Rise of Athens luxury homes
The prices of luxury homes in Athens saw the fourth largest increase among 30 cities worldwide during the first half of this year, per a survey by Savills, a British real estate consulting company.
The rate of increase was 3.5% and was only behind Lisbon, Amsterdam and Madrid. On average, the prices of luxury homes in all 30 cities examined did not exceed 0.8%, a sign of the strong momentum developed both in the Athens market and in other cities in Southern Europe.
In addition to sales prices, a significant increase was also recorded in rental rates in the year’s first half. At the top of the cities with the biggest increases is Lisbon again with an increase of 7.5%, followed by Dubai and Bangkok. In Athens, the rental prices of luxury homes increased by 4.6%. Across the 30 cities in Savills’ price index, rental rates saw an average rise of 2.2%.
According to Savills’ analysis, the main reason for the increases in both sale and rental prices is the significant influx of foreign investors and buyers. Yet, especially in the cases of Athens and Greece in general, this year there has been a significant increase in demand from Greeks.
In a recent survey by Greece Sotheby’s International Realty, demand from the domestic market for luxury homes during this year’s first half saw an increase of 67% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. In fact, Greek interested buyers were the second largest group of investors, behind only the US market, where demand did not change significantly compared to last year. In third place in terms of demand were buyers from the United Kingdom, with an increase of 24%. In fourth place was the French market, remaining at the same demand levels as in the first half of 2023.
In contrast, demand from the German market saw a significant decline of 23% due to the great crisis that has been plaguing the real estate market in the country for two years now, with historically low consumer sentiment indexes.
Overall, this year’s demand was 11% higher than last year.
