Pandemic halts house rate rally
The price rally in house sales and rentals of the last couple of years across Greece is yet another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, an analysis of demand data for the second quarter of the year by the Spitogatos online ads platform has shown, and no one can tell how or when prices will recover.
“Although we have seen property supply for sale and rent grow considerably, combined with a full recovery in searches for the brands we manage, the level of asking prices is definitely unchanged from three months ago,” says the website’s chief executive, Dimitris Melachroinos. He adds that this concerns both property sales and rentals, with minor changes between districts, as the market has chosen to wait after the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown.
In downtown Athens, sale prices in Q2 are virtually unchanged from Q1, following several quarters of considerable growth. There were marginal increases of 0.2% and 0.3% in the capital’s northern and southern suburbs respectively. Neo Psychico (up 6.01%) and Nea Filadelfia (5.99%) showed the biggest increase, while the area of Polygono-Tourkovounia slumped 8.58%.
Rental rates have also remained stable, despite expectations that the increased supply of houses thanks to the exit of many properties from short-term rental platform would slash rates. For now, rents have stopped rising at the rate of the last couple of years and have remained stable at the high level of the year’s first quarter, including some fluctuations from area to area across the country.
Based on the Spitogatos Property Index (SPI), the biggest increase in rents on a quarterly basis was in Achaia in the northwestern Peloponnese (6.86%) and in Ioannina in Epirus (6.72%). On an annual basis, the islands of the Cyclades rose 17.9%.
In Attica, the highest growth in rental rates, compared to January-March, was in Polygono-Tourkovounia, amounting to 13.2%, followed by Daphne (12.61%), Melissia (12.5%), Paeania (12.43%) and Perama (11.54%). Rents declined mainly in Nea Ionia (9.61%), Nea Filadelfia (9.41%), Mets-Panathenaic Stadium (7.15%) and the Athens city center (6.76%).
