According to official data published recently by the Bank of Greece, foreign investment in Greek real estate grew by a stunning 94.6 percent during the first half of 2019, compared to the same period last year.
Between January and June of 2019, more than €736 million was invested by non-Greek nationals in the country’s real estate market.
This becomes even more impressive if we take into consideration that 2018 already was a record-breaking year for Greek real estate, as it recorded a jaw-dropping 172-percent increase over the numbers for 2017, reaching €1.72 billion.
Since the total of direct foreign investments in Greece totaled a mere 4.25 billion euros in 2018, it is clear that real estate investment attracts nearly a quarter of all foreign investment in the country.
The rapid development of short-term-renting platforms such as Airbnb, along with the increase in tourism to Greece and the country’s steady path to economic recovery, has played a crucial role in this positive trend.
Approximately four out of five non-Greek real estate investors are other EU nationals, with Germans, Dutch, British, French, and Italians among the top.
The remaining 20 percent of the investors, who are not EU nationals, are mainly comprised of Russians, Chinese and citizens of Arab countries.
The Greek government’s recent announcement that it will cease imposing a 24-percent VAT on real estate for a span of three years is expected to boost the already rapidly-expanding sector even further.
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