# Paying for a house in Greece: transfers, proof of funds, and why cash is not an option > The price has to move through a bank, in your name, with a paper trail the notary writes into the deed. What the bank and the notary ask about where the money came from, how the deposit works, when the euros have to be in Greece, and the currency step everyone forgets. - Canonical URL: https://honestcrete.com/buying/paying-for-a-house-in-greece/ - Author: Fotis (Honest Crete, Heraklion) - Section: Buying property in Crete · Stage: Process - Rules verified: August 2026 · Updated: 2026-08-22 · Published: 2026-08-22 - How to cite: "Honest Crete — Paying for a house in Greece: transfers, proof of funds, and why cash is not an option (rules verified August 2026), https://honestcrete.com/buying/paying-for-a-house-in-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: - Lawzana — legal requirements for foreign property investment in Greece (June 2026): all transactions settled by bank transfer, cash prohibited, funds from an account in the buyer's name, source-of-funds screening under the EU anti-money-laundering framework: https://lawzana.com/articles/greece/legal-requirements-for-foreign-property-investment-in-greece-932 - Global Law Experts — how to transfer property in Greece 2026: AFM required, Greek account for domestic transfers, electronic property ID, deed registration at the Cadastre: https://globallawexperts.com/how-to-transfer-property-in-greece-2026/ - Urban Keys — buying property in Greece 2026: digital transfer file through gov.gr, transfer-tax declaration through myPROPERTY, registration at the Hellenic Cadastre: https://urbankeysrealestate.com/buying-property-greece-2026-documents-cadastre/ - Honest Crete — what buying in Crete really costs on top of the price (transfer tax 3.09%, fees with 24% VAT, the last-fortnight lump): https://honestcrete.com/buying/what-buying-in-crete-really-costs/ --- The moment in a Greek purchase that surprises people most is not the notary, the tax or the engineer. It is the discovery that the money has rules of its own: where it must come from, how it must travel, what it must carry with it, and that the seller — who in another country might take a cheque or a cash sweetener — cannot lawfully take either. This is the article about the money, from the first transfer to the day of the deed. I am not a banker or a lawyer. This is how it works in practice in 2026, verified against the rules and against what buyers on this coast tell me went wrong. **The money in one minute.** The price travels through a bank, from an account in your name, and the notary writes the method into the deed; cash is prohibited. The bank that receives the money and the notary who records it both want to know where it came from — tax returns, a sale, a pension, an inheritance — before it moves. The deposit is typically 10%, by transfer, under a written pre-contract with a date and a penalty. Convert to euros before the deed, not on the day. The money and the paperwork need to be in Greece a week before the signing, together with the taxes and fees that fall due in the same fortnight. ## Why the rules exist Greece spent a decade rebuilding its banking system after the crisis and the last five years aligning its anti-money-laundering law with Europe's, and property is where those two efforts meet. Every property payment is a reportable event. The notary is an officer of the state and files the transfer-tax return and the deed electronically; the bank is a regulated institution that must know its customer and the origin of the funds. Neither can look away, and neither will. The practical effect for an honest buyer is paperwork, delay, and one advantage: a clean, documented trail that you will want later if you sell, or if the tax office asks. ## Where the money comes from The bank will ask, and the question is not rhetorical. It wants the funds to originate in an account in your name and to be traceable to something that explains their existence: years of salary on payslips and tax returns, a pension, the completion statement from a house you sold, an inheritance with its grant, a documented gift. A large transfer from a parent's account, a business account, or a third country's bank without an explanation is not refused so much as stalled while the compliance department asks for documents you may not have to hand. Gather the proof before the purchase, not during the final fortnight. The same applies at the notary, who may ask how the price is being paid and from where, and who will in any case record the method — a transfer to the seller's named account, or a banker's draft drawn on yours — in the deed itself. The [article on the tax number and the bank account](https://honestcrete.com/buying/tax-number-and-bank-account-greece/) covers opening the account that makes all of this possible; do that first. ## The deposit Most purchases here have two stages: a pre-contract with a deposit, and the final deed. The deposit is commonly 10% of the price, though it is negotiable, and it is paid by bank transfer like every other payment. The pre-contract sets the completion date, the price, what is included and the penalty — by convention, the buyer who walks away loses the deposit, the seller who walks away returns double. Some buyers instead pay a small reservation sum to an agent to take the property off the market for a few weeks while the lawyer