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The government is looking to extend the suspension of the 24% value-added tax on newly built properties and the 15% capital gains tax on property transfers, with the relevant legislative provision expected to be submitted in the fall.
The residential real estate market in Northern Greece continues to show strong growth momentum, with Thessaloniki recording a 61% increase in prices over five years and Chalkidiki remaining the most expensive market in the region. Data from Spitogatos.
Home prices in Greece could fall by as much as 25% if a significant portion of the country’s roughly 1.8 million idle properties were returned to the market, according to a new study by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
The first quarter of 2026 ended with a 43.4% year-on-year increase in foreign direct investment in the real estate market, although during the same period, applications for a residence permit through the “Golden Visa” program fell by 52.2%.
Millions of vacant homes may be playing a bigger role in Greece’s housing affordability crisis than previously thought, according to a new study by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
The population may be shrinking, but demand for housing – especially for smaller homes – is increasing. The Bank of Greece attributes this paradox mainly to the increase in single-person households, mainly students, singles, digital nomads and the divorced. Now, several developers are building smaller homes.
The housing market is suffocating from disproportionately high purchase and rental costs compared to wages, despite the abundant housing stock, notes the International Monetary Fund. In a report on the housing market it focuses on this Greek paradox, identifying four reasons behind the housing crisis.
Greece’s housing market continued to post strong increases in both property prices and rental rates in the first quarter of the year, with no clear sign of a slowdown, according to market data.
Greece is moving to restrict short-term rentals like Airbnb on islands and in tourist-saturated areas under a new spatial planning framework for tourism, though most measures stop short of immediate enforcement.
Hosthub’s 2025 data reveals Greek short-term rental market trends: occupancy up 2.16%, prices down 1.79%, with Athens and Crete leading growth patterns.
Based on Bank of Greece data on the inflow of foreign capital for the acquisition of real estate, the amount invested in Greek property in 2025 came to €2.05 billion, down from €2.75 billion in 2024, though this still put it among the three best years ever.
More and more property developers are turning to the construction of smaller-sized homes, adapting to the new market reality.
As IMF analysts explain, the continuous rise in housing sales prices, which reached 7.8% in 2025 at a nationwide level (per the Bank of Greece price indexes), is due to high demand and low utilization of existing homes, as well as limited construction activity.
According to provisional data, apartment prices (in nominal terms) are estimated to have increased on average by 7.6% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025. In 2025, apartment prices increased at an average annual rate of 7.8%, compared with an average increase of 9.1% in 2024.
Last year saw a 17% increase in demand for homes for sales in Greece, compared to 2024, while searches for homes for rent rose 5% year-on-year, per the Spitogatos Insights analysis. However there was a remarkable 33% jump in searches by foreigners for homes to rent, with interest from abroad in house buying climbing 12%.
The decline in demand recorded from abroad for large-scale holiday homes in Greece, especially if they are old properties, is significant.
Nearly half of realty purchases were for a secondary residence, and cost €100,000-200,000
Israelis led last year the list of residential property buyers from abroad in Greece, with most buys costing up to €200,000.
The high quality of holiday homes on the Greek market in terms of their cost compared to other European countries continues to serve as a driving force for demand from abroad, especially with an increasingly higher available budget.
Israelis are making an invasion of Greece through the "golden visa" program. Since 2019, a large influx of Israeli capital has begun in the Greek real estate market, with this becoming more evident in recent years.
The contribution of foreign investment in real estate to total foreign direct investment in the Greek economy has decreased significantly this year.
Some property market experts have started fretting over the possibility of an imminent reduction in housing sale prices, mainly due to the formation of conditions of reduced demand.
Smaller fluctuations are found in other parts of Attica, where prices have begun to stabilize. These include Nea Smyrni in the southern suburbs, Agia Paraskevi in the north, Metamorfosi in the west, the Kolonaki-Lycabettus district in the city center, and Kastella and Pasalimani in Piraeus.
After a decline from January to July, golden visa applications continued to fall in August 2025, affecting both initial applications and renewals, according to data from the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum.
Foreign real estate investments have recorded their first decline since 2015, as, according to Bank of Greece (BoG) data, capital inflows in the first half of this year amounted to 938.3 million euros, which represents a 17.6% drop on last year (€1.14 billion).
There are many causes for the phenomenon of almost half a million houses remaining closed, but the stakes are clear: To find the key to the door of this enormous residential wealth, either for sale or for long-term or short-term lease.
