Foreign investors drive property boom
Property transactions are thriving, as official data show, and real estate professionals say that a great part of the growth is driven by foreign investors.
By August 10, with not quite two-thirds of the year gone, there have been 112,000 property transaction, while in the whole of 2022 139,000 sale contracts had been signed, up from about 105,000 in 2021 and 75,000 in 2020.
Notaries are certain that the 2022 number, which represented a 10-year high, will be eclipsed this year, as, at the moment, about a 1,000 property transfers take place daily. And we are taking about transfers being conducted through the online MyProperty platform. This doesn’t include property outside city limits or farmland.
Already, the state has received some €301 million in taxes, way higher than in the whole for 2022, as increased demand has driven property prices up.
Foreigners seeking a golden visa spent over €1 billion buying property in the first half of 2023, almost triple than what they spent during the same period last year (€361 million).
The minimum amount that must invested to get a golden visa has been doubled to €500,000 for the most sought-after destinations, such as much of the Attica region, the northern city of Thessaloniki and the islands of Mykonos and Santorini. And, unlike what was in force until recently, prospective investors cannot acquire several cheaper properties to get over the €500,000 threshold.
The gap between imputed values – the estimated values assigned to properties by the state for taxation purposes – and market values is widening, especially in the toniest central Athens districts and in the northern and southern suburbs.
