Τhe keys are handed over to you, and your apartment in Glyfada, Voula, Vouliagmeni or Ellinikon is yours. Although signing the purchase deed is a major milestone, registration and practical handover may follow a different timetable. The owner must sort out a series of relatively minor, mostly quiet tasks in the months after purchase.
Even if you speak Greek, most of these jobs take a while when you live abroad. Many of the Greek government online portals, letters from utilities, and building notices are written in Greek and require some time to translate or get dealt with while you are away. This owner’s checklist goes through the things that you need to do in the first few months after taking possession of your home.
Are you buying a new apartment from a developer or a resale from another homeowner? Some steps differ, and this is pointed out throughout the checklist with additional advice where needed.
Having access to Greek administration online is useful. The first month of owning a property in Greece will focus on setting up your online access and getting the essentials transferred into your name.
Your new owner checklist at a glance
| Task | Why it matters | New build | Resale home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirm title registration | Your ownership must be recorded in the public record | Confirm registration of your purchase and the legal status of the apartment, parking and storage rights | Confirm registration of the transfer and any agreed discharge of the seller’s mortgage |
| Set up TAXISnet / myAADE access | Most tax and property tasks are done online | Confirm your credentials work | Confirm your credentials work |
| Check your E9 declaration | It is the basis of your annual property tax, ENFIA | Check whether an E9 was created automatically and whether all details are correct | Check whether an E9 was created automatically and whether all details are correct |
| Move utilities into your name | Bills and notices follow the account holder | Confirm permanent connections, meters and individual accounts | Change the account holder and record meter readings at handover |
| Insure the home | Protection and a possible ENFIA reduction | Arrange appropriate cover and distinguish it from the developer’s responsibility for defects | Expect questions about older wiring, plumbing and the roof |
| Meet the building manager | Common charges, rules and works affect you directly | Check who manages the building, the first owners’ meeting and any reserve fund | Confirm the seller’s outstanding charges and any works already approved |
| Check the home’s condition | Problems are cheaper to identify and address early | Keep a written defects list for the developer | Book an early condition check |
| Garden or plot clearing, if relevant | An annual legal duty may apply during fire season | Check whether the rules apply | Check whether the rules apply |
| Keys and a local contact | Someone needs to be able to access the home while you are away | Find out how many keys the developer and contractors hold | Re-key and obtain codes, remotes and manuals from the seller |
1. Confirm your title is registered with the Hellenic Cadastre
Signing the deed does not necessarily mean that all steps in your purchase have been completed. The deed needs to be registered with the competent Cadastral Office.
Ask your lawyer to confirm that registration has been completed and provide the registration certificate and the property’s KAEK, its cadastral identification number. Store these with your purchase documents. It is also possible to search the Cadastre’s records using the property’s KAEK. The Hellenic Cadastre provides an official service for submitting deeds and obtaining their registration certificates.
- New build: Ask your lawyer to confirm registration of the deed establishing the separate apartment ownership, where applicable, and your purchase deed. Check that the documents accurately describe the apartment and any parking or storage rights included in your purchase. These may be separate properties or rights attached to the apartment.
- Resale home: Confirm that the transfer to your name has been registered. If the seller had a mortgage or other registered charge, ask your lawyer to confirm that any agreed discharge has also been registered.
For the online checks you can make yourself, see how to check your Greek property in the Hellenic Cadastre from abroad.
2. Get your Greek tax access working: TAXISnet and myAADE
Although you have already obtained a Greek tax number, AFM, as part of the purchase process, you will also need working TAXISnet credentials to access myAADE, the online portal of the Greek tax authority.
An authentication key, known as a kleidarithmos, can be obtained remotely where the required identity and mobile checks succeed, through a myAADElive video call, or through the applicable tax-office procedure. A properly authorised representative can also assist through the relevant procedure.
Your AFM and online access codes are more important than you think. They allow you to complete many tax and other public-administration tasks online. The same credentials can also be used for services such as online authorisations and responsible declarations on gov.gr, subject to the service’s mobile-verification requirements.
For owners abroad, online access can save an unnecessary visit to a Citizens’ Service Centre, KEP. Follow our guide to logging in to TAXISnet and myAADE from abroad.
Note on tax representation: Not renting out the property does not, by itself, determine whether you need a tax representative. AADE’s guidance allows appointment to be optional where the taxpayer accepts delivery of tax communications to their declared contact details. Ask your accountant to confirm that your registration and notification arrangements are correct.
