What an AMA Number Is

What the number is

An AMA is a registration number, issued by AADE — the Greek revenue authority — to a property entered in the Short-Term Residence Property Registry. The registry sits under Article 111 of Law 4446/2016, and every property let for short stays has to be in it.

The number belongs to the property, not to the owner or the agency. One house, one AMA, whoever is letting it and through whichever channel.

What counts as a short-term let is defined by duration. A furnished residential property rented for no more than 59 days falls inside the framework. Beyond that it is an ordinary residential lease, governed by different rules entirely.

Where the number has to appear

In the listing. The AMA must be shown in every advertisement of the property on every platform it appears on, and the platforms match the numbers they are given against the registry.

That makes the absence of a number a useful signal, and it is the reason the AMA is worth knowing about at all. A house advertised for short stays with no registration number displayed is not being discreet. It is unregistered, or its registration has been withdrawn.

The consequence for the property is mechanical rather than discretionary. Where a property loses its AMA, it is removed from the platforms automatically.

What a property must have to keep it

Registration is not a formality, and since 1 October 2025 it has not been a light one. Article 3 of Law 5170/2025, published in the Government Gazette in January 2025 and implemented for tourism by a Ministry of Tourism circular in September, sets operational specifications every registered property must meet.

• Spaces of main use only. The rooms let must be legally habitable space — bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens — with natural light, ventilation and air conditioning. A converted basement, storeroom, garage or attic does not qualify.
• Civil liability insurance, covering damage or accidents affecting guests and third parties, from an insurer licensed in Greece.
• An electrician’s declaration confirming the electrical installation, including a residual-current device in the board.
• Fire safety equipment — a portable fire extinguisher sized to the property, smoke detectors in bedrooms and kitchens, and marked emergency exits.
• A pest control certificate, a first aid kit, and a guide of emergency contact numbers.

The fines are set in the statute rather than left to discretion. A property that fails to meet the specifications, or whose manager obstructs an inspection, carries an administrative fine of €5,000, and a further breach within the same year is penalised at several times that.

The Athens and Thessaloniki freeze

Two Greek cities have stopped issuing new numbers in their centres, which is a separate matter from the standards above and catches people out.

Athens. New AMA registrations are barred in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd municipal districts until 31 December 2026. That covers the commercial triangle, Plaka, Monastiraki, Syntagma, Kolonaki, Exarcheia, Koukaki, Mets, Pangrati, Petralona, Thiseio, Gazi and Metaxourgeio, among others.

Thessaloniki. From 1 March 2026 the same model applies to the First Municipal Community, which holds roughly 4,800 of the city’s approximately 7,500 short-term listings.

Existing registrations continue. What is barred is a new one, which matters most where a property changes hands — a buyer in these districts cannot assume the number comes with the house.

What the number does not tell you

It is a compliance record, and reading more into it than that is the common error.

An AMA says the property is registered, its rooms are legal, and it carries insurance, an extinguisher and a smoke alarm. It says nothing about the quality of the house, the standard of the linen, the competence of the staff or the accuracy of the photographs. A poor house and a very good one hold the same kind of number.

Nor does it certify who is letting the property or on what terms. The registry records the property. Deposits, cancellation terms and who holds the money are matters of contract, and they sit outside this system altogether.

Where it does not apply

Two cases fall outside the registry, and both are worth checking rather than assuming.

Longer stays. A let running beyond 59 days is an ordinary residential lease, not a short-term rental, and the framework above does not reach it.

Licensed tourist accommodation. A property operating as a licensed tourist business rather than as a residential let holds a licence from the Ministry of Tourism instead, with its own number. Several of the larger staffed estates in Greece are set up this way.

Which of the two applies is a question with a short answer, and the useful form of it is direct: which number does this house hold, and may we see it? A registered property answers immediately. So does a licensed one. Only an unregistered one has to explain.

What to ask before taking a house

Three questions, none of them adversarial.

1. What is the property’s AMA, or its tourism licence number? Either is a fine answer. Neither is not.
2. Are the rooms we will be using spaces of main use? This matters most where a house advertises more bedrooms than its permit shows — a converted lower floor is exactly what the rule excludes.
3. Who holds the civil liability insurance, and what does it cover? The statute requires it. The policy still has terms.

Asking is ordinary. Since October 2025 every legally let house in Greece has had to hold the answers anyway.