Buying a Home in Greece With a Tenant in Place: The Lease, the Deposit and the Way Out
In Greece a sale does not end a lease: a buyer steps into the landlord's shoes, deposit and all. Here is what you inherit, how the tax declaration moves to you, and how long it really takes to get the keys back.
A Greek home with a tenant in it is a different purchase from an empty one, and mostly bad news for anyone who wants to live there soon. A sale does not break a lease: the buyer becomes the landlord on the same terms, deposit included, and owner occupation is no reason to end a residential tenancy early. For an investor, a sitting tenant can be a plus; for anyone else, price in every month until the keys come back. Rules and figures as they stood in October 2026, checked against the Civil Code, Law 1703/1987, Law 5221/2025, the tax authority’s (AADE) guidance and the Greek legal press.
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Tenancy law turns on the wording of the lease and how it was declared, and Greek courts have not always agreed on the details below. Have your own lawyer read both before you sign anything.
A tenanted purchase in one minute. A lease with date certain — which electronic registration with the tax system gives — survives the sale and binds the buyer (Civil Code art. 614); without it, the buyer may end it on one or two months’ notice (art. 615). Residential leases run at least three years (Law 1703/1987, art. 2), rent may be prepaid only for the current month and the deposit is capped at two months’ rent. Own use is not a ground for early termination. Since 1 May 2026 a lawyer-issued repossession order (Law 5221/2025) still leaves a tenant at least six months from notice at expiry. The buyer files a new AADE lease declaration.
The lease survives the sale if it has a date certain
Article 614 of the Civil Code is the rule that matters. Where a lease is proven by a document of date certain and the landlord transfers ownership during it, the new owner “steps into the rights and obligations of the lease”, unless the lease says otherwise. The route to date certain that covers almost every modern tenancy is electronic registration of the lease with the tax system (TAXIS).
Article 615 covers the exceptions. If the lease has no date certain, or contains a clause allowing a new owner to remove the tenant, the buyer may terminate on one month’s notice for a lease of up to a year, or two months’ for a longer one, and the tenant keeps a damages claim against the seller. That sounds like an escape route, but an undeclared tenancy usually means undeclared rent and a tenant with every reason to make your first months difficult.
What you inherit: rent, term and deposit
Because you step into the lease as written, you inherit its rent, any indexation clause and its end date; a change of owner does not reset the rent. Law 1703/1987 adds two limits: rent may be paid in advance only for the current month, and a residential deposit may not exceed two months’ rent. A lease claiming a year’s rent paid upfront is a warning sign, not a bargain.
The deposit is where buyers get caught. One line of Greek case law says the new owner owes nothing because they never received the money; the line endorsed in the commentary I found, backed by Areios Pagos rulings from 1997 to 2001, says the new owner must return it. My view: assume it is yours to repay and have it deducted from the price in the preliminary contract, which should also say who keeps the current month’s rent and any arrears.
The tax declaration moves to you, not the lease
The lease carries on, but the AADE record does not update itself. The tax authority’s published FAQ says that a new person who becomes landlord by acquiring the property files a new lease declaration in their own name, noting the original lease in the comments field; the tenant normally confirms it on myAADE. Until then you cannot declare the rent correctly, and it is taxed as described in rental yields in Crete.
The declaration matters beyond tax. The repossession procedure under Law 5221/2025 works only where the lease is proven by a written document or at least an electronic declaration the tenant has accepted.
Ending the lease: the term, the notice and no own-use shortcut
Owner occupation is not a ground for ending a residential lease early, and commentary on Law 5221/2025 says so plainly: early termination for own use or for a sale is not allowed. The three-year minimum applies even where the lease names a shorter term. You wait for the end of the term, or negotiate a surrender, which may mean paying the tenant to leave on an agreed date.
When the term ends, the procedure in force since 1 May 2026 is a bailiff-served notice at least three months before expiry, then a repossession order issued by a certified lawyer, enforceable two months after service; the tenant can object within 15 working days. Legal commentary sums it up as at least six months for the tenant to move. For unpaid rent it is a 15-day notice and a 20-day execution period. If you are buying to live in, count from the lease’s real end date plus six months, not from completion. Renting long-term before you buy covers the same rules from the tenant’s side.
