The coastal zone: buying property near the sea in Greece

• Αιγιαλός (foreshore): the strip of land washed by the sea at its highest usual wave run-up.
• Παραλία (beach zone): land next to the foreshore, set to protect the coast and give access to the sea. It can extend at most 50 m from the foreshore line.
• Παλαιός αιγιαλός (former foreshore): land left behind when the shoreline moved seaward, naturally or through lawful works.

The foreshore and beach zone belong to the State as public property for common use. They can be granted for use but never sold, and buildings are banned on them except for limited works the law allows. The former foreshore is different: it is private property of the State.

A committee in each regional unit, chaired by the local State Property Service (Κτηματική Υπηρεσία), determines the line. Decisions can be appealed, are published in the Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ) and must be registered in the Cadastre.

Large parts of the Greek coast still have no final published line. That does not mean the foreshore is absent: it follows the sea, and the decision only records where it is. So a plot can overlap the foreshore even if no map shows a line yet.

For two years after a line is published, owners of land it covers may not build, improve or plant on it, and value added by such works is not compensated. Pre-existing private rights may then be expropriated.

• Fences: outside approved town plans and pre-1923 settlements, Law 1337/1983 bans fences within 500 m of the shore, with limited exceptions such as protecting crops.
• Small coastal settlements: under a 2025 decree covering settlements under 2,000 inhabitants, buildings must keep a minimum distance from the determined foreshore line and stand behind the beach-zone line.
• Other areas: set-backs from the sea apply and vary by zone and local plan. Your engineer confirms the one that applies to the plot.

Coastal plots are also often out-of-plan, near streams or inside Natura 2000, so check those rules as well.

The Ministry of Finance publishes a public index and map of determined foreshore lines (e-Ευρετήριο Αιγιαλών). The Ministry says the data are for information only and are being updated gradually; only a certified copy can be used before an authority.

The reliable check is a topographic survey tied to the published decision, plus a lawyer's search for any State claims or eviction protocols registered against the plot.