Written by Rikard · 14 years in construction and owner-side project management · €150M+ in governed project value.
An apartment in Athens is bought as a horizontal property: exclusive ownership of the flat together with a compulsory share of the land, the structure and everything else the building shares. An inspection therefore has two objects, the unit and the block it depends on, and the papers that tie them together decide what you pay for after completion.
A listing reads well on a screen. Three rooms on the fourth floor of a 1970s block in Pangrati, a balcony closed in with aluminium, a storage room in the basement the agent calls a studio, and a share of a lift that was last certified nobody knows when. An independent pre-purchase property inspection reads the same listing from the other end: which of those spaces the permit drawings actually show, what the concrete and the pipes look like after fifty years, and what the block has already decided to spend. This article sets out the forms of ownership you will meet, the building types behind them, and what an inspection of an Athens apartment in a polykatoikia covers.
What you own: horizontal and vertical property
Greek apartment ownership rests on Law 3741/1929 on ownership by floors, read together with articles 1002 and 1117 of the Civil Code. Under that framework the owner of a floor or an apartment holds it outright and at the same time holds, by force of law and in proportion, a share in the common parts. Court decisions applying the law describe the common parts as an open list: the ground, the foundations, the main walls, the roof, the chimneys, the yards, the lift shafts and the central heating installation. This is the οριζόντια ιδιοκτησία, horizontal property, that almost every Athens apartment deed is written in.
A second form appears in the suburbs and on the islands. Where several separate buildings stand on one plot, a maisonette row or a small complex, the deed may be a κάθετη ιδιοκτησία, vertical property, under Legislative Decree 1024/1971. Each building is owned separately while the plot stays in compulsory co-ownership; the part of the garden you use is a use right, not a separate parcel. Both forms are set up by a deed of constitution, usually with a building regulation attached, and where those documents are silent the law’s own allocation applies. Which form your deed uses, what the regulation allows and what it forbids are questions for your Greek lawyer before any deposit. The inspection takes the documents as given and checks the building against them.
The millesimal table and the shared charges
Every unit in a block carries a number of thousandths, χιλιοστά, of the land and of the common costs. Older regulations often carry separate thousandths for the lift and for heating, so a ground-floor flat may pay for the lift at a lower rate or not at all. The monthly shared charges, κοινόχρηστα, are split according to the building regulation; where there is no regulation, Law 3741/1929 splits them by the value of each apartment, and only a unanimous decision of all owners can set that aside. The electronic building identity file introduced by Law 4495/2017 lists the millesimal table and the cost allocation study where they exist, so they are not hard to obtain.
What the thousandths do not show is what is coming. A facade repair, a new lift motor or a roof membrane voted at the last general assembly but not yet paid is a cost that lands on whoever owns the flat when the instalments fall due. Ask for twelve months of charge statements and the minutes of the last two assemblies, and read the minutes for works approved, works postponed and owners in arrears. Whether the block has one oil or gas boiler in the basement or every flat has its own system changes the monthly charge, what you can control and, in a block with central heating, how the heating thousandths are applied.
The polykatoikia and its eras
Most of the Athens apartment stock was produced by αντιπαροχή, a plot-for-flats exchange in which a landowner handed the site to a contractor and received a number of finished apartments in return, with the contractor selling the rest. The arrangement financed the city’s growth from the 1950s into the 1980s, and most of the blocks from that period were built by contractors repeating the same type rather than designed one by one. The result is the polykatoikia: a reinforced concrete frame with brick infill, often an open ground floor on columns, the pilotis, and a flat roof, the δώμα, carrying water tanks, solar heaters and whatever has been added since.
Construction year is the first thing an inspector notes, because it fixes which seismic code the block was designed to. Greece issued its first seismic code in 1959, supplemented it in 1984 with application from 1985, replaced it with a new code in 1995, revised that as EAK 2000 and updated the hazard zonation in 2003; Eurocode 8 is now applied alongside the national code. Blocks of the same age on the same street can still differ widely in quality, so the code tells you the design intent, not the outcome. On site the inspection records the visible condition of the frame and the balcony slabs, rust staining and spalling where reinforcement cover has failed, cracking in the infill walls as opposed to the frame, and earlier repairs. No structural calculation is made. Where the findings justify it, the report states that a licensed structural engineer should assess the building before you rely on it.
Floors that are not what they are called
The Greek building code defines a basement as a storey whose ceiling rises no more than 1.20 metres above the final ground level. On the permit drawings of an older block such a storey is normally storage, a boiler room or parking. In the listing it may be a garden flat or a studio with its own entrance. The same code treats any change of use carried out against the building rules as unauthorised unless it has been legalised, and the engineer’s certificate that accompanies every sale has to address unauthorised uses as well as unauthorised construction. A semi-basement that is lived in is therefore a document question before it is a damp question, though it is usually both.
The roof has its own version. A ρετιρέ, the recessed top floor, is often the best-lit flat in the block and often the one with a room on the roof above it that the drawings show as a lift motor room or as nothing at all. Balconies enclosed with aluminium frames, the ημιυπαίθριοι, were the subject of their own legalisation rounds, and the certificate at sale refers back to those laws. The inspection measures the flat, compares it with the permit drawings and the floor plan attached to the deed, and lists every discrepancy. Formal planning status and any legalisation route stay with your Greek engineer and lawyer; the practical guide to unauthorised construction in Greek property explains why the buyer inherits the problem, and the article on building permit due diligence in Greece explains how the permit file is read.
