Airbnb

Property investors are firmly focused on apartments in central Athens and tourism properties such as holiday homes and hotels, according to a National Bank of Greece report.

A recovery in Greece's residential property market gained momentum in the third quarter of 2018, central bank data showed on Monday, suggesting an improving economy and growing foreign interest may help property prices rise further.

Short-term property leasing may be associated with furnished apartments and holiday homes through online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway, but the service is fast expanding into the office market as well, where needs are equally large and require flexible solutions.

Airbnb is playing an increasingly dominant role in the Greek housing market. The owners of more than 126,000 apartments and houses in our southern neighbor rent them through the platform.

Attica, the Cyclades and Crete account for over 60 percent of the Greek properties that are available for short-term lease on online platforms such as Airbnb and TripAdvisor, according to a report on the sector by Greece's Center of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE), as the total figure of properties available seems to be doubling every year.

The frenzy of investment in properties in the center of Athens is showing no signs of abating, as Chinese, Turks, Russians and Israelis, along with Greeks, continue to acquire apartments with the aim of turning them into short-term rentals as advertised on platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway.

The phenomenon of short-term holiday lets has shaken things up in Athens's residential property rental market, with the cost of renting a flat in Koukaki, near the Acropolis, having risen above rates in the affluent northern suburbs of Ekali and Nea Erythraia.

Foreign visitors to Athens prefer so-called homesharing accommodation such as that offered on the Airbnb and Homeaway websites, while the number of beds in apartments available for short-term leasing is now higher that that at the capital's hotels, statistics show.

The expansion of the short-term rental market has created divisions between owners of apartments in the center of Athens, as some are earning significant amounts of money by leasing their properties on websites such as HomeAway and Airbnb while others feel they are threatened by the trend, complaining about the noise, the garbage and even decency issues.

Homeowners renting out their properties on online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway operate in Greece without any limits to the number of houses they can let but also face the threat of high fines if they try to skip out on their taxes.