Special Issue: How We Bought a House in Greece 🇬🇷

Why there? Why now? What does it all involve and what awaits us? How much did it cost and will cost?

My wife and I have always wanted to get a house in Greece. It was supposed to be a retirement reward originally - something like a golden retirement under the Mediterranean sun, where we’d tell each other at eighty “hey, we really enjoyed life well.” But over time we realized that we might not live to old age, or that at sixty-five we won’t feel like dealing with Greek bureaucracy with French crutches in hand and we’ll regret not doing it earlier.

So we took it as a cure for our midlife crisis and decided to go for it right away.

Finding the Real Greece

We weren’t looking for any luxury apartment by the sea with a beach view. You can’t experience the real Greece there - that’s more of an option for a two-week vacation when you mainly want to lie by the pool and complain that the hotel doesn’t have Becherovka.

We wanted an old house in a village where you can experience what Greece really is. Where you’re woken up in the morning by cicadas instead of your phone alarm (well, sometimes I wonder if the phone wouldn’t be better after all...), where the local taverna has a menu written in chalk on a board, and where everyone has known everyone since the days when their great-great-great-grandmother lived there.

We searched for several years and visited a few places. We approached it more with our hearts than our heads, but sometimes you just need to listen to your heart instead of Excel. Although, to be honest - the head came too, islands gradually gave way to the mainland due to logistics, and from romantic mountains we moved closer to the sea after all.

What was more important for us was how the neighbors would welcome us, whether the local coffee shop owner could say something more than “kafé, jes?” and even how the animals around would treat us. Because Greek cats are like a barometer of local hospitality - if they accept you as one of their own, you’ve won.

Property Prices

What’s great about Greece is that you can get real estate extremely cheaply compared to the Czech Republic. For prices that would only be enough for a garage in Prague 6 at home, you can buy a whole house here.

Of course, for that money you won’t get a house from a developer’s catalog. You’ll get an authentic stone house where the electrical installation dates from about the time when Edison was still experimenting with light bulbs (and the wiring looks accordingly) and where the plumbing has its own philosophy. But that’s exactly the charm.

Islands versus Mainland: Practicality versus Romance

At first we browsed through islands, because what’s more Greek than your own cottage on an island? But then we realized that off-season you can get to Greek islands about as easily as to Mars.

That’s why we finally chose the mainland. Specifically, the southeast of the Peloponnese - wild nature, beautiful sea, lots of history, and most importantly, minimal tourists.

We found the house through a website, it’s 2 kilometers from the sea and 30 minutes by car from the famous Monemvasia. Which means we can go on trips to the medieval town, but we don’t have to pay tourist prices for fish and coffee.

We’re in a village that has its own small harbor, a few tavernas open year-round, a café, and one shop. 100 inhabitants, a few tourists, far from everyday hustle in the middle of hills. Such a sea in the mountains - that’s why some locals call it “our Greek fjord”.

But what was more important for us was how the neighbors would welcome us, whether the local coffee shop owner could say something more than “kafé, jes?” and even how the animals around would treat us. Because Greek cats are like a barometer of local hospitality - if they accept you as one of their own, you’ve won.

The Greek Way of Doing Business: Chaos with a Happy Ending

If you’re used to German precision or Scandinavian efficiency, prepare for culture shock. The real estate agent negotiated the price with the seller himself, we had to sit in a taverna for several hours talking about life’s journey, and I still don’t have any signed contract. “Just when everything’s ready, you’ll pay me the commission, okay?”

When I asked how long the purchase would take, he thought for a moment, shrugged a bit and said: “You know, Greece...” with an expression as if he was explaining some natural law to me. “Something between a month and a year.”

And he was pretty much right. In the end it was half a year, but with the electricity and water transfer I think it will be that year in the end.

A House with History

A neighbor told me on the very first day that “someone important from Athens” lived in our house. After searching through the purchase documents, I found out that it’s actually the birthplace of the longest-serving vice-president of parliament. A man who, in addition to politics, wrote 15 poetry collections - which we found, among other things, in an old wooden chest in the house.

