Real estate in Greece is divided into two main categories:
- Properties within a town plan, and
- Properties outside a town plan.
For land plots located outside a town plan (the “outside area”), a fundamental distinction is made between:
- ordinary agricultural plots, hereinafter referred to as parcels; and
- agricultural plots arising from state land distribution (klirotemachia).
Definitions, town plan, buildability, building area
The term “agricultural plots from state land distribution” (klirotemachia) refers to properties that the State granted to landless farmers in the context of agricultural land‑distribution measures (agrotikos kliros) for agricultural use or as compensation to displaced persons. The reason was the reception of refugees displaced after the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the population exchange with Turkey from 1922 onward. The displaced persons, who had lost all their possessions in their former homeland, received from the Greek State, as compensation, areas from land distribution on Greek territory. These land‑distribution areas are
Parcels in the outside area are plots located outside a town plan, used for agricultural purposes, and not originating from state land distribution.
Properties located either within a town plan (planned inner area) or within a settlement are, by contrast, building plots (oikopeda). A building plot (oikopedo) is a plot of land that, under public‑law provisions, may be built upon or is buildable. Under Greek law, this also includes areas within a settlement for which no formal plan exists. Such areas may also lie within an unplanned inner area (entos oikistikis zonis) or even in the outside area (ektos schediou).
Unlike many other legal systems, Greek law allows the construction of buildings even outside a town plan or an unplanned inner area—that is, in the outside area. Depending on the type and intended use of the structure to be erected, the relevant building regulations set the building factor and the buildable area according to the size of the property. In the outside area, construction on a parcel is only permitted if the parcel has a minimum area of 4,000 sq m; for example, with an area of 4,000 sq m, the construction of a building with a living area of up to 186 sq m is permitted.
In order to build in Greece, a property must, in principle, be both “suitable” (artio) and “buildable” (oikodomisimo). A property is “suitable and buildable” if, by virtue of its layout and characteristics in aesthetic, structural, and economic terms, it can be adequately used and, under the building/public‑law and other applicable provisions, a structure may be erected upon it. It follows that a property that is only suitable or only buildable may nonetheless not be buildable due to the absence of additional characteristics. The assessment of whether a property is suitable and buildable is carried out by a topographer/surveyor and a civil engineer and is confirmed by affixing the corresponding stamp to the topographic plan.
(As of March 2023. All information provided without guarantee.)