The papers that come with the sale
Three documents from the seller’s side describe the apartment for the transfer. The engineer’s certificate under article 83 of Law 4495/2017 states that the property has no unauthorised construction or use, or that any such works have been declared for legalisation. The electronic identity of the separate property, under the same law, holds the permit, the drawings and, where they exist, the millesimal table and cost allocation study. The energy performance certificate is mandatory on sale under Law 4122/2013, must be shown to the buyer and handed over; what it does and does not tell you is covered in the guide to the EPC in Greek property. All three are written for the transaction. None of them is a condition report, and none of them was prepared for you.
Inspecting the unit
Inside the flat the inspection is a visual and functional check of what the building delivers to the door. Water supply in older blocks often comes down from a roof tank or up from a pressure set in the basement, and pressure at the upper floors varies with the hour and with the pump. Taps are run, flow and hot water are checked, and the route of the pipes is traced where it can be seen; galvanised steel from the original build still carries water in many blocks and shows itself in brown water and reduced flow. Bathroom floors and the wall shared with a shower are mapped for moisture, and ceilings below the flat above are read for staining, because the most frequent leak in a polykatoikia comes from the neighbour’s bathroom, and the neighbour’s regulation decides who pays. The electrical panel, the earthing and the condition of the wiring behind it are recorded; a fuse board that predates the earth leakage breaker is a line in the report, not a surprise after completion.
Windows and balcony doors are mostly aluminium and, in blocks from before the energy regulations, single glazed with no thermal break, which the energy certificate will already have scored. Balcony soffits are checked from below for the same rust and spalling as the frame. Air-conditioning units, their condensate routes and the holes made for them through the facade are noted, as is any gas installation and its certificate where Athens mains gas has replaced the oil boiler.
Inspecting the block
The parts you co-own are inspected as far as they are accessible. On the roof: the membrane, the parapets, the outlets and overflows, the penetrations made for solar heaters and antennas, and the state of the water tanks. On the facade: render, concrete and the balconies of the flats above and below yours, since their condition sets the next assembly’s agenda. In the pilotis: the columns, the condition of the parking area and the electricity meters. In the basement: the boiler room and its fuel or gas supply, the pump room, the drainage and any sign that water comes in from the street. The lift is checked for a registration certificate and for its periodic inspection, which the 2008 joint ministerial decision on lifts makes compulsory and which the owners’ administrator has to renew with the municipality after each inspection. A lift without a current certificate is a shared cost waiting to be voted.
Parking in a pilotis deserves a specific question to the lawyer. A space may be a separate property with its own thousandths, an exclusive use right over a common area written into the regulation, or simply where the previous owner always parked. The deed and the regulation decide; the inspection records which space is used and whether it is marked.
The sequence for the buyer
Read the deed of constitution and the regulation with your lawyer before the visit, so the inspector knows which spaces are supposed to be yours. Have the permit drawings and the floor plan from the deed on site. Let the inspection map the flat against the drawings, test what the building delivers to it, and walk the roof, the pilotis and the basement. Then take the discrepancies to your engineer and lawyer and the common-area findings to the price. A buyer who has read the last two assembly minutes negotiates a 1970s block differently from one who has only seen the listing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is horizontal property in Greece?
Horizontal property, οριζόντια ιδιοκτησία, is the form in which apartments are owned in Greece under Law 3741/1929 and the Civil Code. The owner holds the apartment outright and at the same time holds a compulsory share, in proportion, of the land and the common parts such as the foundations, the roof, the lift shaft and the heating installation. The deed of constitution and the building regulation set the details, and your Greek lawyer confirms what they say for a particular block.
How are shared charges split in a Greek apartment block?
The κοινόχρηστα are split according to the building regulation, which usually assigns each flat a number of thousandths for the common costs, often with separate thousandths for the lift and for heating. Where no regulation exists, Law 3741/1929 splits the costs by the value of each apartment unless all owners unanimously agree otherwise. Before buying, ask for twelve months of charge statements and the minutes of the last assemblies to see what has been voted but not yet paid.
Can I buy a semi-basement apartment in Athens?
You can buy it, but check what the permit says it is. The building code defines a basement by how little its ceiling rises above ground level, and on older permits such storeys are usually storage, boiler rooms or parking. If the space is lived in, that is a change of use which must have been legalised, and the engineer’s certificate at sale has to address it. A pre-purchase inspection compares the space with the drawings and records damp and ventilation; the legal position is for your Greek engineer and lawyer.
Does an apartment inspection in Athens cover the whole building?
It covers the unit in full and the common parts as far as they are accessible: the roof, the facade, the pilotis, the lift, the boiler and pump rooms and the basement. It is not a structural survey of the block, and no structural calculations are made. Findings that affect the whole building are reported because they become your cost through the shared charges, and the report states when a licensed structural engineer should assess the building.
What documents must the seller provide when selling an apartment in Greece?
For the transfer the seller’s side provides an engineer’s certificate under Law 4495/2017 on unauthorised construction and use, the electronic identity of the property with the permit and drawings, and an energy performance certificate, which Law 4122/2013 makes mandatory on sale. These describe the apartment for the transaction and are not a condition report. The exact list for a given sale is confirmed by your notary and lawyer.
Sources
Sources checked 27 October 2026. Legal questions are for your Greek lawyer.