# The storeroom that became a bedroom: converting a basement, pilotis, attic or veranda into living space in Greece

> Ground-floor storerooms, basements, closed-in verandas and pilotis turned into rooms or whole flats are everywhere in Crete. What a change of use needs under the 2026 planning code, why most such conversions are unauthorised works to settle, how semi-open spaces are treated, what it does to ENFIA, the E9 and the deed, why it can block a sale, and why in an apartment block the neighbours have a say.

- Canonical URL: https://honestcrete.com/buying/converting-a-storeroom-or-basement-into-living-space-greece/
- Author: Fotis (Honest Crete, Heraklion)
- Section: Buying property in Crete · Stage: Owning
- Rules verified: November 2026 · Updated: 2026-11-01 · Published: 2026-11-01
- How to cite: "Honest Crete — The storeroom that became a bedroom: converting a basement, pilotis, attic or veranda into living space in Greece (rules verified November 2026), https://honestcrete.com/buying/converting-a-storeroom-or-basement-into-living-space-greece/"
- Disclosure: Honest Crete does not sell or list property and nobody here is an estate agent. Enquiries sent from this section go to a licensed, registered estate agent, not to us. No article names a developer or a specific property. Adverts on these pages are labelled as adverts and buy no say in the text.
- Sources:
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 197 (read November 2026) — definitions: main-use spaces (bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens; 2.50 m clear height for buildings after 4 July 2012) and auxiliary spaces (storerooms, plant rooms, parking); a semi-open space is covered, unheated and open on at least 35% of its perimeter; a basement's ceiling is no more than 1.20 m above ground; an attic is not a storey and cannot be a separate property: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/197
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 366 (read November 2026) — an unauthorised change of use is any change of use without the required building permit; «planning violations» include changing a main space to another permitted use in a plan area and turning an underground auxiliary space into main use beyond the coefficient: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/366
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 199 as amended by law 5322/2026 art. 56 (read November 2026) — a change of use is allowed where the planning rules allow the new use; a building permit and an update of the Electronic Building Identity where structure, services or the building diagram are affected, otherwise the identity update alone; new paragraph 3A: outside plans, a lawful building may be converted to housing once, within its existing shell and with no increase in volume, floor area or coverage; where the building carries deviations granted by 31.12.2025, the change is conditional on a one-off fee of 5% of the land's objective value paid to the Green Fund: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/199
  - Taxheaven, law 5322/2026 art. 56 (read November 2026) — homes created by the new conversion routes to housing (the last subparagraph of art. 199 §3 and §3A) may not be let short-term for at least five years from completion of the change of use: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5322/2026/arthro/56
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 383 (read November 2026) — works and changes of use up to 28.7.2011: category 1, changes of use before 1975 in mainly residential buildings, €250 and no fine; category 4 δδ, changes of use in plan areas where the use is permitted; δε, unauthorised semi-open spaces outside plans up to 60% over coverage and building coefficient, excluded if more than 20 cm into the front garden; category 5 εα, all other works and changes of use, 30-year suspension; the special category 5 routes (auction, inheritance and others) mostly closed by 31.12.2025: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/383
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 389 (read November 2026) — declarations of all categories ran to 30.9.2020; from then until 31.3.2028 only categories 1–4 for works up to 28.7.2011, with surcharged fines: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/389
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 386 (read November 2026) — the settlement file: sworn statement, latest E9, photographs, plans, public documents or aerial photographs dating the work and the start of the use; closing a semi-open space needs an engineer's technical report instead of a structural study: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/386
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 439 (read November 2026) — semi-open spaces and basement or ground-floor spaces inside the volume of a permit issued or revised by 2.7.2009 and turned into main use may be kept for 40 years on a special fine, under the procedure of law 3843/2010; no retroactive tax is owed on them and for property tax they keep being counted as before: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/439
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 381 (read November 2026) — unauthorised works after 28.7.2011 are demolished, with an erection fine, a yearly maintenance fine of 50% of it and criminal sanctions: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/381
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 arts 367 and 368 (read November 2026) — a transfer of property with unauthorised works or uses is void unless an exception applies, such as a completed settlement or 30% of the fine paid; the planning violations of art. 366 §3 are exempt except, among others, the change of a main use and the underground auxiliary-to-main conversion; the engineer's certificate covers uses operating without a permit and is valid two months: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/368
  - Taxheaven, law 5306/2026 art. 385 (read November 2026) — in a plan area a co-owner may settle unauthorised works and changes of use regardless of the other co-owners' consent; extensions and occupation of common space only under conditions; outside the listed cases, settling and amending the deed of establishment need more than 50% of the co-owners: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/385
  - Lawspot (24 September 2025) — Council of State plenary 1616/2025 on law 4178/2013 art. 11: where there is no building regulation, works on common parts cannot be settled on a majority alone if other co-owners object; disputes over co-owners' rights in common parts belong to the civil courts; two members dissented: https://www.lawspot.gr/nomika-nea/taktopoiisi-aythaireton-kataskeyon-kai-hriseon-epi-koinohriston-meron-akinitoy-ste-ol/
  - Aftodioikisi (16 March 2026) — a surveyor-engineer, answering questions for a newspaper, on basements: a conversion to housing before 2011 is settled as an excess of the building coefficient; main use needs about 2.50 m of clear height, natural light and ventilation; the age is proved by E9 returns, contracts or leases: https://www.aftodioikisi.gr/oikonomia/ypogeia-akiniton-dieykriniseis-gia-nomimopoiisi-kai-axiopoiisi-toys/
  - Lawspot, law 4223/2013 article 4 (read November 2026) — ENFIA: auxiliary spaces taxed at a coefficient of 0.1; whether a space is main or auxiliary follows a Finance Ministry decision: https://www.lawspot.gr/nomothesia/n-4223-2013/arthro-4-nomos-4223-2013-ypologismos-toy-kyrioy-foroy/
  - Taxheaven, law 3427/2005 article 23, as replaced by law 5087/2024 article 56 (read November 2026) — an E9 is filed on acquiring property or on any change in it, by 31 January of the following year, whatever the owner's nationality or residence: https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/3427/2005/arthro/23
  - CNN Greece (15 October 2020) — reporting a newspaper's account: owners who legalised semi-open and unauthorised spaces would have to file amended E9s and would be called to pay ENFIA on the extra square metres for up to five past years; no AADE statement cited: https://www.cnn.gr/oikonomia/story/238464/anadromiko-enfia-pente-eton-tha-katavaloyn-osoi-apokalypsan-adilota-tetragonika

