Buying a New Building in Greece without VAT
Greece suspends the VAT until 31.12.2022 for completed new buildings that have not yet been sold and for new buildings that are currently under construction. Prospective buyers have the possibility to purchase new buildings without the particularly high VAT of 24% of the agreed purchase price and only have to pay the very low land transfer tax of 3% of the purchase price instead.
Until recently, VAT of 24% was incurred on the agreed purchase price as regards the acquisition of new buildings. With a purchase price of 300,000 euros, the buyer was thus obliged to pay an additional 72,000 euros in VAT. Especially in the case of sales to individuals, this taxation has shown to be an absolute obstacle to investment.
With a legislative initiative of 2019 (art. 39 of law 4646/2019 the VAT for completed and not yet sold new buildings, as well as for new buildings currently under construction, has been suspended until 31.12.2022.
The suspension of the VAT also applies to “older” new buildings as long as the property developers reported the completed buildings until 12.6.2020 accordingly and have applied to the tax office for the suspension of the VAT on these buildings.
For prospective buyers this means that they currently have access to a relatively large stock of new buildings (or buildings completed in recent years) at a considerably reduced purchase price. Instead of the 24% VAT, the purchase of such new buildings is now only subject to the considerably lower land transfer tax of 3% and the municipal tax which is only a further 3% of the land transfer tax. In fact, the ancillary acquisition costs are thus reduced by almost 21%.
When purchasing new buildings in Greece, only the following additional costs are currently incurred:
Ancillary Acquisition Costs | Old Scheme: Ancillary Costs Purchase of New Buildings at a purchase price of 300,000 Euro until 2019 | New Scheme: Ancillary Costs Purchase of New Buildings at a purchase price of 300,000 Euro 2020 – 2022 |
VAT 24 % | 72,000 Euro | none |
Land Transfer tax 3% | none | 9,000 Euro |
Municipal tax 3% of the Land Transfer tax | none | 90 Euro |
Land Registry and Cadastral Office ca. 0,5 % | 1,500 Euro | 1,500 Euro |
Notary costs ca. 1,2% | 3,600 Euro | 3,600 Euro |
Total | 77,100 Euro | 14,190 Euro |
Saving | 77,100 – 14,190 = 62,910 Euro | |
Brokerage and legal fees are to be added to the above mentioned costs. However, following this reform, the total incidental costs (including brokerage and legal fees) for the purchase of a new building in Greece are currently less than 10% of the purchase price.
For your qualified advice in individual cases, the employees of AP & Generalis are always available for a consultation in Athens or Berlin and, of course, by telephone or video conference (teams, zoom, Skype).