3. Check your E9 declaration and understand ENFIA
Your E9 declaration listing the property you bought is used to calculate your annual ENFIA property tax.
- Who has to submit an E9 declaration and by when? Residents and non-residents must ensure property acquisitions and changes are declared. The standard deadline for a purchase is 31 January of the following year, subject to any applicable extension.
- The E9 may already have been created automatically. Eligible digital transfer-tax declarations through myPROPERTY can trigger automatic E9 creation. Check that this happened successfully and that the property details are correct. Automatic creation is not guaranteed for every transaction.
- How is ENFIA calculated? It is assessed each year using the property rights you hold on 1 January. Check your assessment through myAADE and keep your registered email address up to date.
- Payment dates: For 2026, AADE provided payment in 12 monthly instalments, with the first due on 31 March 2026. Follow the dates on your own assessment rather than assuming the schedule stays the same every year.
- Payment from abroad: Taxpayers using banks outside the Single Euro Payments Area, SEPA, can pay Greek taxes through a SWIFT transfer in euros, following AADE’s payment instructions.
- New build: Ask your accountant whether your transaction qualified for automatic E9 creation. Do not assume every developer sale has the same tax treatment. Check the apartment and any parking or storage rights against the deed.
- Resale home: Log in to myAADE and verify the recorded area, floor, ownership share and other details, including parking or storage rights.
Make sure the email address in your tax file is one that you actually read. Check myAADE itself as well as email notifications.
Our E9 and MIDA guide explains the property tax records in more detail. For payment arrangements, see how to pay ENFIA from abroad.
Income tax returns
Non-residents generally need to file a Greek income tax return for years in which they receive Greek-source income. Simply owning a home that generates no income does not, by itself, create an income tax return obligation. E9 and ENFIA obligations remain separate.
Greek-source income can include items other than rent, such as interest from a Greek bank account. Your accountant should confirm your position.
Keep your E9 accurate and ask your accountant to check any additional requirements associated with MIDA, the Real Estate Ownership and Management Register, against AADE’s current instructions.
4. Move the utilities into your name
Utility accounts do not automatically change into your name when you buy the property. Typically, this is sorted out in the first weeks after completing the purchase.
- Electricity: HEDNO, known in Greek as DEDDIE, operates the distribution network, but you choose your electricity supplier. Ask the supplier about the account-change procedure and timing. You will generally need identification, your AFM, evidence of your right to use the property and the supply number.
- Municipal fees: Electricity bills can include municipal charges and TAP, the property levy. Check the property details used for these charges and ask the municipality about any separate declarations or payments required.
- Water: The EYDAP account name can be changed by the owner or an appropriately authorised representative. The government’s administrative-procedure register sets out the documents and process for the EYDAP account-name change.
- Gas: Contact the existing gas supplier and ask about changing the account holder or setting up your own contract.
- Internet, TV and alarm: Contact each provider separately. Before cancelling anything the seller had set up, check whether an alarm, camera or smart-home system depends on that connection.
Resale home: Existing connections may already serve the property, but their contracts need checking. Take photographs of the meter readings on completion day and ask the seller for the final bills. Check any outstanding contribution to shared heating costs.
New build: Properties can be handed over before permanent utilities or individual accounts are fully arranged. Ask the developer which meters serve your property and whether the connections are active.
For electricity, confirm that the necessary connection documents and the licensed electrician’s declaration, ΥΔΕ, have been submitted to DEDDIE. For water, find out whether there is a separate meter and account or whether a new connection is required.
It is also wise to set up e-billing and direct debit where available to avoid problems with bills while you are away.
See our guide to moving utilities into your name after buying or inheriting a home in Greece.
5. Insure the home and ask the right questions
Home insurance for a privately owned flat is generally voluntary, although a mortgage or other contractual arrangement may require it. It is an important issue for an owner who intends to be away for several months.
A qualifying policy can also reduce ENFIA. For 2026, AADE required cover for earthquake, fire and flood, sufficient insured reconstruction value and at least three months of qualifying insurance during the previous year.
With a full year of qualifying cover, the reduction was:
- 20% for a home with an ENFIA taxable value up to €500,000.
- 10% where that taxable value exceeded €500,000.