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The most common surprise in a Cretan house survey is not a crack; it is a room: a storeroom with a bed in it, a basement flat, a walled-in pilotis, a glazed veranda. Each is a change of use, and unless permitted, an unauthorised one that must be settled before a sale. Most can be settled for a fine if they existed by 28 July 2011; later ones mostly cannot. As checked in November 2026 against the Spatial Planning and Urban Planning Code (law 5306/2026), its July 2026 amendment, the ENFIA law, AADE and a 2025 Council of State ruling.

I am not a lawyer or an engineer, and this is not legal or engineering advice. Whether a particular space can become a room, and which category a past conversion falls in, is a question for an engineer who has measured it and read the permit.

**Converted spaces in one minute.** The code separates **main-use** spaces (bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens) from **auxiliary** ones (storerooms, plant rooms, parking) (**law 5306/2026, art. 197**). Any change of use without the required permit is **unauthorised** (**art. 366**). A lawful change needs the planning rules to allow the use, plus a **building permit** where structure or services are affected (**art. 199**). Conversions completed by **28 July 2011** can be settled under **art. 383**: before **1975** on **€250**, in plan areas as **category 4**. Categories 1–4 close on **31 March 2028**; new **category 5** declarations (a **30-year** suspension) closed in **2020** bar special cases; later works face **demolition** (**art. 381**). Unsettled, the property **cannot be sold** (**arts 367–368**). ENFIA taxes storerooms at **0.1** of the rate, so the **E9** must change too.

## Main use, auxiliary use, and why the label matters

[Article 197](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/197) of the code defines main-use spaces as those where people live and work, with a clear height of at least 2.50 metres in buildings after 4 July 2012; auxiliary spaces are the corridors, bathrooms, storerooms, plant rooms and parking. A basement's ceiling is no more than 1.20 metres above the finished ground, and a semi-open space (ημιυπαίθριος) is covered, unheated and open on at least 35% of its perimeter.

