Once we decided to investigate building
our own house, we came up with a simple design of a villa, based on one we had
rented the winter before. We talked to a couple of building firms and went to
see some examples of their work on the island. We received a price for the
villa finished to a standard ready to move in. The price looked acceptable and
within the budget we had, including allowing for buying a plot of land.
The project was in motion, we set off on
the mission to find a suitable plot of land.
We looked at around 8 plots of land. There
are huge variations about what is the available on the island. The east coast ,sea
front plots, are mostly taken up now or are being snapped up for excessive
prices by rich foreign purchasers. It is
possible to get a reasonable size plot with a sea view but very high up into
the hills, meaning a regular difficult drive to get the shops and amenities.
We concluded that we wanted to be on the flat
and were happy to forgo the sea view for this benefit.
After seeing several plots that fitted our
criteria we settled on a beautiful plot close to the Rachi waterfalls, at a
price that fitted in with our plans. The
next step was to check the plot is registered on the newly formed Greek Land
Register. This plot, it turned out, had been recorded incorrectly and belonged
to four different people according to the land register. This meant we would
need to go to court to have the documents changed and each of these four people
would need to sign to say they agreed with the change. It was at this point
that we decided to walk away from this piece of land. We promised ourselves, as
we went through this process, that the minute something felt wrong, that we
would not continue in that direction.
After a short search, we found a new and
much better plot not far away from the one we had selected. It has a lovely creek running alongside and
it was actually much bigger. It sits in the olive groves and has 28 olive trees
and a selection of lemon and other fruit trees already in place.
We loved it straight away with the only
downside being a commercial property opposite. We agreed with the neighbour
that we could either plant trees or put up a fence against his boundary to
screen any part that we didn’t want to see.
Our Architect checked out the building
regulations to ensure this land was approved for building with the local town
hall and that all the land registry details were correct. This piece of land
had not been registered yet so it was actually easier to ensure it was set up
with the correct boundaries.
We then went ahead with the purchase of
the land. In order to do this, we needed a Greek bank account and tax number. A
notary then drew up a contract, which was also translated into English and both
parties signed it and we handed over the money.
Mid-November 2014,we were the proud owners
of a 2800 square metre plot of land on Lefkas, pictured above, with a promise
from our building team that we would have a house by the following Autumn. Time will tell…..
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