Crete Property Information, as the only independent estate agency in Elounda, has established a reputation for unrivalled customer service over the last four years.
As an agent that prides itself on its high standards of integrity and
customer care we are guaranteed to act on your behalf with professionalism as our core business philosophy
We are theexperts for the Elounda and Plaka area because this is the only area we operate in .
As local specialists in the Elounda Property market, nobody is better placed to give honest impartial advice about the property market in Elounda
Whether you’re buying, letting, renting or
selling, for investment , a holiday home or for a detached luxury villa on the sea one thing is clear
With Crete Property Information you've found Elounda’s premier estate agent.
CRETE PROPERTY INFORMATION
TEL (0030) 28410 42126 MOBILE (0030) 697 777 8126
REGISTERED OFFICE:
Buying a house in Crete should be a very straight forward transparent process, assuming that is of course that your agent is being honest with you from day one.
It is a sad fact that in Crete most agents exploit the fact that most of the Greek sellers do not speak English / French or German and most people buying a house or a plot of land do not speek Greek. This coupled with the often deliberately perpetuated mystery of how the Greek legal system works makes it difficult for purchasers to do anything other than trust the agent who has shown you the house or plot of your dreams.
Any of the many estate agents in crete you may deal with must legally be registered with the local chamber of commerce for the prefecture their office is located in. They must display this certificate of registration at their place of business 24hrs a day for immediate inspection. If you are unsure of an agent's credentials, if you need to check if they are a registered estate agent in Crete ask them for a photocopy of their licence and take it to a police station for verification. Any reputable licenced estate agent will be more than happy to oblige.
Crete Property Information is a licenced, registered estate agent and our licence is diplayed on our website and in our main office window in Elounda.
Any person acting as a licenced estate agent must have a registered office with a signed legal contract for leasing the property . The office cannot operate as anything other than an estate agency. If you come accross somebody selling property out of the back of a Taverna , their House , their shop or through somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, in all likelyhood they are unlicenced.
If you purchase a property through an un registered individual, be aware you may not end up with the bargain you think you are......... you really have no legal recourse, absolutley none if something goes wrong
If you have any problems / serious delays with the transactions, if you lose money, if you end up buying something other than the property you were shown, if you were shown 7 rooms but the transaction ends up as you buying 5 rooms - this is pretty much the end of it as far as the courts are concerned.
In Greece, unlike the UK, you will have great difficulty proving after the event that you have been misled . There is an assumption when you buy a plot you have done your research and you are aware of all matters regarding the property. If there is a right of way throught the property that the agent did not tell you about - prove it - it is your fault. It is advisable to ask difficult questions, get agents to write down what they are telling you on headed notepaper that you can give to your solicitor to verify. Surely if you are told something verbally by an agent they will be more than happy to write it down for you ? In Crete when buying property it really is critical to be dealing with an agency that gives honest upfront advice and answers to your questions.
Most frequently, the biggest problem purchaser face when buying through either a normal "agent" or an unlicenced individual , is the guarantee that they are paying the right price for what they are seeing. It is very easy for unscrupulous individuals ( and I am sorry to say many licensed agents ) to have a massive difference between the price they market properties at and the true asking price put forward by the Greek owners. Most Cretans still do not have access to the internet and so would be unaware if their or their elderly hospitalised Fathers house was sold for 100,000 Euros . They would only know whatever the amount they were given by the agent, maybe much much less than this.
This again is a sad but true fact, of which we have much evidence and testimonials that personal callers are welcome to view in our office in Elounda.
When you see a plot of land or a house you like, the first step we always recommend is to get an independent architect to view the property. We say independent because most of the estate agencies in Crete are owned by architects or property developers. As per our point above, if you have any problems with your plot / house after the legal transaction has completed, it will be for you to sort out yourself as it is a fair assumption that if somebdody was prepared to sell you property under ambiguous or misleading circumstances, the likelihood of them wanting to help you sort out the problem will be virtualy nil !
We have a list of all the architects in crete and specifically architects in elounda and are happy to give you honest advice as to the merits of those we have had personal recommendations from ( by clients) and we are more than happy to introduce you to clients we have passed to different architects in crete who can re-count their own personal experiences to you.
Getting an architect to the plot or house we can normally arrange in a day or two, they will perform a basic survey of the land .
If it is a plot ....
Does the plot have a topograph ?
Does it have a contract/ deeds ?
Does the topograph, the contract / deeds and the plot match ?
Where is the nearest electricity /water supply ?
What is the access like for construction ?
Do you need to cross other plots to get to yours ?
Do you have an easement or right of way granted accross any other land you need to cross to enjoy your property ?
Can you build on the plot ?
What can you build on the plot ?
Where can you build on the plot ?
What restrictions will their be to the construction ?
In our office we have previous reports that can be viewed to see the merits of having a survey done when purchasing a plot of land. It is the most often overlooked piece of the process of buying in Crete. We would not recommend buying a plot in Crete without having a survey done by an independent architect in crete it is common sense for the sake of 200 Euros, you may save yourself a lot of heartache and gain a great deal of further information you would not otherwise have known.
To re-iterate the above point, when building in Crete, we, as registered agents, would not recommend that new builds, property developments large scale renovations and rebuilds are done by builders.
In Crete, as happened in Spain 10-15 years ago, there has been a marked increase in the number of developers / construction companies who market themselves as one stop shops. They go to great lengths to advertise that they can build properties for you at a much reduced cost than an architect. They can indeed and what a cost !
To get an An architect in crete to deliver a standard build , with a turnkey package and a guarntee that you can only get from an Architect in Crete , costs between 1000 - 1200 Euros a square meter. There are "developers" who claim to be able to do the same as an architect for as little as 600 Euros a square meter. To do so, clearly they cut corners - use cheap labour, cheaper lower quality concrete, inferior materials, poor working practice often flouting building regulations and good working practice. The most significant difference though is the legality of the build , which often is questionable at best. These one stop shops advertise that you can buy land from them they will build you the house, then rent it out for you.
Our advice is simple and transparent.
As it is the architect who is responsible for signing of building regulations conformance and obtaining planning permission, it is their responsibility to build the house . There have been many recent cases in the Elounda area of people not using architect for their builds, but instead , and in a futile attempt to save maybe just a few thousand pounds , have to their cost realised to their cost that not using an architect in Crete really is a false economy .
Crete Property Information, as the only independent estate agency in Elounda, has established a reputation for unrivalled customer service over the last four years.