a house at this level is not trivial and is never in the acquisition table.
• Running costs — heating, pool, insurance, staff, maintenance — which on this coast are the number households most consistently underestimate.
• The €500,000 investment requirement under article 5A, satisfied here by the property itself, but a separate cost for anyone whose route in was a €250,000 conversion.
• The exit, eventually. The median listing here takes 238 days to a signed agreement, and 72% of tracked price revisions go down.

How to use this

Ask for the cost table, then ask three questions about it: what is your fee, what is the tax adviser's fee, and is agency commission included or additional. Ask for all three in writing, as fixed quotes.

And ask when the VAT suspension on new builds is expected to end, because that one answer is worth more than the other three combined and it is currently dated 31 December 2026. The order of operations in this process is worth more than any individual decision inside it, and the tax year you complete in is part of the order.

Sources

1. PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Greece: property transfer tax and the municipal surcharge
2. Bernitsas Law, Tax Alert on Law 5246/2025, 18 November 2025: VAT suspension on new buildings extended to 31 December 2026
3. Greek agency commission structure
4. AADE Decision A.1147/2026: article 5A, the €100,000 charge, the €20,000 per relative and the treatment of minor children
5. Astons case study, published 2026: the itemised cost table examined here