Main floor area is what the plot's building coefficient limits, explained in [building terms](https://honestcrete.com/buying/building-terms-what-you-can-build-crete/), so a storeroom that becomes a bedroom uses up coefficient that may not exist. An engineer quoted in March 2026 described a pre-2011 basement flat as settled exactly that way, as an excess of the coefficient, and a habitable room as needing about 2.50 metres of clear height, natural light and ventilation.

## A lawful change of use

[Article 366](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/366) is short: any change of use without the required building permit is unauthorised. [Article 199](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/199) sets the lawful route. A change is possible only where the planning rules allow the new use; where it affects the structure, the services or the building diagram, it needs a building permit and an update of the Electronic Building Identity, and otherwise the identity update alone. The July 2026 amendment (law 5322/2026, article 56) added a one-off route outside town plans: a lawful building may be converted to housing once, within its existing shell, with no added floor area; buildings carrying granted deviations also pay 5% of the land's objective value. Homes created by the new routes [may not be let short-term](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5322/2026/arthro/56) for at least five years.

If the plot's coefficient is used up, a lawful conversion may simply be impossible; get that in writing.

## The conversion that already happened: settlement

[Article 383](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/383) covers works and changes of use completed by 28 July 2011, outside the zones that can never be settled, set out in [illegal constructions](https://honestcrete.com/buying/illegal-constructions-afthaireta-crete/). Changes of use before 1975 in mainly residential buildings fall in category 1, on a €250 fee with no fine. In town plans, a change to a use the area permits is category 4, exempt from demolition once declared and the fine paid. Unauthorised semi-open spaces outside town plans are category 4 if they exceed coverage and building coefficient by no more than 60% and do not push more than 20 centimetres into the front garden. Everything else is category 5: a 30-year suspension of demolition, not legality, and new declarations closed on 30 September 2020 except special cases such as inheritance or auction, most of which ran out on 31 December 2025.

Applications for categories 1–4 are accepted until 31 March 2028 under [article 389](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/389); under article 386 the file includes the latest E9 and aerial photographs or public documents dating the work and the use. The 2010 scheme for semi-open, basement and ground-floor spaces turned into main use within a permit's volume survives in [article 439](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/439): kept for 40 years on a special fine. A conversion made after 28 July 2011 faces demolition, an erection fine, a yearly maintenance fine and criminal sanctions (article 381). For an old village house, what predates 1955 is a separate question, answered in [pre-1955 houses](https://honestcrete.com/buying/pre-1955-houses-crete-legal-status/).

## ENFIA, the E9 and the deed

ENFIA taxes auxiliary spaces at a coefficient of 0.1 under article 4 of law 4223/2013, so a storeroom used as a bedroom but declared as a storeroom pays a tenth of what a room would; the arithmetic is in [how ENFIA is calculated](https://honestcrete.com/buying/enfia-how-it-is-calculated-crete/). An E9 is due for any change in a property by 31 January of the following year, under [article 23 of law 3427/2005](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/3427/2005/arthro/23) as amended in 2024. A 2020 press report, citing a newspaper, said owners who legalised such spaces would be asked for ENFIA on the extra square metres for up to five past years; spaces kept under article 439 owe no retroactive tax. Agree in the contract who bears any past years.

The deed and the Cadastre will still say "storeroom". In a block, changing that amends the deed of establishment: unilateral only in the cases article 385 lists, otherwise needing more than half the co-owners.

## The sale, and the apartment block

Under article 367 a transfer of a property with unauthorised works or uses is void unless an exception applies. A completed settlement, or 30% of the fine paid, is one. Article 366's other "planning violations" are exempt too, except the ones that matter here, including the change of a main use and the underground auxiliary-to-main conversion. The engineer's certificate under [article 368](https://www.taxheaven.gr/law/5306/2026/arthro/368) must state that no use operates without a permit, or that any that does falls under an exception. Agree in writing who pays the settlement before the deposit.

