If your family still owns a Greek apartment, here's what 2025–2026 changed.

There is a very common Greek-diaspora situation that goes something like this. Your grandfather passed away in 2008. He owned an apartment in Pagrati or Patisia or Kallithea — bought new in the late 1960s, paid off by the early 1980s, never sold, never re-mortgaged. Your father inherited it on paper, but the paperwork was never finished. Your father retired in Melbourne or Toronto or Cologne. He talked about "sorting out the Athens place" every summer, then it became every other summer, then every few years. He's now in his late seventies. The apartment is still in Greek bureaucratic limbo, technically half-yours, possibly half-your-aunt's, occupied for two weeks each August by whichever cousin can fly in.

This is the story of an enormous amount of Greek property. The official term for it is ακληρονόμητη περιουσία — "uninherited property." Estimates from a few years back put the number of half-finished inheritance cases at well over 100,000 nationally. The asset values involved are not trivial. Most of these apartments are now worth €150,000 to €400,000.

For the entire decade leading up to 2025, the friction blocking these cases from being resolved was procedural. You had to fly to Greece. You had to appear in person at a notary. You had to coordinate signatures from siblings who lived in three different countries. You had to chase a paper trail across municipal offices that closed at 2pm and didn't take phone calls.

That changed in November 2025.

Law 5221/2025 — what actually happened

The law that came into effect on 1 November 2025 (commonly referred to as the 2025 inheritance and notarial reform) restructured several pieces of how probate, wills, and property succession work in Greece. The headline changes:

• Wills register online. The new central registry at diathikes.gr replaces a fragmented patchwork of regional notarial registries. A will lodged in any Greek notary's office now appears on a single national searchable record, immediately.
• Digital probate filings. Several stages of the probate process — including initial estate declarations and certain notarial steps — can now be filed entirely online by the heir or by a lawyer holding a power of attorney from the heir. The heir does not necessarily need to be in Greece.
• Limited power-of-attorney scope is recognised. A POA covering only the inheritance case, drafted at a Greek consulate abroad, is now accepted as sufficient by Greek authorities. Previously, much broader and more expensive POA documents were often demanded by individual offices.
• Faster timelines for routine cases. A probate case with no disputes, a registered will, and a properly authorised lawyer can complete in 4–6 months instead of the previous 12–24.
• Reduced administrative cost. Several certificate and notarial fees have been consolidated or eliminated.

What this means for your family's specific case

The first thing to know: the reform does not retroactively close any open cases automatically. It changes the tools available for handling them. Your grandfather's 2008 estate is still open, but the path to closing it is now considerably shorter.

The second thing to know: the reform doesn't change the underlying inheritance tax math. Greek inheritance tax brackets, the threshold below which the tax is zero (currently €150,000 for direct-line descendants), and the calculation of property value for tax purposes are all unchanged. What's changed is how quickly you can get to the point of paying or being assessed.

The practical implication for diaspora families: the excuse "it's too complicated and we'd have to fly there" is now substantially weaker than it was a year ago. Most cases can now be opened and progressed remotely.

What to do this year

If your family has an open inheritance case in Greece, here's the order of operations that makes sense given the new landscape:

1. Find the will (or confirm there isn't one). Search diathikes.gr by the deceased's full legal name and tax ID (ΑΦΜ). If a will exists, the registry will show where it was lodged and how to request a certified copy. If no will exists, intestate succession applies — the property passes by Greek default rules to the direct heirs.
2. Find a Greek inheritance lawyer. Specifically one who handles diaspora cases regularly. Fees for a clean case run €1,500–€3,500 plus state fees, paid in instalments. Many Greek-Australian, Greek-American, and Greek-UK communities have firms with offices in both countries that coordinate the whole thing.
3. Sign a limited power of attorney at your nearest Greek consulate. Authorising the lawyer to represent you in this specific inheritance case. The consulate appointment usually takes a single visit. Cost is modest — €30–€80 in consular fees.
4. Get a property valuation and an ENFIA history. ENFIA is the annual property tax — its records establish that the property has been declared continuously. Gaps in ENFIA declarations create their own problems and need to be cleared before transfer.
5. File the inheritance declaration (E9). Through your lawyer. This is the formal moment the property becomes yours on paper. Inheritance tax assessment follows.
6. Then deal with the property itself. Once it's legally yours, you can sell it, rent it, renovate it, or maintain it as a holding asset. None of those decisions can happen cleanly until step 5 is done.

Why this matters more than it sounds

Unresolved inheritance cases tend to compound. The longer they sit, the more heirs accumulate (siblings die and their children become co-heirs). Tax issues multiply. ENFIA goes unpaid and accrues penalties. The property itself deteriorates because nobody has clear authority to maintain it. Buildings call meetings nobody attends. Insurance lapses.

The 2025 reform doesn't fix any of those secondary problems — but it removes the gate that was preventing families from starting. That gate is what kept tens of thousands of cases stuck for a generation.

If your family has been waiting for "the right time" to sort out the Greek apartment, this is materially closer to it than any year in the last decade.