Buying property in Greece is a life-long dream for the majority of locals. As a result, the country has one of the biggest percentage of owner-occupied properties in the EU (72.3% based on the latest Eurostat data).
However, over the course of the past few years, buying interest has intensified by people from other countries as well, either for investment purposes, or for their own use, or even both.
Who buys properties in Greece?
According to data from the Bank of Greece, in 2019 a total of 1.45 billion euros were invested in the Greek real estate market from foreign investors. This represented an increase of 28.4% compared to the year before, when an additional 1.128 billion euros were invested. These are unprecedented numbers, as prior to the 2018-2019 period, the highest annual investment inflows in real estate was recorded in 2007, when a mere 308.5 million euros was used to acquire properties in Greece.
Technology and its broader utilization has contributed towards bringing foreign buyers closer to the Greek real estate market, whether they are attracted by a “dream house” in one of the country’s hundreds of islands, or the Athenian “Riviera”, or even an apartment in the foothill of the Acropolis. According to the latest annual report by JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle), Greee keeps improving, in terms of the JLL Transparency Index. The country now stands at 41st place worldwide, outshining countries like Bulgaria, Turkey and Croatia, among its neighboring or closely located competitors, when it comes to foreign real estate investors. The report says that “we continue to see the rise of proptech across all parts of the real estate industry. The growing adoption of proptech platforms, digital tools and ‘big data’ techniques are rapidly increasing the volume of real estate market data available.
JLL’s experts note that online platforms for buying and selling properties, shared-economy platforms and the digitalization of the tools to manege property assets, are actively improving the Greek real estate market’s transparency. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic could also contribute towards the acceleration of the possibilities that technology can offer to real estate, but also to the development of innovation, due to the need for accurate and ontime information.