So now we live in the house of a poet and politician. Sometimes in the evening, when I sit on the terrace with wine, I feel like I can hear the echo of his verses. Or it’s just the wine. Probably the wine, but I like places with a story.

Sustainability Greek Style

When we first took a close look at the plumbing system, we discovered many interesting things and several still unsolved mysteries. For example, wastewater from the kitchen sink doesn’t lead to any septic tank or sewage. It just flows through the wall out to the garden. I tell the neighbor that it would probably be good to redo it and connect it to a septic tank. He stares at me with an expression as if I’d suggested demolishing the Parthenon, and says: “And what’s going to water that lemon tree under the window then?!”

Sometimes the path to sustainability is simpler than we think. You just have to stop thinking like a modern European and start thinking like an ancient Greek. Laziness has always been the privilege of smart people and here it’s perfected.

In the garden we have a lemon tree, orange tree, almond tree, fig tree, pear tree, several olive trees and lots of herbs. It’s like having your own organic shop right behind the house, except nobody charges you premium prices for “organic premium quality”.

Community and People

When we spent the first week in the house, we felt a bit like in a zoo - all the neighbors came to look at us. But in a good way.

Don’t you need help with something? Don’t you want to make coffee? You surely don’t have a coffee maker yet! Here’s a cake from us. Here the wife made Pastitsio... And after a week we were already invited to a traditional village celebration with food, dancing and music until morning. When you behave decently, openly, without arrogance, respect local customs and try to speak at least a little Greek, the locals usually welcome you gladly.

Greek Pace of Life: Masterclass in the Art of Living

The Greek tempo is just different. For us from Central Europe, used to efficiency, it’s initially like learning a new language. But gradually you discover that you have something to learn here.

In tavernas you don’t see people staring at their phones. They sit, talk, laugh, eat slowly and enjoy the moment. It’s such an old land that people here still remember how to live without stress about being five minutes late.

When I was buying a refrigerator, I needed to arrange transport to the house. First, it was quite difficult to explain where we have the house (houses in the countryside don’t have numbers here, so you have to explain where roughly the house is...) and second, I needed to know when they’d deliver the fridge. Supposedly there’s a small chance today (Monday), maybe Tuesday (Monday and Tuesday I’m crossing out), most likely Wednesday or Thursday and at worst Friday (so most likely Thu-Fri). On Thursday, 3 hours after the announced time it arrived! There’s no point trying to push Central European efficiency on the locals. Everything has its time, everything gets done eventually, and stress about something not being finished exactly on time only shortens your life.

Language Adventure

Learning Greek at forty is like learning to walk on your head - theoretically possible, practically challenging. The Greek alphabet looks beautiful, but reading it is like deciphering hieroglyphics. I’ve been doing Duolingo for several months now and from October my wife and I are enrolled in a Modern Greek course. The results are miserable so far.

But the locals are patient. When you try to say something in Greek, even if it sounds like the rhetorical staggering of a drunk philosopher, they smile and help you. And if you happen to say something correctly, it’s like you just recited Homer’s Iliad.

Maybe it’s exactly what we were looking for. Not just a house, but a way of life that will teach us to slow down and enjoy the present moment.

Life isn’t just about having everything perfectly organized. Sometimes it’s about letting yourself be surprised, accepting chaos and finding beauty in simplicity.

Does all this sound too romantic to you? Don’t worry, I’ll gradually share our sobering moments and fails with you too. Like when you realize that what you have on your feet aren’t mosquito bites... Who could have guessed that in a house where no one had been for 10 years, fleas could survive?!

And when everything else fails, we always have that lemon tree.

Practical Matters

How much did the house cost and how big is it? How much do you pay for all taxes and fees? How much does energy cost? How do we handle transportation? Where do we have a car? I’m making this information available to Forest News subscribers - not because I want to profit from it, but because thousands of people don’t need to know these details...