Real estate: Greeks choose country houses

For the first time since the beginning of the financial crisis, the Greeks showed attention to the purchase of country real estate.

According to an analysis by holiday home sales company Elxis-At Home in Greece, the last six months have seen a significant increase in demand and purchases of holiday homes by Greeks, and not just by foreigners, as has been the case until now.

This development of events indicates great purchasing interestespecially when you consider that Elxis promotes Greek properties almost exclusively to buyers from Western European countries such as, for example, Germany, the Netherlands (where the company is headquartered), Belgium, the UK, Austria, France and Switzerland.

“Over the past six months we have noticed impressive entry of the Greeks into the countryside real estate market. Buyers are moving into high-quality off-plan homes, priced between €250,000 and €350,000, without looking for 'low price',” says Mr Georgos Gavrielides, CEO of Elxis. According to him, these clients prefer the most promising areas.

Greek buyers are mainly people aged 45-60 and freelancers such as doctors and lawyers. As for Greek emigrants, they are second or even third generation Greeks who came either from European countries such as Germany or from third countries such as Canada, Australia and of course the USA.

“This phenomenon was also observed last year, since almost 10% of our sales came from foreign buyers. Clients in this category have accumulated significant savings and want to invest part of them to buy a house in Greece, even if they have never visited our country,” emphasizes Mr. Gavrielides.

Buyers are preferring new, smaller single-family homes with good prospects for short-term rental income. Thus, the main motivation of these people is to invest in real estate for the purpose of exploitation, but this does not mean that they do not intend to live there themselves from time to time.

However, as Elxis figures show, it is now especially common for clients to buy a home so that their “holiday home” can generate some income.

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