Real estate: Greeks turn to holiday homes – What is their profile – Economic Post

For the first time since the outbreak of the financial crisis, Greeks have started to return to the holiday home market.

According to the analysis of the company selling country houses, Elxis-At Home In Greece, during the last six months, there has been a significant increase in demand and purchases of country houses by Greeks, not only expatriates, as was the case until now, but also by permanent residents of the country.

Golden Visa: Turn of foreign investors in the market of holiday homes in Crete, Rhodes and Halkidiki

This development is indicative of the great buying interest, especially if it is taken into account 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, the Belgium, UK, Austria, France and Switzerland.

“In the last six months, we have noticed the almost impressive entry of Greeks into the holiday home market, and in fact without resorting to borrowing. These buyers move to high-quality houses, which are sold off-plan, at prices ranging between 250,000 and 350,000 euros, without having as their sole concern the very low price”, says Mr. Giorgos Gavrielidis, CEO of Elxis . According to him, these people prefer up-and-coming areas and not particularly saturated locations.

For example, in Crete, they move in areas of the prefectures of Rethymno and Chania, without much tourist traffic, while buying interest is also observed along the entire coastline from Igoumenitsa to Preveza and Palairo. Accordingly, in Rhodes, the demand that manifests itself concerns the central and western side of the island, which is not so developed. Significant mobility is also observed by Greeks in the islands of the eastern Aegean.

The profile of buyers

Greek buyers are mainly people aged 45-60 and freelancers, such as doctors and lawyers.

As far as Greek expatriates are concerned, they are second, or even third generation Greeks, who come either from European countries, such as Germany, or from third countries, such as Canada, Australia and of course the USA.

“We saw this phenomenon occur last year as well, as almost 10% of the sales we made were precisely for expatriate buyers. These people have accumulated some significant savings and wish to invest some of them in order to buy a house in Greece, even if they have never visited Greece in their life”, emphasizes Mr. Gavrielidis. These buyers prefer new single-family homes of small size, with good prospects for income from short-term rentals. Therefore, these people have as their main motivation the investment, with the aim of exploitation, without this meaning that they do not proceed with the same use of the properties they buy. However, as Elxis figures show, it is now particularly common to choose to use it so that the holiday home can generate some income. Since no borrowing is used, the net return is also higher, concludes the Elxis analysis.