Greece raises property purchase tax to 15% for non-EU citizens — Serbs hit too

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced, as the Serbian daily Danas reports, an increase in the residential property transfer tax for buyers coming from countries outside the European Union — from around 3% (3.09%) to a full 15%, possibly applying from 2027.

The reason, according to the Greek government, is the high demand from foreign buyers in some areas of Greece, which has pushed property prices up and is making it increasingly difficult for Greeks to buy their own home. The higher tax aims to drive away some third-country buyers and ease pressure on prices, Danas writes.

A concrete example shows the scale of the hit: according to the portal Nikana, for a property worth 150,000 euros the current tax is around 4,635 euros, while at the announced rate it would reach approximately 22,500 euros — so the purchase would cost nearly 18,000 euros more.

The change does not affect existing owners — they will not pay the difference retroactively — but it could hit them when they sell, if buyers from Serbia lose interest in their properties, Danas writes. For now, however, this is only an official political announcement: as Nikana reports, there is still no published draft law, it has not been voted in parliament, it has not appeared in the Greek Official Gazette, and neither the exemptions nor the transitional rules are known.

Many questions remain open, Nikana writes: what happens if, alongside a Serbian passport, you also hold a passport of an EU country (e.g. Croatian, Hungarian or Bulgarian) — logic says the tax should not apply, but confirmation in the law’s text is awaited; whether the measure will affect land and business premises — Mitsotakis used the word “katoikia”, which means a residential object: houses and apartments; how Serbian citizens with permanent residence or tax residency in Greece will be treated; married couples where one spouse is an EU citizen and the other Serbian; purchases through an EU-registered company; or co-ownership with EU citizens.

Meanwhile, purchases completed this autumn continue under the old rules, with the 3.09% tax; if the law is adopted, a transitional period is expected for processes already underway, Nikana reports.