Buying · 13 August 2026

What to prepare before a five-day property trip to Athens

A practical checklist for diaspora and international buyers with one short trip to make real progress on a Greek property search.

The trip is execution, not exploration

Five days is enough to confirm a decision and almost never enough to discover one. Buyers who arrive with a written brief, a pre-agreed shortlist and appointments already booked routinely leave with an offer position. Buyers who arrive to "have a look around" leave with photographs and a vaguer sense of the market than when they landed.

Before you book the flight

Fix the brief in writing: intended use, budget including costs, preferred areas with an honest ranking, property type, minimum condition, and the things that are absolute exclusions. Say what you will not accept — ground floor, no lift, no parking, main road, north-facing. Exclusions shorten a shortlist faster than preferences do.

Two to three weeks out

Get the practical infrastructure moving in parallel, because it is the usual cause of delay: a Greek tax number (ΑΦΜ), a Greek bank account where required, and a decision on whether you will complete in person or through a power of attorney, executed with whatever authentication your country of signing requires. Appoint your own lawyer — independent of the seller, the developer and the agent — and let them confirm what they will need. None of this is the agent's job, and all of it can stall a purchase for weeks if it starts after the viewing.

One week out

Lock the viewing schedule geographically, not chronologically. Group by area, allow travel time honestly, and cap the day at five or six properties: judgement degrades badly after that and everything starts to look the same. Ask in advance for the floor plan, year of construction, energy performance certificate, service charge and current tenancy status of each property. Anything that cannot be answered in writing beforehand is a question to ask on site.

During the trip

See the shortlist first while you are fresh, and keep the last day deliberately open for second viewings — the property you want to see twice is usually the answer. Visit at least one candidate at a different time of day. Walk the block, not just the flat. And be willing to end the trip having bought nothing: a disciplined no is a legitimate outcome and considerably cheaper than a rushed yes.

After you fly home

Momentum decays quickly across time zones. Agree before you leave who does what, in what order, by when, and how you will be updated. The purchase itself can generally be completed remotely once your lawyer and notary are instructed — the part that fails is rarely the paperwork, it is the four unanswered weeks after the trip.