Lawyer, notary, agent, engineer: who does what in a Greek purchase, and what each one costs

A purchase in Greece has four professionals in it, and the mistake foreigners make is to assume they are a team. They are not. The notary works for the state, the agent works for whoever is paying — usually both sides, which is to say neither — and the seller’s engineer works for the seller. The only one of the four who works for you is the one you appoint yourself, and this article exists because people arrive at the notary’s desk with three of the four chosen by the other side.

The fees below are the conventions in 2026 with the law’s scales where they exist; every figure carries 24% VAT on top, and every figure is what you should expect, not a quote.

I am not a lawyer, a notary, an agent or an engineer, which is rather the point: this article tells you what each one is for, so that you can read the invoice.

The lawyer: the only one on your side

A lawyer is no longer legally required at a Greek deed, which is the most expensive fact a foreign buyer can learn. In practice every purchase I have seen go right had one and most that went wrong did not. The lawyer searches the title at the registry or the Cadastre back through the years — twenty is the conventional minimum — to confirm that the seller owns what is being sold, that every heir on the chain has accepted and signed, that there are no mortgages, prenotations, seizures or pending claims, and that the plot on the title is the plot on the ground. The lawyer drafts or reviews the pre-contract, holds or witnesses the deposit, reviews the engineer’s papers, and — if you are abroad — acts under a power of attorney so that the deed can be signed without you flying in.

Fees were liberalised years ago. The convention is 0.5–1% of the price, or a fixed fee agreed in writing at the start, plus VAT; more for a complicated title, less for a clean apartment. Choose your own. The agent will offer one, the seller will suggest one, and both offers should be declined politely, because a lawyer with two clients has none.

The notary: the state’s officer, mandatory and neutral

In Greece the notary is not a clerk who stamps things; the notary is a public official who drafts the deed, checks every document attached to it — the engineer’s certificate, the energy certificate, the tax and municipal clearances, the Cadastre extract — files the transfer-tax return electronically before signing, reads the deed aloud, and executes it. Nothing transfers without the notary, and nothing is registered until the deed is filed at the Cadastre afterwards. The notary is neutral between the parties; that is the point of the office, and it is why the notary is not a substitute for your lawyer.

Fees follow a scale set by law, falling as the price rises: roughly 0.8–1% of the taxable value at typical Cretan prices, plus VAT, plus small sums for copies and filings. The buyer pays. The notary can be chosen by either side; the choice matters less than for the lawyer, because the office is neutral, but a notary used to foreign buyers and to the interpreter requirement is worth asking for.

The agent: for whoever signed

Greek agents are licensed and registered, and their fee is a contract, not a tariff. The convention in Crete is around 2% plus VAT from each side, and it is negotiable; on new-build complexes the developer usually carries the buyer’s side of it. The rule that matters is that you owe an agent only what you agreed in writing, and that the viewing form you signed before being shown a house may be that agreement. Read it. If you signed nothing, you owe nothing, whatever is said at the end.

An agent can be excellent — knowing what is actually for sale in a village where nothing is listed, and who the heirs are, is real value. What an agent cannot be is neutral, and translating the notary’s reading of the deed is not a job for someone whose fee depends on the signature. The article on the buying process shows where the agent sits in the sequence and where the agent should not.

The engineer: two of them, and one is yours

The law requires, for every deed, an engineer’s certificate that the building has no illegal constructions beyond what the permit allows — or that whatever was illegal has been regularised and paid — together with a topographic plan in the national coordinate system. That certificate is the seller’s to procure and the seller’s engineer to sign, and it is valid for two months. It says what the law requires; it does not say whether the roof leaks, whether the extension was regularised on paper only, or whether the structure was built to the code in force when it was permitted. The article on illegal constructions explains why that certificate is where Cretan purchases go wrong most often.

So you appoint your own. A pre-purchase check by an engineer you pay — permit against building, plot against title and against the Cadastre, structure, services, the forest-map and shoreline status for a plot — costs a few hundred euros and is the best money in the whole transaction. It gets its own article, the engineer’s check. An energy performance certificate is also required for the sale; the seller procures it.

Putting the fees together

On a €300,000 resale with an agent: lawyer around €2,000–3,000, notary around €2,500–3,000, agent around €6,000, your engineer a few hundred, the registry around €1,500, all plus VAT where it applies, plus the transfer tax of 3.09% — the article on costs does the full sum at 8–11%. The two you could cut are the lawyer and your engineer. They are the two you should not.

The honest downside

Four professionals, four invoices, 24% VAT on almost everything, and a structure in which the only people legally required — the notary and the seller’s engineer — are the two who are not working for you. The lawyer you choose yourself will sometimes be slower than the agent’s tame one, because the agent’s tame one has a reason to be quick. The interpreter requirement at the deed is real and a good thing and adds an hour. And the agent’s agreement can be the form you signed on a hot afternoon to see a house. None of it is a trick; all of it rewards reading.