The following information is a guide only, you should seek legal advice before entering into any purchase agreement.
Restrictions on property buying in Corfu have been lifted since Greece joined the EU and it is now possible to purchase property in your own right if you are an EU citizen.
There are three basic options on property purchase:
(Click on the subject that you wish information on)
1. Buy land and built your own home on it.
2. Buy an existing property with a modern building
3. Buy an old house and restore it
1. Land purchase.
You will need specific requirements to get a Building permit.
There are three types of land.
Within the town planning zone.
Depending on the size of the block you can built a certain percentage on it but you can work on an average of 70%.
Size of lands (Sq.m.) building allowance (sq.m.)
100 160
240
300
360
400 and over 400
A block can be subdivided but the subdivide blocks need a street frontage. The frontage has to be a certain size. Around 12 meter frontage is the average but every area in Corfu is different so you need to check with your architect. The street could be a passageway as long as more than one person is using it for access to other properties. You could make a road trough your land and donate it to the council. That will then help you subdivide your property.
Within 500m from the town planning zone
If your land is 2.000 sq. and it's 500m from the town planning zone you are allowed to built a 200 sq. of building.
c) Outside the zone.
You need a minimum of 4.000 sq.m. of land for a building permit up to 200 sq.m.
Building a new home will require an engineer and an architect. Their fees together with the builders insurance (IKA) are around 3.000.000 dr.
2. Modern buildings
All modern buildings are well in demand by the local market so not many are available so the prices are quite high for Greek standards. It will still be much cheaper than building from scratch.
There is a new company now that will soon offer packages of new buildings with land. please click here for more information.
3. Old homes
There are many old charming stone houses in need of restoration available.
The locals in favor of moving nearer to the beach resorts to benefit from the tourist trade have abandoned many of them. Others have moved overseas or in larger cities.
They tend not to be interested in heritage and conservation, so there are some bargains around. Some properties will not have electricity or water supply. To get electricity you need a letter from the local council representative that the house was built before 1954. No restrictions for water supply.
Some will not have drainage or septic tanks.
When restoring an old property you will have to keep the exterior as original as possible retaining as many of the original material. No aluminum windows, doors, shutters are allowed. The roof tiles have to be the traditional yellow – cream colors not the red French tiles. There are no restrictions on the inside. It could be changed to suit the taste, however you should try to retain as much of the original character. Polished timber floors instead of modern tiling is a better approach.
A grant of 40% is available for restorations aimed for farm tourism projects.
Remember that during the winter most beach resorts close down and only the old original villages are occupied. Therefor you should bare this in mind when you look at property purchasing. Some villages could be very quite with only few older locals living there while others are a lot livelier. The locals have modernized the traditional character of the buildings in the popular villages while the other villages have retained their character.
Would you like more information? Send us an e-mail by clicking here & we will be happy to extend any help we can.
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