This year has reportedly seen a huge rise in the purchase of holiday homes in Greece by Hellenic expatriates, who accumulatively have been responsible for the purchases of more than one in ten holiday properties.
These are the findings of the data collected by the sales network of Dutch-based Elxis, which has found that second (even third) generation Greeks from around the world (mainly in the US, Canada and Germany) have significantly strengthened purchases of holiday homes in the local market this year.
Giorgos Gavriilidis, managing director of holiday home experts Elxis, said that “based on our data, 20.5 per cent of expats who buy a holiday home in Greece come from Germany, another 20.5 per cent from Canada, followed by expatriates from the US on 17.8 per cent”.
“Homes in Greece are also bought by expats living permanently in the Netherlands (11 per cent), France (6.8 per cent) and Switzerland (5.4 per cent). The areas that interest these people are mainly Crete, Halkidiki and the Ionian Sea,” Mr Gavriilidis added.
The reports reveal that expats prefer to buy newly built houses, noting that over 75 per cent seem to buy in the planning stage i.e. before construction begins.
The desire to have these homes is said to be twofold: 1. to have a holiday home for summer vacations and 2. to have a property that will generate a significant income the rest of the year, mainly through digital short-term rental platforms.
Mr Gavriilidis added in regard to this trend: “a typical example concerns a project we promoted in Halkidiki, with cave dwellings, which was 35 peer cent bought by expatriates. Correspondingly, another project of ours with villas in Marathi, Crete was bought at a rate of 27 per cent by expatriates.”
Elxis’ analysis suggests that the recovery trajectory of the domestic housing market and rising prices are one of the drivers for Greek expatriates, as expectations for further market growth have improved.
Simultaneously, despite the rise in prices that has taken place, rates remain significantly lower than in the countries where expatriates live permanently at a time when high-quality real estate is offered in Greece.
