Real Estate FAQ's relating to buying, selling and owning
property on the Greek
Island of Hydra
Hydra is preserved as a
National Monument and as such there are numerous rules and
local laws governing not just building or renovation of property on Hydra
but also where, how and the style, etc.
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Building permission is required
for all new building and quite a lot of renovation. Basically anything
that changes the landscape or skyline requires a permit.
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Swimming pools in Hydra are now illegal unless they were
built prior to the change of law circa 1980. Legal pools, which are few on
Hydra, are estimated for tax purposes as living space. Also if a property
has a legal swimming pool it must be declared annually on the E1 form and income
tax must be paid on the assessed value for that year (unless you can prove
that sufficient funds came into your bank account from outside Greece). Owning a property
without a legal swimming pool is problematic and frankly gets you into so
much trouble with the numerous local and tax laws that owning a property
with an illegal pool must make one wonder if it's worth the trouble!
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Zones are the
different areas designated as such by the Greek Government for the
calculation of the objective value of a property and also used as
indicators as to how much of the land can be built if planning permission
is sought. Zones closest to the coast line have a higher value than those
further away. Therefore zones, Σ, Γ, Α, Ε are more
expensive areas than ΙΣ. Zones which definitely are
included in the 50:50 rule of living space to total plot ratio, includes:
ΙΒ, ΙΣΤ, Ι, Δ, ΙΑ, ΙΓ, Θ, ΙΓ, ΙΕ and
ΙΔ. At the outer reaches of the town plan, you need
to double check before purchase that you can build to the maximum ratio in
zone ΙΣ.
See
map >> |
