Buying a home

Various rights and obligations are involved in owning or living in a multi-owner building which are apartment buildings containing apartments that are owned by more than one party.

One must apply for a building permit when planning to build a house, rebuild, build an extension or change a house. Building work may not commence until this permit has been issued.

In order to make it easier for people to become owners of residential housing, the State Treasury will pay interest benefits, which are intended to be set against the interest costs of a mortgage.

Most people finance the purchase of real-estate property and housing construction with mortgages, and they need to investigate what kinds of terms are available.

All properties in Iceland are registered and evaluated for property assessment and fire compensation assessment by Icelandic Property Registry.

All house owners must pay property tax, and certain insurance policies are mandatory.

Numerous factors must be taken account of when buying and selling property, as quite often in such transactions everything a person owns is at stake.