The first thing you have to understand when you buy property on Spetses is that there are in effect two prices. There is the asking price, the amount that the market dictates and then there is the objective value.

The objective value is the amount that the government calculates that a property is worth for tax purposes. It is known as the objective value, real or contract price.

Invariably it is the objective value that is shown on the contract of sale.  Very, very rarely, the sale price agreed between the seller and buyer will be the same as the objective value. But on Spetses it is the norm for the sale price to be double the objective value, if not more in some cases depending on the location, standard of the property and its view.

For example a house that is being offered for 250,000 may only have an objective value of 80,000. The purchase tax, lawyers & bar fees, the notary's fees and the land registration costs are all based on the objective value as a percentage. The actual amount that the buyer pays for the property, in this case 250,000, should be the amount shown on the contract, as strictly speaking, the letter of the law says, “the objective value or the agreed selling price whichever is the higher”. But, this particular statement is ignored by most sellers and buyers who have a very strong financial motive for taking advantage of the inability of the powers to be to enforce the law. However the gap is steadily being closed.

In January 2006 the Greek government increased the objective value for property nationwide. For example a piece of land on Spetses in December 2005 had an objective value of 136,000 euros and this piece of land sold for 161,000 euros. One month later in January 2006 the objective value had increased to 175,000 euros. So had the buyer delayed his purchase by one month he would have paid his costs based on the much higher 175,000 objective value, which in turn would have been higher than the selling price! In January 2007, the Greek Government will again be increasing the objective value of property and no doubt this will go someway toward closing the gap further.