Year-long house sale process
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.
According to a relevant analysis carried out by Spitogatos Insights, the process of finding a buyer requires between 5.5 and 7.8 months, depending on the region. Finding a buyer takes less time in Thessaloniki and longer in the case of the Ionian Islands, where the period between posting the ad for the sale of a home and its exit from the Spitogatos.gr platform is 7.8 months on average.
According to the relevant analysis, the absorption time has recorded a slight increase during 2024, a development that perhaps reflects buyers’ greater difficulty in responding to high prices or the longer time to reach a final agreement – i.e. more negotiations are taking place compared to the recent past.
In particular, in Athens and Thessaloniki, where there is also the largest supply deficit in relation to demand, the time that an ad remains posted does not exceed 6.2 months and 5.7 months respectively, based on the picture of the third quarter. However, in the first quarter of 2024, when prices were slightly lower, 6 and 5.6 months were required respectively.
In the coming period, however, it is likely that the time will decrease again, as from early 2025 the “My Home II” program, worth 2 billion euros, will start to run; this subsidizes the interest rate on real estate purchases and targets 20,000 beneficiaries aged 25-50. Regarding the Thessaloniki market, it appears that the rate of absorption of homes for sale by the market is about two weeks faster than that of Attica. In the third quarter of 2024, the absorption time amounted to just over 5.5 months, after small fluctuations previously. The Thessaloniki suburbs constitute the most popular area for the purchase of a home by Greeks.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/real-estate/1256965/year-long-house-sale-process/
