Ways of acquiring ownership of property in Greece
The following ways of acquiring property are the most common under Greek Law:
1) acquisition by contract, i.e. a written agreement between the owner and the buyer on the transfer of ownership from a legitimate source, that must be made before a notary and be recorded (or registered).
2) acquisition by virtue of succession, whether testate or intestate,
3)acquisition by gift or by parental grant,
4) acquisition of property by auction, i.e. by act of compulsory enforcement, brought against the debtor’s property, where the ownership of property is finally acquired by the highest-bidder.
5) acquisition by the person who, in good faith, is in possession with legal title of a property for a decade (regular or ordinary usucaption),
6) acquisition by the person who is in possession of the property for twenty years (extraordinary usucaption).
7) acquisition of title by annexation of a land’s part to the adjacent land, i.e. the removal of property from an individual or legal entity and the administration to another by an act of authority (cases of such annexation are the settlement of land, the expropriation and the redistribution).
8) acquisition of property by adjudication, i.e. the award of property with a formative Court order (cases of adjudication are the distribution, the regulation limits and building to adjacent properties).
9) acquisition of property by the system of so called “consideration” (antiparochi), that counts more than half a century of life in Greece and has been linked mainly to the phase of intensive building in major cities during the decades of 70’ and 80’.
By signing the contract of “consideration” (construction contract) between the land owner and the contractor, the first undertakes to transfer a certain share (percentage) of an undivided land (co-ownesrhip), along with part of the individual properties to be built, to the contractor, who undertakes to construct the building. In practice, this system gives the opportunity to owners of plots to construct buildings with the help of a constructor who instead of money gets appartments in the building.