The tax number and the bank account: the first fortnight of buying a home in Greece
Nothing happens without an AFM and nowhere to put the money. How the Greek tax number is issued to foreigners in 2026 — online, by video call or through a representative — what a Greek bank actually asks before it opens an account, and the order to do it in so the deposit is not the thing that waits.
Nobody comes to Crete to open a bank account. They come for the house, and the house is where the attention goes, and then a notary asks for a nine-digit number and a bank asks for a folder of documents and the deposit deadline is Friday. I have watched this happen to careful people. It is the most avoidable delay in the whole process and it costs two weeks that nobody budgets for.
This is the article about those two weeks. The rules are as verified in August 2026; the tax authority has moved most of this online in the last three years, and the banks have gone the other way and become slower, so the order in which you do things matters more than it used to.
I am not an accountant and this is not tax advice. It is the order to do things in, which is the part nobody tells you.
The first fortnight in one minute. A Greek tax number — the AFM — before anything else, issued through the myAADE portal with a video-call identity check or via your lawyer as representative; days, not weeks. Then a Greek bank account, which wants your passport, AFM, home address, the origin of your money and patience; weeks, not days. The money for the house must travel through a bank in a traceable way. An AFM does not make you a taxpayer here; it makes you findable. Do both before you agree a price, not after.
The AFM: what it is and why it comes first
The AFM — arithmos forologikou mitroou, the tax registry number — is the Greek equivalent of a UK UTR or an American SSN for tax purposes. It goes on the deed, on the transfer-tax return the notary files before you sign, on the bank’s records, on the property declaration you must file within a month of buying, and on every ENFIA bill afterwards. A notary cannot draft a contract without one. It is also needed to buy a car, sign a phone contract or connect electricity, which is why people who intend to live here end up using it weekly.
Getting it does not make you a Greek tax resident. A non-resident with an AFM is taxed here on Greek-source income and on the property itself, nothing more. Residency is about where you live, which the article on living in Crete year-round and the question of 183 days are about; the number is just the number.
How it is issued in 2026
Non-residents come under the tax office for foreign residents, and the application goes through the tax authority’s portal, myAADE. Two ways to prove who you are. The first is a video call — the authority runs an identification service in Greek and English — after which the number and the portal credentials are issued to you directly. The second is a representative who already holds AADE credentials, almost always your lawyer, who files on your behalf under a notarised power of attorney and a signed acceptance. The second route is the one most buyers abroad use, because the same power of attorney covers the purchase.
The documents are not exotic: a valid passport (or EU identity card), your full foreign address, your home-country tax identification number, an email and a phone. If you apply through a representative, the power of attorney and their acceptance. Appointing a formal tax representative in Greece used to be compulsory for non-residents and is now optional; your lawyer will tell you whether it is worth doing in your case.
Allow a few working days. If anything takes longer it is usually a document that needed an apostille or a translation, which is why the lawyer asks for everything at once.
The bank account: the real bottleneck
A Greek bank account is where the price of the house lands before it moves to the seller, and it is also where foreign buyers lose the most time. The banks have tightened since the money-laundering rules of the last decade, and a non-resident opening an account is a file, not a form.
Expect to be asked for your passport, your AFM, proof of your address abroad, proof of the origin of your funds — tax returns, payslips, pension statements, the sale contract for the home you sold — a mobile number, and often to appear in a branch in person at least once. Some banks will open an account for a non-resident only with an introduction or with the purchase already in progress; some open it in a week, some in a month. Your lawyer will know which branch in which town is currently sensible, and that knowledge is worth the fee.
Two practical points. First, keep the paperwork of the transfer in: the bank’s record of money arriving from abroad is the document you will want later if you ever need to show where the money came from, and if you ever want to take it out again. Second, the account is a cost: Greek banks charge for accounts, for transfers and for cards, and a dormant non-resident account can be closed. Ask.
How the money has to move
The price of a property in Greece must move through the banking system in a traceable way. The notary records the method of payment in the deed — a transfer to the seller’s account, or a banker’s draft drawn on yours — and cash is illegal above a trivial limit for property. The practical consequence is that your money must be in a Greek account, or at least transferable into one, on the day of the deed, and that any currency conversion has to happen before that, with its own delay. The article on what buying costs covers the fees and taxes that also fall due in that last fortnight; the article on the process covers where the deed sits in the sequence.
The order, and why people get it wrong
Find the house, agree the price, pay a deposit, then start the paperwork — that is the order most people follow and it is backwards. The deposit is paid under a pre-contract with a date in it, the date arrives, the account is not open, and the seller either waits or does not. I know of deposits lost for this. The right order is AFM, bank account, lawyer, and then the house. Two weeks of dull tasks before you are allowed to fall in love with anything, which is good advice in general.
The honest downside
The tax number is genuinely easier than it was; the bank account is genuinely harder, slower and more intrusive, and there is nothing you or your lawyer can do to make a compliance department hurry. You will be asked for documents that feel like an accusation — that is the law, not the bank’s opinion of you — and you will be asked for them in a format that needs apostilles, translations and a notary at home. The whole of this fortnight is paperwork with no romance in it, and it is the fortnight that decides whether the romance happens on schedule.
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.
Worth it if you do the AFM and the account first, with a lawyer, before you have a house in mind — it is the cheapest insurance in the whole purchase. Skip it if you were hoping to do any of this after the deposit; you cannot, and the deposit is what you risk.
Do I need a Greek tax number to buy property in Greece?
Yes, before anything else. The AFM goes on the deed, on the transfer-tax return, on the property declaration afterwards and on the bank account. Without it a notary cannot draft the contract. Getting one is the first step and it takes days, not weeks, if you bring the right documents.
How does a foreigner get a Greek AFM in 2026?
Online through the tax authority's myAADE portal, with your identity confirmed either by a video call — in Greek or English — or through a representative who already has AADE credentials, typically your lawyer, acting under a power of attorney. Non-residents come under the tax office for foreign residents. Appointing a tax representative is optional now, not mandatory.
Does having a Greek AFM make me a Greek taxpayer?
Not by itself. A non-resident with an AFM is taxed in Greece only on Greek-source income and on the property itself — ENFIA and the annual property declaration. Tax residency is decided by where you actually live, not by having a number.
Can I open a Greek bank account as a non-resident?
Yes, but banks are cautious and slow about it. Expect to show a passport, your AFM, proof of your home address, proof of the origin of your funds — tax returns, payslips or pension statements — a phone number and sometimes an in-person visit. Start early; the account is the bottleneck more often than the tax number.
Do I have to pay for the property through a Greek bank?
The price has to move through the banking system in a traceable way, and in practice that means a transfer into a Greek account or a banker's draft drawn on one. Cash above a small limit is illegal for property, and the notary records how the money moved. The bank also wants the import of the funds documented if you later need to prove where the money came from.
What order should I do things in?
AFM first, bank account second, then the lawyer's checks on the property, then the money moves, then the deed. People do it backwards — find the house, agree a price, then discover the account takes three weeks — and lose the house or the deposit window. Two weeks of paperwork before you fall in love with anything.
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