Buyers from a multitude of countries make up the 2025 map of Greece’s holiday home market. The percentage of foreign buyers in this sector constitutes the majority, with the exception of some isolated areas, near Attica, where there is a stronger Greek element, based on a survey by the Engel & Volkers real estate agency network.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, a total of 441 new applications were filed in June 2025, marking a 26.5% decline compared to the same month in 2024.
The significant recovery of the Greek real estate market has resulted in a rate of increase in housing prices that exceeds the rate of increase in the disposable income of Greeks, demonstrating a growing issue of securing affordable housing, according to an analysis by the Center for Planning and Economic Research (KEPE).
The government is launching a comprehensive digital property registry system to combat widespread tax evasion in the real estate sector, addressing a longstanding problem where properties are declared vacant while simultaneously paying for electricity, water and utilities.
Greece's tax authority has digitized the process for property transfers, fulfilling a promise to cut red tape.
The relentless surge in rental prices across Greece shows no signs of abating in 2025, with Vouliagmeni retaining its status as the most expensive neighborhood for rentals in the Athens metropolitan area. A combination of short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, economic pressures, and urbanization is driving a nationwide housing shortage, making long-term leases increasingly scarce and costly.
The capital gains from sales price increases and the significant income from renting property out via digital short-term rental platforms make the purchase and exploitation of holiday homes in Greece a particularly profitable investment, according to research by Elxis – At Home in Greece, which specializes in selling holiday homes to foreign buyers.
More and more people are interested in acquiring a property, not to meet their needs, but as an investment. Although the average rent is approaching the monthly installment of a mortgage, the difficulty of accessing the housing market due to high sales prices remains.
Greece’s Golden Visa Program will be subject to tightened monitoring of investments.
New terms and conditions for granting as well as monitoring the investment have been introduced.
If an investor does not meet the conditions of the investment, authorities may revoke their residence permits.
The single property register, which will be activated early next year with the aim of reducing bureaucracy in transfers, will attempt to put an end to the discrepancies in the square meterage of properties, and each property will acquire a unique identity for all entities and services.
The share of real estate purchases and sales through the Golden Visa program reached 10.77% of the total volume of real estate purchases and sales in the two-year period 2023-24, based on the latest available data.
More than half a billion euros is expected to be invested by the end of the decade in converting old industrial properties into mixed-use complexes, with a focus on housing.
Three new categories of real estate investment through the Golden Visa program are identified by British investment migration company Astons in a new analysis of the Greek market.
The upward trend in capital inflows from abroad for the acquisition of real estate continues this year, as, according to Bank of Greece data, a total of 1.9 billion euros has been invested in the first nine months of this year, an amount that is 17% higher than the same period in 2023. Given that inflows had totaled €2 billion in 2023, it is obvious that 2024 will mark a historic high in foreign investments in the property market.
It takes an average of nine to 12 months for the sale of a house to be completed in Greece today, starting from posting the relevant ad until finding a buyer, reaching an agreement with them, and then preparing the necessary documents for the transfer of the property titles.
Non-compliance carries severe penalties, with violators faced with a fine equal to 10% of the unverified transaction amount.
Next week the Tourism Ministry is putting up for consultation a bill introducing a framework of regulatory specifications for the operation of apartments and houses as short-term rental accommodation.
Greece is likely to end its Golden Visa program's real estate investment option in January 2025 to combat its housing crisis. This follows similar moves by Portugal and Spain and reflects a shift towards attracting investment in startups rather than property.
The Greek real estate sector has expressed dissatisfaction with the recent changes made by the government to the country’s Golden Visa program.
The real estate market and capital inflows from abroad for the acquisition of mainly houses have this year provided a lifeline to the foreign direct investments made in Greece.
Greece’s Golden Visa program has been in a transitional period since September 1, when the new changes voted a few months ago came into force.
The number of empty lots – properties without buildings – not declared to the national property registry is about 3.3 million, or 22% of the total. Similarly, undeclared built properties, including flats in apartment buildings, exceed 147,000.
A comparison of the asking prices in different parts of the country clearly demonstrates that hikes have mainly affected the two large urban centers and popular tourist destinations, and much less other cities, especially in northern Greece, where it is still very easy to acquire a residence at a cost below 1,000 euros per square meter.
Real estate investment continues to account for the lion’s share as a percentage of total foreign direct investment flowing into Greece.
After inviting foreign investors to qualify for Golden Visas by buying properties, Greece is looking at limiting how many nights apartments and homes can be used for short-term rentals, which spiked prices and is drying up the market. While the New Democracy government has since stopped the practice, Golden Visa holders had scooped up multiple properties when the threshold for qualifying was only 250,000 euros ($270,272) and saw many put those out for nightly rentals.
