Buying Property on Corfu on Corfu – Greece

It´s totally worth it to buy a house in greece, it takes some time and patience and you need to doublecheck everything yourself. I will here try to assist you a little bit of my experience.

Buying property in Greece is a slow and somewhat complicated process. At first, I couldn´t get a real grip of it; but I spent time checking, and at the end I realize it wasn´t so complicated after all. It´s just that you dont´t get it all explained very well. You are just supposed to turn to a lawyer and then just put the trust in their hands.

But buying a house is one of the most expensive things you do in life, and I for certain wanted to know what was going on. The Greek lawyers I met; was not as professional as I expected; and had limited communication skills. Probably due to the language barrier, although the spoke english. Be careful and do important correspondance through e-mail; so you have everything agreed in black and white.

The lawyer and notarie did their job and could be trusted although they tried so scam me at the end by doubling the notaries fee. At least the job got done, and that´s the important thing.

But let´s start at the beginning.

The beginning – Purchase process

What country do you consider buying in?

Spain, Italy, Croatia, Portugal, France, Greece? For me I actually considerd India, but the flight is too long and I can´t stay for very long on each visit. Atlantic ocean is too cold and I have ni connection to Portugal. I have spent time in Spain and it´s great, especially if you know a bit of Spanish. Croatia is very friendly and clean, but the food is so narrowed down to Pizza and Pasta. I actually love the Island of Vis and the city Komiza. But as I have a connection with Greece, and it´s one of sunniest countries, this is my choice. I also know a little bit of Greek.

City	Hours of Sun
Valletta, Malta	2957
Marseille, France	2858
Lisbon, Portugal	2799
Athens, Greece	2771
Madrid, Spain	2769
Monaco, Monaco	2724
Nice, France	2724
Tirana, Albania	2544
Barcelona, Spain	2524
Podgorica, Montenegro	2480

Ok, but where in Greece?

I wanted to find a place on Corfu, that´s where I started my daydreaming. I had no budget and was looking maby to buy together with friends or family.

When my daydreaming evolved and I started to look more realistic of my choice, I thought it maby was better to find a place where you can go through Athens. There are always flights there and easier to find good prices.

I looked all around, and also to the Islands. My favorite Island there is Idra, but a bit more expensive. I concidered Idra a lot, but also the Peloponnese. Peleponnese is a favorite area sense my trips in the 90´s, also I got engaged there with my wife a couple of years ago. But also here it was hard to find a decent renovation project for my little budget. We took a vacation there again. We went to Idra (Hydra). Still such a lovely place. But the Island is small, and i fear´d maby i would het tired being so restricted. Also, I felt sorry for the donkeys there. As cars is not allowed on the island, the donkeys do all the carrying (also for building materials). I didn´t feel the donkeys were treated very well, carrying too heavy loads. Almost as a slavery business.

We went also to Monemvassia and further down. Then I realized, the distanses were to far. Flying to Athens or Kalamata, buy then what? Rent a car every time? To expensive for me, and to many hours of driving each time. Not a good idea.

I also was considering Samos, Rhodos and Santorini. Not my favorite places though, but Samos I like. The problem here is that there are fewer flights over the winter.

Suddenly Corfu appeared to be a very good choice again!

Benefits of Corfu:

• Direct flights June – September from Stockholm.
• An Island with a vast variety of beautiful beaches.
• Thousands of restaurants.
• A really big city, as beautiful as Trogir or Dubrovnik (Croatia).
• There are mountains for hiking.
• Close to the mainland, and many interesting places on the mainland. (Parga, Preveza and more).
• You can drive or take the bus to Corfu from Athens or Thessaloniki.
• There are boats to Igoumenitsa (mainland from Corfu), to Venice and Brindisi (Italy).
• There are beautiful islands close, such as Ithaka and Zakynthos.
• Corfu is very green and have a beautiful landscape.
• People are very friendly and they are used to tourists although it is so much more than a tourist Island.
• Corfu is influenced by Italy and have more variation than other Greek places.
• The airport is small and effective.
• There are buses all over the island for a low fee.
• There are fireflies.
• They have a donkey rescue center.
• A lot of cats of course.
• The food is even better than other places in Greece, a Greek friend say.

I began to search for a house on Corfu. But I didn´t know where the best location would be. After a lot of thinking and investigating, my list of choises was something like this:

Not to far up the mountains because

• The humidity is higher, and clouds can form for days. Colder, mold-problems, and foggy.
• Takes a long time to go there, because the roads serpentine.
• Narrow places can get jammed with traffic in summer when the tourist buses are busy.

Not to close to the sea because

• Mold problems caused by humidity from the ocean.
• Expensive
• Higher property tax

Not by the coast south of Corfu town (Kerkira). Because

• The road is next to the water. You always need to cross a busy road to get to the water.
• Small beaches
• Noisier than other places, caused from traffic and the Airport

Not passed the north mountain ridge (Past Skripero over the mountains).

• Too far from the airport, often 1hr or so.
• Expensive taxi fares.

What I wanted was

• Under 45 minutes from the Airport
• Not to high up a mountain
• Not to close to the water
• Bus connections that don´t close for winter
• Beautiful view over the Island
• Evening sun
• Within budget
• Not too much renovation needed.
• Minimum two bedroom.
• A garden
• Preferably on the west coast as I love sunsets and wanted to have the sun as long as possible in the evenings.
• Not too touristic.
• Not more than 15 minutes to the closest beach

Where to search for properties

I didn´t know the Greek way of finding properties. Should you ask people in the area? Should you search Facebook marketplace to avoid paying for a real-eastate agent? Theese ways might work, but better to search online through the agents.

The biggest agent on Corfu is Corfu Homefinders. This is a crue of agents who are very professional, know good English and will really help you. They are customer orientated and all are woman in this company.

Corfu Homefinders

Other serious and professional agents are:

Roula Rouva

Corfu Estate Management

Property 4U

There are also bigger search-engines that I browsed again and again:

Spitogatos

Rightmove

 

To organise myself of houses i might buy, I made a Google Docs document.

I Listed:

• The Price
• Area of the house
• Distance to the airport in minutes
• Distance to the beach in minutes
• Area of the garden
• If there were storage buildings
• Google Map link for the house
• Description of the area
• Description of the house
• Link to the webpage of the house

I also listed the row green, for cells that was very good, yellow for ok and red for not ok. For example the price if it was to high!

You can find my document here

More will follow..