Short-let bookings on a registered property
A holiday let is different. Under article 111 of Law 4446/2016 the short-let register is kept by the AADE, and the person who registers each property and declares each stay is the “manager”, who may be the owner, a tenant or a third party. The registration and the bookings sit with the seller, not with the property.
I could not find AADE guidance on what happens to a register entry or to future bookings when the property is sold, nor a clear answer on whether article 614 would bind a buyer to a platform booking. So the preliminary contract should say either that the seller cancels everything after completion at their own cost, or that named bookings pass to you with the guests’ payments credited. My assumption is that you will register the property in your own name and meet the standards in renting out your Crete home before taking bookings of your own.
Documents to ask for, and what it does to price
Ask the seller, through your lawyer, for the signed lease and every amendment; the AADE declaration receipt showing the tenant’s acceptance; bank evidence of a year’s rent; written confirmation of the deposit; any notice served or court case; and the common-charges and utility position. For a short let, add the register number and a list of future bookings with money taken. Access for your engineer depends on goodwill: the statute gives the landlord one visit a quarter with an expert, to check the property is properly used, and says nothing about showing it to buyers. Fold all of this into the seller’s file described in the buying process.
On price, I could not find a published Greek figure for a sitting-tenant discount. My view: a let home is worth about the same to an investor and clearly less to an owner-occupier, and the discount worth arguing for is the cost of the months until vacant possession — rent you would pay elsewhere, plus any surrender payment.
The honest downside
The rules favour the tenant, deliberately. Buying the property does not buy you out of the lease, you may owe a deposit you never saw, and even the faster repossession route builds in six months at the end of the term. A seller who promises the tenant “will leave” is offering a hope, not a legal position, unless the tenant has signed a surrender agreement.
Disclosure: Honest Crete does not sell or list property. Enquiries sent from this section go to a licensed estate agent, not to us; the full statement is below. Nothing in this article names a developer, a property, a lawyer, a notary, a letting agent or any other professional, and it never will.
Worth it if you are buying for income, the lease is declared and accepted on myAADE, the rent is paid by bank and the deposit is credited against the price. Skip it if you need to live in the home within the next year or two, or if the seller cannot show you a declared lease and a clean rent history.
Does a lease end when a property is sold in Greece?
No. Under article 614 of the Greek Civil Code, a lease proven by a document of date certain survives the sale, and the buyer steps into the seller's rights and obligations as landlord. A lease declared electronically to the tax authority is generally treated as having date certain, so in practice almost every declared lease binds the buyer.
Can I evict a tenant to move into a flat I bought in Greece?
Not before the lease ends. Owner occupation is not a ground for ending a residential lease early in Greece, and commentary on Law 5221/2025 says so plainly: early termination for own use or for a sale is not allowed. You wait for the agreed term, with a minimum of three years under Law 1703/1987, or you agree a surrender with the tenant.
Who returns the tenant's deposit after a Greek property sale?
Greek courts have been split, but several Areios Pagos rulings hold that the new owner, having stepped into the lease, must return the deposit even though the seller received it. A buyer should assume the liability is theirs and have the deposit credited against the price in the contract. Law 1703/1987 caps a residential deposit at two months' rent.
How long does it take to get vacant possession of a let home in Greece?
At least until the lease term ends, and then roughly six months more if the tenant will not leave. Under Law 5221/2025, in force since 1 May 2026, the landlord serves a bailiff notice at least three months before expiry, and a lawyer-issued repossession order can be enforced two months after it is served.
What happens to the AADE lease declaration when a let property is sold?
The AADE's published guidance says the new landlord files a new lease declaration in their own name, citing the original lease in the comments field. The tenant normally confirms it on myAADE. Until that is done the rent cannot be declared correctly by the new owner.
Do I have to honour Airbnb bookings when I buy a holiday let in Crete?
Short-term bookings are contracts between the seller, as registered manager under Law 4446/2016, and the guests, and I could not find official guidance on what a sale does to them. The safe route is to decide in the preliminary contract whether the seller cancels them before completion or hands them over with the guests' payments credited to the buyer.
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