The Greek real estate market is currently one of the most
exciting in the Mediterranean region because it offers real
estate investors the chance to build an entire and well
diversified property portfolio within one country.
The wealth of opportunities available in Greece for the
international property investor really became known after the
Athens Olympics in 2004. The promotion of Athens and mainland
Greece to the wider world not only promoted the appeal of the
country for investors, it resulted in a massive influx of
tourists particularly to the mainland throughout 2004 and 2005.
Now add these growing tourism numbers to the large volume of
visitors who annually holiday on the Greek islands and the total
level of interest in this Mediterranean country has surged which
has created more demand for rental and resale accommodation.
In terms of the immediate opportunities available to real estate
investors they include commercial and retail investment property
in the main cities of Greece - the majority of demand and the
highest yielding assets are available in Athens - tourism
accommodation to let out along the Greek coastline and in every
resort on every Greek island, retirement and second home demand
in the main Greek resorts and of course residential
accommodation to rent across Greece particularly in the main
employment hotspots. And for those who seek emerging market
opportunities there's the Peloponnese region of Greece where
property investment is just beginning to return attractive
dividends.
Another underlying factor supporting the appeal of Greece
currently is the fact that large swathes of the real estate
sector are highly competitively priced - especially when you
compare the country to another Mediterranean favourite, namely
Spain - this means that an investor can get far more for their
money in Greece than elsewhere on the Med and are therefore
potentially buying into a market with healthy room for growth.
As there are very few restrictions placed on the foreign
freehold ownership of property in Greece and the property buying
process is very straightforward, more and more investors looking
for portfolio diversification opportunities are examining the
wealth of opportunity in Greece currently and therefore Greece
is emerging as the Mediterranean choice for real estate
investors in 2006.
About the author:
Rhiannon Williamson writes about real estate investment around
the world and has just published information about the
property buying process in
Greece on her site AmberLamb.com
