Real estate still in ‘embryonic stage’
Architect and town planner Dimitris Philippidis is also known as the author of a number of excellent books on modern Greek architecture. «If one considers the changes that have taken place in Athens since 2000 (such as the metro, the new airport, the Attiki Odos, and the suburban railway) and then similar developments in home building, there is no comparison,» Philippidis said. «Although we expected something would have been done to obtain organized housing development, it hasn’t,» he added. «The reason is because in Greece there is that crazy concept that says ‘When I have some money, I’ll buy a good apartment, not a home in a housing development.’ That is because, in the latter case, one has to share responsibility for gardens and other facilities which one might not use.» Home buyers are not yet interested in amenities that are outside the actual apartment and its balconies, he says. Instead, people want to spend money on items that are visible to others – such as a good car and nice clothes. «The externalization of who I am, what I can do, and who I spend my time with has imposed a new distribution of income in which the home is not a priority,» he said. «That is life today: I stay at home, turn on the home cinema. If I want to go out I get in the car and go to Lagonissi. What use is a swimming pool if I have to share it with strangers? If I can’t afford a pool I’ll go to Vouliagmeni or take a hydrofoil to Hydra or Spetses.» The real estate business in Greece, Philippidis added, is still in an embryonic stage. «There is no mechanism to move things in one direction or another,» he says. «The only people who shape developments and trends are the building contractors. The fact that there is no true real estate sector in Greece is a good indication that the construction market has not yet matured. Everything is in flux, everything can change, everything is artificial,» he concluded.