For shorter qualifying periods, the reduction was proportional. Three months of insurance did not automatically earn the full annual reduction.
Applications are made through myPROPERTY in myAADE. The deadline for the 2026 reduction was 16 February 2026. Check AADE’s announcement for the year in which you apply.
Tell the insurer that the home will be empty for extended periods. Find out how long it can remain unoccupied, what checks are expected and whether any restrictions or exclusions apply. Get the answers in writing.
- New build: Agree the appropriate cover start date with your insurer and lawyer. Insure for an appropriate reconstruction value and distinguish insurance cover from the developer’s responsibility for construction defects under your contract.
- Resale home: Ask about the condition of wiring, plumbing, gas installations and the roof. Defects and policy conditions can affect a claim. This is another reason to arrange an early condition check and raise issues with the seller before completion wherever possible.
Our Greek home insurance guide for overseas owners covers the questions to ask.
6. Get to know your building: manager, common charges and rules
Your home is likely to be in a building with other owners. Stairwells, roofs, corridors and other shared areas have their own management arrangements, expenses and maintenance requirements.
Ask for:
- The building regulations, including restrictions on works, noise and the use of common areas.
- A statement of the monthly common charges and how they are divided.
- Details of any building works already approved but not yet billed, and who is expected to pay.
- The dates of owners’ meetings and whether announcements can be emailed to you.
- The contact details for an urgent building problem while you are abroad.
Our guide to koinoxrista for owners abroad explains shared building charges.
You will have specific concerns depending on whether you are buying a new property or a resale apartment.
- New build: Find out whether the developer still manages the building and when management will pass to the owners. Ask when the first owners’ meeting will take place and whether there is a reserve fund. Find out who holds warranties and maintenance information for shared equipment such as the lift, pumps and gates.
- Resale home: Ask the manager whether the seller has paid common expenses up to completion and whether approved works remain to be invoiced. The question of who pays for those works is for your lawyer to agree with the seller.
Check the lift’s registration
Ask the building manager or lift maintenance company for the lift’s national registration number.
The general registration deadline was 30 June 2026. Under the subsequent transitional procedure, an existing lift that missed that deadline can be registered through its maintainer or installer without a fine until 10 July 2027, with the required owner or manager declaration. New lifts installed after 1 June 2026 have a separate installer-led procedure.
See our Greek apartment building lift-registration and maintenance guide.
7. If you have a garden or plot: annual fire-prevention clearing
Include any applicable clearing of flammable vegetation and the online declaration in your calendar.
The duty applies to specified plots and uncovered spaces within or near settlements, and certain land outside town plans with buildings, subject to the relevant exclusions. It does not automatically apply to every maintained garden.
The usual declaration deadline is 15 June. For 2026, it was extended to 22 June 2026. Covered land must continue to be maintained during the fire season, through 31 October.
Check with your municipality whether the rules apply to your outdoor space. Book the contractor early in spring, as demand rises sharply.
New landscaping may need dry growth removed during summer. For a resale property, assess the condition of the garden left by the seller before the next clearing season.
Our plot-clearing guide for owners abroad explains the process.
8. Keys, locks and a trusted person in Athens
The following items simply need to be organised:
- Change or re-key the locks after handover. You rarely know how many keys the seller, agents or contractors still hold.
- Make a key list: Front door, building entrance, storage room, parking, mailbox and any gates or shutters. Label a full set securely.
- Arrange a local keyholder: Someone should be able to provide access when you are away. Agree availability and emergency arrangements rather than assuming a response within a particular number of hours.
- Organise your post: Many letters and building notices are still delivered to the property. Someone needs to collect them and inform you of their contents.
- New build: Go through handover with the developer before signing acceptance documents. Ask how many keys have been cut and who still has a copy. Plan any re-keying after the final repairs. Obtain manuals and warranty information for air conditioning, the boiler or heat pump, appliances and smart-home systems. Get the electrical plans for your apartment.
- Resale home: Obtain the alarm, gate and garage codes. Ask for appliance instructions, maintenance records and details of past waterproofing or other works. Get the contact details of the tradespeople currently looking after the property.
For ongoing access arrangements, see our keyholding service in Athens.
9. Check how the home performs in its first months
The first wet autumn and first hot summer can reveal a lot about any newly acquired home. You need to respond differently depending on whether it is a new build or a resale.