checks the title; that is a separate, smaller thing and should be refundable if the checks fail, in writing. The rule that matters: no deposit before a lawyer has read the title and the engineer has looked at the building. The [article on the process](https://honestcrete.com/buying/buying-property-in-crete-the-process/) puts the checks in order; a deposit paid early on a house with an heir missing or an [illegal extension](https://honestcrete.com/buying/illegal-constructions-afthaireta-crete/) is money you will spend a year trying to recover. ## Getting the money to Greece An international transfer to a Greek account takes one to three working days and then sits, for a large sum, in a compliance queue that can add days. The bank may phone you. It may ask for the documents again. It will not be hurried. Send the money a week before you need it, and send a test amount first to confirm the account details, because a six-figure transfer to a mistyped IBAN is a miserable week. Then the currency. The seller is paid in euros, and if your money is in pounds, dollars, francs or kronor, somebody converts it. Your home bank will do it at a rate and a fee that are rarely the best available; currency specialists exist for exactly this transaction and the difference on a €300,000 purchase can be thousands. Whichever you use, fix the rate in advance of the deed date rather than converting on the morning, when a bad week in the markets becomes the notary's fee all over again. ## The last fortnight The price is not the only money due at the end. The transfer tax is paid before the deed is signed; the notary, the registry, the lawyer and any agent are paid around the signing, most with 24% VAT on top; the engineer and the certificates a little before. The [article on the costs on top of the price](https://honestcrete.com/buying/what-buying-in-crete-really-costs/) adds them up at 8–11% with an agent. All of it lands in the same two weeks, in euros, in Greece, through the same account, and all of it needs the same paper trail. ## The honest downside The money rules are the part of a Greek purchase that you cannot charm, negotiate or shortcut. A compliance department has no deadline but yours. A missing document about money you earned honestly twenty years ago is a real delay. The currency step is an unhedged bet that people make by default because they did not know it was a bet. And a deposit paid out of enthusiasm, before the lawyer, is the single most common way people here lose five figures without anyone having cheated them. Treat the money with the same seriousness as the house and the rest of the process is, by comparison, pleasant. *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, a property or a professional, and it never will. **The verdict.** **Worth it if** your money is documented, in your name, and you are willing to move it a week early and convert it in advance. **Skip it if** any part of the plan involves cash, a relative's account without paperwork, or a deposit before the lawyer — each of those is a way to lose, not to save. ## Quick answers **Can I pay for a property in Greece in cash?** No. The price of a property must be paid through the banking system — a transfer to the seller's account or a banker's draft — and the notary records the method in the deed. Cash for property is prohibited, and a contract built on a cash payment is exposed to being void and to fines. This applies to the deposit as well as the balance. **Does the money have to come from an account in my own name?** Yes, in practice. Banks and notaries screening for money laundering want the funds to originate from an account held by the buyer, with the trail back to where the money came from — a salary, a pension, the sale of a home, an inheritance. A transfer from a friend or a relative's account raises questions that take weeks to answer. **What is 'proof of funds' for a Greek property purchase?** Documents that show where the money came from: tax returns, payslips, pension statements, the completion statement from a property you sold, bank statements covering the period, a gift declaration if it was a gift. The bank asks for it to open the account and to accept the incoming transfer; the notary may ask again. Prepare it before you need it. **How does the deposit work when buying in Crete?** Commonly 10% of the price, paid under a written pre-contract that sets the completion date and what happens if either side walks away — typically the buyer loses the deposit, the seller returns double. It is paid by bank transfer like everything else. Never pay a deposit before a lawyer has read the title; a deposit on a house with a problem is money you will fight for. **When does the money need to be in Greece?** Cleared and available on the day of the deed, which means in a Greek account — or at least in euros and ready to transfer — several days before. International transfers take one to three working days; the bank's compliance check on a large incoming sum can add more. Plan for the money to arrive a week early, not the morning of. **Can I pay the seller in pounds or dollars from my bank at home?** The seller is paid in euros. You can convert at your bank or through a currency specialist, and the rate and the fee differ materially on a six-figure sum. Lock the rate before the deed date rather than on it; a move of two percent in the wrong week is the notary's fee again.