Holiday Home Demand Boosts Greek Property Market at Lesser-Known Destinations

Greece’s property market is showing signs of a strong comeback with all the more foreign buyers seeking holiday homes in lesser-known destinations besides the popular islands of Santorini, Paros and Mykonos, according the latest report released by Algean Property.

Greece’s real estate market recorded solid growth in 2018 and 2019 seeing higher property asking prices and acquisitions, with property investment growing for the seventh consecutive quarter – a sign that the sector is recovering.

Algean analysts attribute the upward trend to the growth of tourism and the qualitative upgrade of Greece’s tourist product as well as to the country’s friendly golden visa program.

At the same time, the holiday home sector kept a steady pace in 2019, and Greece was the top performing destination in the Mediterranean for a fifth consecutive year, recording solid gross rental yields.

The report’s analysts expect investment prospects for the Greek hospitality sector to improve even more as tourism figures remain solid. At the same time, the demand for holiday homes at lesser-known destinations is expected to remain strong in 2020 driven by tourism as well as by a growing short-term rental market.

Algean expects prices to further increase  for properties at tourist popular destinations as well as in urban centers.

Popular tourist areas attracting increasing demand include Corfu, Rhodes, Halkidiki, and Crete, and the more alternative destinations such as Messinia in the Peloponnese, Kos, and Symi in the Dodecanese, and Lefkada and Zakynthos, in the Ionian Sea.

Indicatively, Mykonos, Paros, and Santorini were among the top Mediterranean destinations for the third consecutive year in 2019, with gross average yields reaching 8.2 percent, 6.5 percent, and 6.3 percent, respectively. Next on the list were Skiathos (6 percent), Porto Heli (5.1 percent), Rhodes, Halkidiki, and Chania (4.8 percent), recording higher returns than those in Mediterranean destinations, such as Saint-Tropez (3.9 percent), Marbella (4.3 percent), and Nice (4.2 percent).