In a block, two more filters apply. Article 385 lets a co-owner in a town plan settle works and changes of use inside their own flat regardless of the others' consent, but common parts are different: in [decision 1616/2025](https://www.lawspot.gr/nomika-nea/taktopoiisi-aythaireton-kataskeyon-kai-hriseon-epi-koinohriston-meron-akinitoy-ste-ol/) the Council of State plenary held that, without a regulation, a majority cannot settle works on common parts, such as a walled-in pilotis, over other co-owners' objections, and that disputes over those rights belong to the civil courts. And settling with the state does not rewrite the building regulation: if it limits a storeroom to storage, the neighbours can still enforce it. How regulations bind is in [common charges and building rules](https://honestcrete.com/buying/common-charges-and-building-rules-greek-apartments/), and why a converted basement is not a legal short let in [renting out your Crete home](https://honestcrete.com/buying/renting-out-your-crete-home/).

## The honest downside

The extra room often makes the price look reasonable, and has the least legal standing. A conversion after mid-2011 cannot be settled; a category 5 one buys thirty years, not the use; a settled room may sit on coefficient the plot never had. The tax catches up, the deed still says storeroom, and in a block the neighbours and the regulation keep their say. Pay for the room the permit shows.

*Disclosure:* 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, an engineer, a lawyer, a notary or any other business; AADE and the Council of State are named as the public institutions they are.

**The verdict.** **Worth it if** the conversion predates 28 July 2011, falls in category 1 to 4, is settled or priced in writing before the deposit, and fits the building regulation: then the extra room is a cost, not a trap. **Skip it if** the room was made after 2011, sits on a common part the neighbours object to, or the engineer says "category 5"; you would be buying a room the law does not recognise.

## Quick answers

**Can I turn a storeroom or basement into a bedroom in Greece?**

Turning a storeroom or basement into a bedroom in Greece is a change from auxiliary to main use. Under article 199 of the planning code (law 5306/2026) it is allowed only where the planning rules allow it, with a building permit where the structure, services or building diagram are affected, and the new main floor area generally has to fit the plot's building coefficient. Done without that, it is an unauthorised change of use under article 366.

**Can an illegal basement flat in Greece be legalised?**

A basement flat in Greece created by 28 July 2011 can usually be settled under article 383 of law 5306/2026: in a plan area as category 4 where the use is permitted. Category 1–4 applications run to 31 March 2028; new category 5 declarations, which only suspend demolition for 30 years, closed in September 2020 except in special cases. A conversion made after 28 July 2011 faces demolition and fines under article 381.

**What is a semi-open space (ημιυπαίθριος) in Greece?**

A semi-open space is a covered, unheated area open on at least 35% of its perimeter, the usual covered veranda, under article 197 of law 5306/2026. Closing one in turns it into floor area. Semi-open spaces built or closed by 28 July 2011 can often be settled under article 383, and those within a permit's volume turned into main use are kept for 40 years under article 439, which carries over the 2010 scheme.

**Can I buy a house in Greece with a converted storeroom that is not legalised?**

Not until the conversion is settled. Under article 367 of law 5306/2026 a transfer of a property with unauthorised works or uses is void unless an exception applies, and the engineer's certificate under article 368 must cover uses operating without a permit. Once the settlement is filed, paying 30% of its fine is enough for the sale to proceed; agree in writing who pays.

**Does a converted storeroom change ENFIA in Greece?**

Yes. ENFIA taxes auxiliary spaces such as storerooms at a coefficient of 0.1 under article 4 of law 4223/2013, so a space used as a room but declared as a storeroom is taxed at a tenth of the rate. An E9 is due for any change in a property by 31 January of the following year (law 3427/2005, art. 23), and a 2020 press report said legalised extra square metres would be charged ENFIA for up to five past years.

**Do I need my neighbours' consent to convert space in a Greek apartment building?**

Inside your own flat, often not for the settlement itself: article 385 of law 5306/2026 lets a co-owner in a plan area settle their own works regardless of the others' consent. A pilotis, roof or other common part is different: the Council of State held in 2025 that, without a regulation, a majority cannot settle works there over other co-owners' objections. The building regulation can still forbid the use.