Where Are Most Home Buyers From?
According to Mr. George Gavrilidis, CEO of Elxis, “Based on our data, 20.5% of expatriates buying properties in Greece come from Germany, an additional 20.5% are from Canada, while US expatriates are responsible for 17.5% of the acquisitions. Holiday homes in Greece are also bought by expatriates who live permanently in the Netherlands (11%), France (6.8%), and Switzerland (5.4%). Expatriates are mainly interested in properties in Crete, Chalkidiki, and the Ionian Sea.”
Off-Plan Homes
In fact, over 75% of Greek expatriates prefer to purchase newly built houses off-plan. They want to use the home for their vacations, but also to lease out, mainly as short-term rentals. “One such example was a project of ours in Chalkidiki’s popular first peninsula. The project had cave houses, 35% of which were bought by expatriates. In another one of our projects in Crete, 27% of its buyers were expatriates.
U.S. Visitors to Greece Increase
In its latest monthly report for the European short-term rental market, AirDNA said that the summer of 2023 was characterized by the full comeback of U.S. tourists in popular European destinations. This was the first time that U.S. visitors came to Europe at such scale since the pandemic. Up until now, they mainly preferred destinations on the American continent, or solely within the U.S. borders. This development has considerably increased demand for short-term rentals. As a result, 17% of Greece’s visitors came from the U.S.A. In fact, according to AirDNA, this was the fifth-best result in Europe. A portion of these visitors were Greek expatriates of second or even third generation who finally took the chance to visit their homeland for the first time in their lives. This had a significant effect on sales of holiday homes as well, which is often the case in the secondary housing market. People who visit a beautiful location for holidays often research the property market as well, so they can buy the house of their dreams.
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