Is home insurance against natural disasters mandatory in Greece?

The short answer

No — Greek law does not fine you, or anyone, for leaving a home uninsured against earthquake, fire or flood. What it actually does, since Law 5162/2024, is attach two separate, real consequences to insurance status: a bigger ΕΝΦΙΑ discount if you're insured, and — for homes above a certain value — permanent exclusion from one category of state disaster aid, regardless of whether you insure or not. That second point is often reported as "insure by June 2025 or lose your state aid." That isn't what the law says.

The ΕΝΦΙΑ discount for insured homes

Since the 2025 tax year, residences owned by individuals get a ΕΝΦΙΑ discount if insured against earthquake, fire and flood:

• 20% off if the property's ΕΝΦΙΑ taxable value is €500,000 or less
• 10% off if it's above €500,000

For the 2024 tax year only, the discount was a flat 10% regardless of value — the tiered 20%/10% split started with tax year 2025.

To qualify, the policy has to cover the full value of the building — its reconstruction cost, excluding the land, at no less than €1,000 per square metre — with an insurer registered with the Bank of Greece's insurance-supervision registry. It has to have run for at least three months of the previous year; if it ran for less than a full year, the discount is prorated accordingly.

The state-aid exclusion — and what it doesn't say

Separately, since 1 June 2025, Article 5Α of Law 4797/2021 (inserted by Article 10 of Law 5162/2024) excludes residences with an ΕΝΦΙΑ taxable value above €500,000 from a specific set of state disaster-aid payments: reconstruction or repair grants (στεγαστική συνδρομή), temporary housing subsidies, first-relief assistance, and the lump-sum grant for minor repairs and replacing household goods, when the cause is earthquake, fire from natural causes, or flood.

Read the article's own text, and the exclusion is flat, based on value alone — it says nothing about insurance status. A €600,000 home is excluded from this aid whether or not it's insured; insuring it does not restore eligibility. What insurance buys you, at any property value, is the ΕΝΦΙΑ discount above — not access to this particular aid.

What this means for you

• If your home's ΕΝΦΙΑ taxable value is under €500,000: insuring it against earthquake, fire and

flood (full reconstruction value, held at least three months of the tax year) earns you a real 20% ΕΝΦΙΑ discount, and you remain eligible for this state disaster aid whether insured or not.

• If it's over €500,000: you still get a 10% ΕΝΦΙΑ discount for insuring, but you're excluded

from this category of state aid either way — insurance doesn't change that.

• The rule applies to any residence owned by an individual, not only a primary home — on the

wording as written, a second or holiday property counts too.

Turning it into a deadline you won't miss

The ΕΝΦΙΑ discount depends on the policy having actually run for at least three months of the tax year you're claiming it for — let a renewal lapse near year-end and you can lose the whole year's discount. In Epimeleia, attach your home-insurance policy to the property and set a reminder ahead of its renewal date, so a discount you're entitled to never disappears because a policy quietly expired.

Before you rely on this

This guide describes Article 10 of Law 5162/2024 (ΦΕΚ Α' 198/5.12.2024) — which amended the ΕΝΦΙΑ-discount rule in Article 3 §7Ζ of Law 4223/2013 and inserted Article 5Α into Law 4797/2021 — and Article 136 §10, which sets Article 10's own entry into force. It's read from the law's current consolidated text, which already incorporates later amendments through Law 5275/2026. Legislation on state disaster aid changes often; confirm the current wording before drawing a conclusion about your own property, especially if its ΕΝΦΙΑ taxable value sits close to €500,000.