Pandemic Dampens Real Estate in Greece but Holiday Homes Still Shine
The Covid-19 pandemic has pulled the brake on Greece’s real estate market, freezing deals and prices on housing, but pockets of demand have emerged from foreign buyers looking at property on Greek soil.
Interest from investors located mainly in European countries, led by UK nationals, has increased in recent months as they search for property either for investment purposes or to be used as a holiday home, real estate agents report.
Demand has been focusing mostly on homes on the Athens Riviera, the southern beach stretch running from Piraeus to Sounio, as well as islands such as Mykonos, Crete, Corfu, and Paros.
Homes worth 7 to 10 million euros are on investor radars but the majority of enquiries concern properties in the range of 500,000 to 1.5 million euros, Christos Mourdoukoutas, sales analyst at Algean Property, tells IN+SIGHTS GREECE.
“They are mainly looking for a place in a prime location that is close to international airports – popular holiday destinations and the Athenian Riviera – which could offer a good yield too, since their interest is usually related with investment purposes,” he says.
Growth in Greece’s real estate prices had been growing steadily, recovering from a ten-year slump, when the pandemic hit. Data from the Bank of Greece, the country’s central bank, showed that prices last year jumped 7.3 percent and then by an annual pace of 6.9 percent in the first three months of this year.
Since then, local buyers and home owners have adopted a wait-and-see stance due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the recession at hand. 
Due to travel restrictions, interest in buying Greek assets comes mostly from nearby European nations as investors from further away are still having a hard time getting to the country. This is a trend seen globally, with real estate investors currently preferring their own regions due to travel restrictions.
Market officials say that buyers from China, who have been a main source of foreign investment in Greek homes in recent years, are still showing strong interest in Greek homes.
A key reason why buyers remain keen on Greece is that prices in the country remain well below levels seen in other European countries. Additionally, yields offered on homes on islands, such as Mykonos, exceed the 8 percent mark, ranking among the highest in Europe, according to data provided by Algean Property.
The country’s successful handling of the pandemic over the lockown period earlier this year boosted its appeal as a safe destination, with homes offering privacy and large areas sought after.
“We see that more than half of those interested have accelerated their decisions and want to invest in a private vacation and place for relaxation. For many, the pandemic has led to a review of their priorities, resulting in them speeding up decisions to leave their jobs and are now seek to buy a luxury property for the rest of their lives,” Savvas Savvaidis, president and CEO of Greece Sotheby’s International Realty told Kathimerini.
In March, Sotheby’s handled one of the biggest deals to take place in the residential market in Greece in recent years. An Australian business owner purchased a villa in Corfu for 12 million euros, with the sale going ahead normally despite the lockdown period. It is Sotheby’s third sale above 10 million euros in Greece in the last year.
*Images courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty
With a budget of 50 million euros, municipal authorities hope the project will help the city catch up with other European capitals where similar urban regeneration schemes have gone ahead, providing a major push to local real estate markets.
In Athens, demand for property in central districts had picked up when COVID 19 struck, pulling the brake on prices and sending the Greek economy deep into recession.
Since then real estate has been mostly stagnant though there are expectations that the Great Walk will provide a major lift to the market but it remains unclear as to when this may materialise given the pandemic.
“Under normal conditions, when such interventions in a city take place, real estate prices increase by 10-15 percent. However, at the given time and in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, the price increases in the domestic real estate will be much smaller,” Ioannis Revythis, board member of the Real Estate Federation of Greece, told Insider.gr.
Once the clouds of uncertainty from the pandemic disperse, property owners will have to
wait until the Great Walk has been completed and up and running before bumping up their prices, say real estate officials. The project, which was launched on a test basis in June, will take four years to complete.
It is seen adding shine to commercial assets, such as retail stores and office buildings, and residential housing that has become more popular in downtown Athens.
Up until a few years ago, Greeks generally avoided living in the city center.
The lack of recreational space, difficult parking, and often unclean streets kept most residents in the suburbs. That, however, started to change after moves by municipal authorities to clean up the city center amidst the country’s tourism boom, which saw areas as Psiri, Monastiraki, and Thisio become very popular with visitors.
Young couples and professionals often prefer to have a place in a central neighborhood, in a trend that is set to pick up with the completion of the Great Walk.
Everyone agrees that Athens is in desperate need of fewer cars and more park areas but not in the way that the changes should be done.
Critics have accused Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis of failing to hold proper public consultations before completing interventions and implementing stages of the project without proper planning.
Retailers complain that confusion over the traffic changes have put shoppers off from heading to the area, in a wave of opposition similar to that seen when cars were blocked from entering Ermou street in 1997.
Almost all traders had opposed the idea back then which eventually went ahead, turning Ermou street into the city’s busiest retail stretches with commercial real estate that ranks among the most expensive in the world.
All images Courtesy of 
“When is soon? September?” I got no answer but we were lucky, it only took a month. Alas, upgrading simply meant eliminating the snap, crackle, and pop background noise. It is still too primitive to support WiFi.
he plunged his roots. He settled here some 30 years ago to work for the Athens Concert Hall’s Camerata Orchestra and become a (Greek Orthodox-baptised!) doting father. Here he writes about a place even regular visitors to Greece rarely hear about, the Methana peninsula. It was there that a decade ago he and his dad took on the somewhat audacious (as humorously described in their book ‘Blue Skies and Black Olives’) feat of building their villa in a sleepy village. Building the house was only the very start of an adventure and love affair that Humphrys writes about here. He describes the powerful connection that keeps growing with this volcanic landscape famous for its orchid varieties and sulphur-infused seashores, which is as unique as it is naturally magnificent, as close to Athens and as far away from urban reality at once. Readers are also treated to some excellent insider tips for their next trip over there.
Christopher’s Top Tips:
