Before acquiring a property in Greece, every buyer should have a lawyer examine and verify the ownership situation of the plot.
In particular, the seller’s status as owner should be examined. The background to this is the need to avoid acquiring from a person not entitled to sell: unlike German law, Greek real estate law does not recognise good-faith acquisition of real property. Good-faith acquisition is possible in Greece only in relation to movable property.
From the personal land registry to the object-based cadastre
The classical Greek land registry was organised by name (as a register of persons) rather than by parcel or by the location of the property. From the land registry of a district or a municipality, it was therefore only possible to establish what property holdings a given person had in that district, or what notarial transactions that person had carried out there.
The classical land registry office (Ypothikofylakeio) maintains several books that together form a unit and are kept in the same office building: the transcription register, the mortgage register, the seizure register, and the vindication register.
The necessary information on a person’s property holdings in the relevant municipality can be established from the totality of these registers; encumbrances are found in the mortgage register, seizures in the corresponding register.
The new, object-based land registry and cadastral office (Ktimatologio) is now being built up nationwide, organised no longer by name but by plot. The former 392 classical land registries were, in the course of this reform, converted into 79 modern cadastral offices. Nationwide mapping had, by mid-2026, reached around 99% completion; full completion of the Ktimatologio is targeted for the end of 2026.
Land registry entries carry no public faith
To date, neither the classical land registry nor — until the ongoing reform is complete — the Ktimatologio consistently maintains a central record of a person’s entire property holdings in Greece, or of the totality of transactions relating to a particular plot. A land registry search is therefore always limited to the relevant district: where a person owns plots in several locations in Greece, separate searches must be carried out at all the competent offices. A correct land registry search accordingly requires not only the owner’s full personal details but also the precise location of the plot.
It should in particular be noted that, under Greek law, land registry entries do not carry public faith. The reason is that the land registries have historically reviewed not the substantive lawfulness (a legality check) but merely the formal regularity of entries. An ineffective agreement on the transfer of ownership is not cured by registration; conversely, despite a formally valid purchase contract and proper registration, lawful ownership cannot be acquired if the seller was not themselves the lawful owner. As the Ktimatologio continues to be built up, this situation is increasingly improving, although it does not yet bring with it the full public faith found in German land registry law.
The classical land registry search begins with an inspection of the alphabetically organised register books (vivlia meridon), which refer on to the other books of the land registry office.
The 20-year review and adverse possession
Because good-faith acquisition of real property is not possible in Greece, the institution of adverse possession has, by contrast, become strongly developed (Articles 1045 et seq. of the Greek Civil Code). Under these provisions, automatic, original acquisition of ownership occurs after ten years (ordinary adverse possession) or after 20 years (extraordinary adverse possession). For this reason, it is standard practice to trace the previous transfers of ownership of a plot back over a period of at least 20 to 30 years, in order to rule out possible adverse-possession claims by third parties.
In locations where the Ktimatologio has already been introduced, a supplementary check at the historical land registry office remains advisable in so far as older legal transactions are concerned.
Carrying out the search
The duration of a land registry search depends significantly on the extent of past transfers and the nature of earlier contracts. Besides a full search carried out by a lawyer, it is also possible to request a simple certificate of register entries (merides) from the land registry office; this, however, contains only a brief overview and does not replace a review of the underlying contracts. Where the transfer history is extensive, a full search carried out by a lawyer is therefore generally both faster and more reliable, and is recommended.
FAQ
Because, under the classical system, no “good-faith acquisition” is possible when buying property in Greece, only a complete review of the chain of title protects the buyer. It must be established that the seller is in fact the true owner and that the property can be transferred free of encumbrances, seizures, or legal disputes.
In Greece it is standard practice to check the ownership situation at least 20 years back. This is due to the statutory period for “extraordinary adverse possession”: after 20 years of undisturbed possession as owner, a person becomes the lawful owner under Greek law, even if the original title of acquisition was defective. The backward-looking review ensures that no hidden third-party claims arising from adverse possession exist.
Yes. In 2026, the search is, as standard, carried out electronically by lawyers via secure state portals, since the new cadastral office (Ktimatologio) is now in operation across almost the entire country. Nevertheless, an on-site inspection of the archives of the old land registries is sometimes still necessary, in order to verify historical contracts or old handwritten notes for the purposes of the 20-year review.
In Greece, the search is carried out exclusively by a licensed lawyer. On completion of the review, the lawyer prepares a detailed, legally binding search report for the buyer, which is also made available to the notary. Under the old land registry system, there was no summary “land registry extract” of the kind familiar from German practice. With the new Ktimatologio, however, this has changed: there is now the so-called cadastral sheet (Ktimatologiko Fyllo), which brings together all current ownership rights and encumbrances transparently in a single document.
As of June 2026. All information on these pages is provided without guarantee or liability.