Land and plots in Thessaloniki.

Two plots of 500 sq.m. can be worth completely different amounts. The first thing that counts is the building coefficient: how many square metres of building are allowed from each square metre of land. It is defined per sector of the plan, so two plots on the same street usually have the same one — what separates them there is the frontage, the shape and the depth, the corner position, the permitted height, a street-plan encumbrance or a listed building. Alongside the coefficient stand the coverage, that is how much of the plot’s surface the building may cover, and the maximum height. When you multiply the area by the coefficient, you get the buildable square metres. That is where the real comparison begins: price per buildable square metre, not per square metre of plot. Two listings that look alike can be far apart once the price is measured per buildable square metre. Before I propose a price, I make this calculation and show you the numbers, not only the conclusion.

The two words sound alike and are not. A clarification first: in planning language, a plot is land within the town plan and a parcel is land outside it. Conforming is the plot that meets the minimums of the planning regime, area and frontage on a road. Buildable is the one for which a permit can actually be issued. There are conforming plots that cannot be built on: access only through a private road or a right of way, a shape that does not fit the outline of the building, a street-plan encumbrance binding part of it, a slope that raises the foundation cost disproportionately. Two questions clear up a lot early on: is the property conforming by rule or by derogation, and exactly what does it front onto. I put them from the first conversation. The technical confirmation is signed by an engineer; the legal check is done by a lawyer. I replace neither of them.

The first distinction is not the area, it is the regime. Within the plan, the building terms come from the planning regime of the area: building and street-plan lines, terms per sector, a possible land contribution where the incorporation has not been completed. Within settlement boundaries other rules apply, often more restrictive than you expect. Outside the plan, under the framework in force today, the basis of conformity starts at four stremmata with frontage on a public road, the derogations for smaller parcels have been restricted in recent years, and the permitted residential square metres do not grow proportionally with the area: a parcel of ten stremmata does not build twice what one of five does. Because the framework has changed repeatedly, the right question is what applies today to the specific property, not what applied when it was bought.

For an apartment the check focuses on the title and on the documents of the building. For a plot or a parcel it continues on the map. The forest map may attribute forest character to part of the extent, even when you see nothing relevant on the ground. A delimited stream binds a zone on either side. An archaeological zone does not automatically mean prohibition; it means approval from the competent Ephorate before the permit, and therefore time. Add street-plan takings, utility lines, shoreline boundaries where they exist. The point is not to fear land. It is to know which of these apply before you commit capital, because each one shifts either the price or the timetable. I make sure all of this is in the conversation from the start and refer you to the people who check it. The check itself is carried out by an engineer and a lawyer.

The order matters. First what can be built: buildable square metres, coverage, height, permitted uses. Then who buys the final product, because a plot in Eastern Thessaloniki that yields maisonettes addresses a different buyer from a central one that yields small apartments. Last the price, as a result: land cost per buildable square metre, construction cost, time to exit. If you are selling land, the prospective buyer will make exactly this calculation. I prefer you to have made it first, because then the negotiation happens over numbers and not over impressions. I do not promise a price or a time to sell. I show you how the number is produced, what changes it, and where it can hold.