New build
Keep a list of problems that develop during the first wet and hot seasons. Take dated photographs of issues such as:
- Hairline cracks in walls and ceilings.
- Balconies and terraces that do not drain properly.
- Damp around window and door frames.
- Air conditioning that does not perform properly in summer.
Inform the developer in writing. Ask your lawyer to confirm what the developer must repair, the relevant time limits and your rights under the contract and Greek law. An engineer should assess technical concerns where necessary.
Check the installed items and report faults before handover wherever possible. It is easier to deal with problems while you are present than after you have returned abroad.
Resale home
Arrange an early condition check and keep a dated record of the findings. Have qualified professionals investigate concerns about electrical installations, plumbing, damp, drainage or other technical issues.
If you will be away during the first seasons, arrange regular property checks so emerging problems can be reported.
10. Plan for the months you are away
Most people wait until after their first winter and the damage has been done. A vacant property can hide problems: a balcony drain full of leaves, slow leaks behind kitchen units or a car battery that goes flat.
Many issues reported by overseas owners are familiar. A contractor does not turn up on time, there is not enough time to get small repairs sorted out, and explaining the work to a tradesperson who does not speak English is not easy.
Home Watch Athens covers Glyfada, Voula, Vouliagmeni and Elliniko, as well as other areas of Athens and Attica. It is a members-only property oversight service founded and run by Yanis for owners who live abroad.
Monthly visits follow a Home Watch checklist. You receive a photo report through WhatsApp and a dated visit record through your member account. Visits include checking heating, air conditioning and hot-water operation, and looking for visible signs of leaks, moisture or pests. Accessible leaves and debris are removed from balcony or terrace drains.
Keyholding supports the regular service. Additional attendance and coordination, such as arranging contractors, liaising with your building manager or developer, assisting with handover arrangements, preparing the home for your arrival and overseeing renovation work, are agreed and quoted separately.
Technical handover inspections and certifications need the appropriate qualified professional. Home Watch Athens does not act as your building’s manager or provide legal, tax or engineering certification services.
Full details are available on our property management in Athens and holiday home management pages.
Most new property owners do everything correctly up to the notary’s signature, but then they fail to plan for the first wet winter or hot summer. Transferring the accounts into your name is the first step. Then someone needs to physically check the property on a regular basis. We act as that someone for our members.
Yanis, Founder of Home Watch Athens
A note on professional advice
This checklist provides general information and does not constitute legal, tax or insurance advice. Deadlines, documents and legal requirements can change. They may also depend on your tax residence, the transaction and the characteristics of the property.
Verify the requirements for your own purchase with your lawyer, Greek accountant and insurance broker.
Frequently asked questions
Are non-residents required to file a Greek income tax return simply because they own property in Greece?
Simply owning a property that generates no income does not, by itself, require a Greek income tax return. Greek-source income can create an obligation, even where it is unrelated to the property. E9 and ENFIA remain separate requirements. Ask your accountant to confirm your position.
Who submits the E9 after a purchase?
An eligible digital myPROPERTY transaction may create the E9 automatically. Check that this happened and that the details are correct. If automatic creation failed or did not apply, arrange the required filing with your accountant.
How can you pay ENFIA if you live outside the EU?
The relevant distinction is whether your bank is within SEPA, which includes some countries outside the EU. Banks outside SEPA can use AADE’s SWIFT payment procedure. Follow the payment instructions linked in step 3.
Can you deal with Greek documents online while abroad?
Yes. Working TAXISnet credentials and the required mobile verification allow you to use services such as online gov.gr authorisations. Whether a particular authorisation is sufficient depends on the task and the organisation receiving it. Some matters require a notarial power of attorney.
Is home insurance compulsory for a flat?
It is generally voluntary for a privately owned flat, although your mortgage or contract may require cover. A qualifying policy can reduce ENFIA. Cover for long periods of vacancy depends on the policy, so disclose your intended absence and obtain written confirmation.
Does the plot-clearing rule apply to apartments?
The duty concerns specified plots and uncovered spaces, rather than the apartment interior. A building’s shared land or an apartment’s private outdoor area may need consideration. Ask the municipality whether the rules apply and who is responsible.
You have a property on the Athens Riviera. You live abroad. We can help look after it.
Apply for Home Watch Athens membership. Yanis aims to respond within 24 hours. An introductory call can help establish whether the service suits your home and the support you need.