BY GEOFFREY MONTES
JUNE 10, 2022
With its 6,000 islands and islets, the most of any Mediterranean country, Greece offers a tantalizing array of postcard-worthy retreats set against the cerulean waters of the Aegean and Ionian seas. “From the cosmopolitan lifestyle of Mykonos and Paros to the laid-back ambiance of Paxos and Folegandros, there is an island to satisfy the most demanding buyer,” says Savvas Savvaidis, president and CEO of Greece Sotheby’s International Realty. “Foreign clients have seen Greece as a safe haven, an ideal location that offers seclusion in expansive spaces of unparalleled beauty.”
Part of the attraction—in addition to the country’s natural splendor, blissful climate, and wealth of ancient architecture—are favorable tax laws as well as its popular “golden visa” program. Enacted in 2013 to make property ownership more enticing to non-E.U. citizens, it allows the purchaser of any real estate transaction above €250,000, or about $263,000, to qualify for Greek residency. “Those policies have been helpful in bringing wealthy individuals to Greece,” explains Yannis Ploumis, managing director of Ploumis Sotiropoulos Real Estate, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate.
“Foreign clients have seen Greece as an ideal location that offers seclusion in expansive spaces of unparalleled beauty” Savvas Savvaidis
It also doesn’t hurt that the nation is seen as relatively undervalued when compared to its Mediterranean neighbors, offering a similarly sybaritic setting at a much lower cost. Indeed, the fragile economy was infamously slow to find its footing in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis—and the residential price index is still more than a quarter below its levels from that year, according to the Bank of Greece.
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