Buy or Rent

BUYING-Property prices in Greece are cheaper than the UK, but are subject to rampant inflation all the same.
Again, to buy you need to be sure about your intentions of staying in Greece, or be rich enough not to care. Many people buy a plot of land and employ builders to construct their houses.This usually works out cheaper than buying an existing house, but be warned, Greeks often have a strong emotional attachment to their land.This leads to them setting an unrealistic price and haggling is essential for the buyer.
Also employ a Notary, who should make sure that the person selling actually owns the land(not always the case) and that the plot is large enough to build on. The size required for a house varies from region to region and depends on where it is, ie within town limits or not.
All Greek legal documents are required by law to be written in Greek so employ a Notary with excellent English skills, most of them are ok.
Unfortunately Estate Agents in Greece are no better than in the UK, I think they must all be cloned from the same genetic material.
To buy a property, car, boat or have an account with the telephone company OTE, you will need a Residents Permit.Apply for these at the main Police Station. You will need 5 photocopies of your Passport and 5 passport sized colour photos of yourself(not smiling as per UK) The process takes about a week and is free of charge. The Permit is valid for 5 years.
Please note that the buying process can take just as long as the UK or longer and is equally frustrating,also that if you sell your Greek property the market slows to a crawl in the Autumn/Winter offseason, so allow a year to sell your property.
If you buy a property MAKE A WILL, Greek law automatically inherits the first born son, so if this is not your intention MAKE A WILL. There are also some Tax implications so MAKE A WILL.You can do this at a Notary but remember it will be written in Greek, so pay for a translated copy in English, expensive but worthwhile for clarity.

RENTING- a property is widely done by ex-pats.This gives you greater flexibility and there are aways a lot of houses available for year round rental. A twelve month lease is the norm, but as in the UK most landlords don't declare the rental to the Tax authorities, so you can normally leave with a months notice with no financial penalty. As in the UK a months rent deposit set against damages is normal.
A high number of ex-pats on our island rent and it is normal for the tenant to decorate and do small maintenance repairs etc. A Greek landlord will only carry out essential jobs but if you negotiate I have found they will either buy the materials for the job or you can negotiate a reduction in the rent to offset costs.
Expect to pay between 350 and 600 Euros a month excluding bills, depending on size and location of property.
Check for heating in houses as most are built for Summer occupancy and may have no heating at all!
We have a wood burning stove in the kitchen/diner.This is fantastic and heats the whole house. A tonne of olive wood cost us 230 euros last winter and lasted us all the way through November to April, indeed we have some left over for this Winter.
Other heating available is Gas heaters, cheap but smelly and somewhat dangerous.
Oil filled radiators, clean but expensive. Air conditioning can be set to heat mode but is extremely expensive.
We think we will continue to rent, our rent has remained unchanged for this year and as we continue to improve the property I think it will remain the same next year too.
I recommend renting for the first year, you'll know if you are going to stay after this period and if you are buying/building it gives you time to get organised.