Snagging Survey Greece: What a New-Build Villa Inspection Must Cover

An owner takes the keys to a newly built villa outside Chania, admires the finish, and assumes the completion certificate the developer handed over means the building is sound. It does not. That certificate confirms the structure matches the approved permit drawings. It says nothing about whether the waterproofing membrane under the pool coping was installed correctly, whether the render will crack at the corners within a year, or whether every switch, socket and tap in the property actually works as intended. A snagging survey is the independent check that fills that gap, and in Greece almost nobody commissions one before it is too late.

The term comes from UK and Irish construction practice, where a snagging list is standard on any new-build handover. In Greece the practice barely exists as a named service, even though the underlying problem is identical: a buyer or owner takes possession of a freshly built or freshly renovated property with no independent, itemized record of what was actually finished to standard and what was not. By the time defects surface on their own, usually a damp patch, a hairline crack that widens, a pool light that fails, the contractor has often moved on and the informal goodwill that would have covered a free fix under warranty has expired.

What a Completion Certificate Does Not Tell You

The Greek building permit process closes with a certificate confirming the structure was built in accordance with the approved architectural and structural drawings. It is a permit compliance statement, produced and signed off within the same process that approved the design. It does not involve an independent party visually inspecting workmanship or checking whether fixtures and finishes function correctly. A villa can be fully permit-compliant and still have curing cracks in the concrete slab, a badly sealed roof terrace, or a tap that was never properly connected before the floor was tiled over.

This gap matters most on new-build and full-renovation projects specifically, because a resale property at least carries a history: previous owners, previous complaints, sometimes a prior inspection. A new build carries none of that. The first person to actually use the systems and finishes day to day is the owner, and if problems only surface after they move in, the leverage to get them fixed for free is already gone.

Before You Accept Handover

Send the completion drawings, the contractor’s snag list if one exists, and the handover date before you sign anything releasing the final payment or retention. We perform independent snagging surveys for owners taking delivery of new-build and renovated villas in Greece.

This review documents construction and finishing defects room by room, including the details a normal walkthrough misses: behind cupboard doors, on top of built-in units, every hinge, every door and every light switch. Electrical fixtures, taps and drains are checked for correct function through visual and operational checks rather than load or pressure testing, pool and roof waterproofing detail is inspected, and every item is photographed against the contract specification. The review is independent, English-language, and delivered directly to the owner.

Submit the property details here: kgnordic.com/contact

What a Snagging Survey Actually Finds

The recurring categories on new-build and renovated properties in Greece are consistent regardless of budget. Concrete curing defects, hairline cracking at movement joints that were not detailed correctly, show up on almost every project within the first year, and are cheap to remedy if caught before render or tiling covers them. Waterproofing failures cluster around pools, roof terraces and bathroom wet areas, precisely the details most sensitive to a rushed final week before handover. MEP snagging, meaning switches or sockets that do not work, taps and drains that do not function correctly, visible plumbing leaks, and HVAC units installed without correct condensate drainage, is the category owners discover latest, usually during the first heatwave or the first heavy rain. Finishing defects, uneven tiling, misaligned joinery, paint applied over unprepared render, are cosmetically obvious but are also the items a contractor will fix fastest if flagged while the crew is still on site, and slowest or not at all once they have demobilized. The defects that cost the most are rarely the visible ones. A hinge that was never adjusted, a cupboard door that does not close behind a fitted unit, a light switch wired to the wrong circuit, these sit in the parts of a villa nobody walks through twice during a rushed handover.

Mykonos and the wider Cyclades illustrate the exposure clearly. New-build villa construction there runs at high volume and high value, often for owners who are not resident during the build and take delivery once, at completion, with limited ability to have inspected progress along the way. A defect that would have cost a few hundred euros to fix mid-construction can cost tens of thousands once it is behind finished plaster, buried under a completed pool deck, or contested after the contractor’s crew has already left the island for the next project.

The Window That Closes Fast

Most Greek construction and renovation contracts carry an informal or explicit defects period, commonly around twelve months, during which the contractor is expected to remedy issues without additional charge. That window is generous on paper and short in practice. Contractors deprioritize snagging requests that arrive individually and late, disputes over what counts as a defect versus normal wear tend to favor whoever documented the condition first, and once the final payment or retention has been released, the owner’s negotiating position weakens sharply. A survey completed at handover, itemized and photographed, is the document that decides whether a defect claim six months later is a formality or an argument.

The fee for a snagging survey starts from 5,000 euros for a single villa, scaling with the size and complexity of the property. Larger estates, multiple structures on one plot, or a full basement and pool mechanical scope push the fee higher, reflecting the additional site time and system count rather than a flat multiplier. Set against a construction budget in the hundreds of thousands or millions of euros, and against the cost of a single undetected waterproofing failure, it is the smaller number in the transaction.

Taking Delivery of a New-Build Property in Greece?

Before contracts are signed or final payment is released, we review construction quality, MEP systems, waterproofing detail and finish specification against contract documentation. For owners and investors taking delivery of new-build or fully renovated villas, we provide an independent, itemized snagging report with photographic documentation, delivered in English and unconnected to the contractor.

Submit the property location and handover details here: kgnordic.com/contact