Building house in Crete, Greece
Building a house in Crete can be an exciting and rewarding project! Whether you’re looking for a traditional Cretan style home or something more modern, there are a few important things to keep in mind when planning your construction:
1. Legal Requirements & Permits
- Building Permit: In Greece, including Crete, you will need to obtain a building permit from the local municipality. This requires submitting plans designed by an architect and approved by the local authorities.
- Land Ownership: You must own the land or have a clear legal agreement to build. Non-EU citizens face additional restrictions on property ownership, so it’s important to consult with a lawyer for this.
- Zoning Laws: Make sure your land is in an area designated for residential building. Zoning laws will determine the type of construction allowed, its size, and the materials you can use.
My experience buying a plot in Stalos for our new house are following:
We bought a plot with building permit. After checks mechanikos (μηχανικός-consttuction Engineer) told me that as plot is outside of village boarder according to the new law from 2025 new permits for the house would not be given. Old permits will be active and owners can build until the day of expire.
Our construction permit expire day is Dec 2025. So we need to really hurry up to at least have frame ready then we can continue building as long as we want.
1.Building Permit (which expires by the end of 2025):
1.1.change the name of the owner
1.2.change the supervisor engineer
Prior of giving you a cost estimation for this, we need to clarify that a Building Permit has 2 totally different but linked parts.
Notes:
1. Mekhanikos who has not been involved in checks during the purchase process usually doesn’t get any responsibilities for the legality of the plot. They haven’t done any legal check to the property or the Building Permit so they get your purchase contract and all the documents as given.
2. Anything extra (for example, extra studies, architectural design, changes and etc) which reflects to the initial drawings/ studies will be charged as extra services.