A new age group of potential holiday home buyers in Greece, with a different selection criteria than in the past, has begun to make its presence felt over the past five years.
These are people aged 30 to 55 years, that is, not typical pensioners from European countries, who until recently were the dominant age group of buyers of “dachas” for summer holidays in our country. This follows from a related analysis of sales data in Greece by Elxis, which specializes in residential real estate and legal services.
In recent years, there has been an increase in demand from young peoplewhich treat buying a holiday home more like an investment than a holiday property. “These buyers make purchases more with the mind (calculation) than with the heart (liked – bought). Their goal is to invest their money in investments that should pay off, and also offer the possibility of personal use, although this is not always a prerequisite,” explains Mr. Giorgos Gavrielidis, Founder and CEO of Elxis.
According to him, in many countries, when someone buys a villa for the purpose of exploitation, he is obliged to rent it out for the entire tourist season. Against, in Greece it is optionalsince the owner can choose the dates when he will use his house for holidays, and for the rest of the time he can rent it out using various digital short-term rental platforms.
It is this comparative advantage offered by the Greek market that has pushed more buyers of this age group to buy property in different regions of the country. And until recently they preferred the Spanish market. According to the company, in the project Sunny Days in Crete, the average age of buyers was 42 years old, and the youngest was only 30 years old. 6 houses with 2 and 3 bedrooms priced from 200,000 to 300,000 were sold in 5 days, and the owners transferred the object to the management company (for rent, maintenance and cleaning). Having specified in the winter when they themselves will come “home” to rest.
“Often these are young businessmen who have already taken the first steps in investing in real estate in their country and are now looking for investment opportunities in other European countries,” emphasizes Mr. Gavrielidis. They know Greece from only one or two visits to the country on vacation.
Besides a good return on investment is a prerequisite for this contingent. For this reason, they almost always target new builds with swimming pools, popular tourist destinations, good infrastructure and air links. Thus, areas such as Crete and the Ionian Islands are in their focus.
ABOUT The different mentality of these buyers is evidenced by the fact that sometimes they send a down payment for the purchase of a home without even coming to Greece. “They choose based on the information we send them, such as photos and videos, or after a video call with an Elxis partner showing off the property over the phone (video link) or drone footage. We show the buyer in this way both the interior of the object and the entire site and surroundings,” says Mr. Gavrielidis.
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