An exponential increase both in the speed of real estate transactions and in the overall size of the real estate market can be achieved through the availability of publicly accessible and reliable data, especially for prospective buyers from third countries. This was the key takeaway from the remarks of Mr. Dion Gavriilidis, Managing Partner of Elxis – At Home in Greece, a leading company in the sale of holiday homes in Greece.
Speaking at the Property Agents Forum, as part of the recent Prodexpo, Mr. Gavriilidis noted that, while traditionally a property sale in Greece may take between 2 to 6 months, in cases where modern and official data are available (such as the Building’s Electronic Identity), the same transaction can be completed within 2 to 6 weeks.
“This is not about the process itself, but about trust. When officially verified data are available to the interested party, risk decreases, investment evaluation time shortens, and decision-making accelerates significantly,” noted the Elxis Managing Partner, adding that when a transaction takes a long time, the chances of it being completed drop to 70%, whereas in cases where reliable data and fast procedures exist, the completion rate soars to 90%.
According to Mr. Gavriilidis, the issue of trust and the need for publicly available official data is even more crucial in the holiday home market, since buyers from third countries enter the process based on their experiences and standards from their home countries.
“In the Netherlands, for example, you can type any address into the Land Registry and immediately see when a property was last sold and for what price. You verify everything before you trust. Here, it’s the opposite. Often, the interested buyer starts by seeing a few photos and a description, while due diligence may take months.
As a result, instead of investing after verifying the data, buyers in Greece are often forced to commit first to some extent in order to gain access to the information they need to verify. This makes them act more cautiously, testing the system with smaller budgets and thus compressing the market’s potential.
It’s not a lack of faith in Greece—they clearly see the potential—it’s simply the lack of reliable data,” Mr. Gavriilidis remarked.
Likewise, the absence of available data negatively affects property valuations, leading to artificially inflated prices on the one hand and hindering actual sales on the other. Specifically, the Elxis Managing Partner noted:
“Sellers often base their prices on what they see online—on asking prices. But asking and selling prices are set arbitrarily and can differ by tens of thousands of euros. When we can show that homes listed at €500,000 actually sold for €430,000, it’s no longer a matter of opinion but evidence. Proper pricing from the start changes everything—homes sell faster, interest is higher, and market expectations remain realistic.”
In conclusion, Mr. Dion Gavriilidis acknowledged that significant progress has been made in the right direction—such as the implementation of the National Cadastre (Εθνικό Κτηματολόγιο) application and the Building’s Electronic Identity—but there is still ample room for improvement regarding access to official and publicly available data, especially in areas outside major urban centres.
“A transaction without secure and readily available data,” he said, “is like driving without Google Maps. You may eventually reach your destination, but without knowing how long it will take or what obstacles you might encounter along the way.”
