Building firms turn attention to luxury homes

By Nikos Roussanoglou

Local construction firms are considering an investment switch to luxury homes to respond to the growing demand by non-European Union citizens for this category of properties that come with a residence permit.

While a number of EU countries have similar investor visa schemes, whereby non-EU citizens who buy properties in Europe (in Greece’s case worth at least 250,000 euros) get a visa, the country’s share from this very promising market currently stands at less than 3 percent, according to a recent survey by the association of Greek estate agents and chartered surveyors (EPPA). Greece joined this club a year-and-a-half ago by introducing a law to that effect, but the results to date have been disappointing.

The EPPA survey tracked residential property transactions conducted over the last few weeks across the country. Non-Greek property buyers accounted for 28 percent of all transactions, with half of them (14 percent) involving non-EU citizens, although only 22 percent went for luxury houses worth at least 250,000 euros.

There are plenty of candidate buyers from countries such as China and Russia, but the main problem is the shortage of the appropriate product, even though it is estimated that the number of unsold houses in Greece exceeds 250,000, some 50,000 of which are holiday homes.

According to EPPA’s vice president Theologos Bosdas, “large-scale investments are required, in the order of 40-50 apartments or maisonettes, that can be promoted in an organized fashion to those buyers.” He adds that demand has been expressed for housing complexes of a significant size, comprising 40-50 units, aimed at creating communities of foreign owners. There are no such developments currently available in Greece, hence...