This article is not true. I live in Greece. The tourists coming to Greece has declined, not increased. In addition, the real estate market id dead.
As for the "Golden Visa" (5 year resident permit) you get when you invest €250,000 euros in real estate ? It's stupid. Why invest €250,000 to get a Greek 5 year resident permit when you can buy a 5 year resident permit for €600 ?
The country is still under capital controls. Businesses are going under, and dropping like flies. The author of this article has no idea what she is talking about.
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The Greeks are the BEST in Europe
This is a great idea. I would love to go and live there.
4
One thing this article does not mention is that many of those people being pushed out were able to move there because prices had crashed in prime areas.
From this angle, these same people all the comments are lamenting, *took advantage* of those families that had sunk their life's savings into a mortgage, not knowing their government was cheating, and now faced financial ruin with the collapse of their savings.
And finally, these families can imagine a different future. Pay off debts, open a business, pay a doctor or send a kid to school.
And there, all the pity can now be directed to the other side.
Life and the economy aren't black and white. Nuance is something this article has little of. Still better than the comments, which have none
(This comment was written by a renter in a big city, dependant on his landlord and the market...)
9
Why does the NYTimes always publish the most unattractive photos of Athens and Greece they can find?
I’ve been to Greece a dozen times. It’s gorgeous. The drive from Athens to Cape Sounion and the temple of Poseidon along the Aegean is truly mythical. Real estate along this drive is considered the Athenian Riviera, with towns like Lagonissi and Saronida offering incredible views, beaches and still affordable prices.
Why not include a photo from there?
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@A. Simon
Having passed through Athens a couple of times, staying in Psyri, can’t say it is my favorite city in Europe. But other places in Greece are definitely my favorite places in the world.
4
Great reporting, as usual, from Liz Alderman.
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@Cooper Chance
Actually, it isn't. Totally inaccurate article.
4
Tourism is coming to look like a curse to many people around the world. Too many people crowding popular spots for the sole purpose of shooting a selfie and then moving to the next and the next. Barcelona is a prime example of a beautiful city being overrun with tourism and struggling with how to moderate the influence and impact. Signs saying, "Tourists Go Home" are not uncommon.
The discount airlines in Europe have made all of the continent open to "laddy boys" from England who jump over to various places for weekends, get extremely drunk and head home nursing epic hangovers with little memory of what transpired in the foreign country.
Palma, the capital on the island of Majorca, recently banned Airbnb type rentals as a means of trying to limit the impact of tourism on housing prices and the character of the city. The rest of the island is still open to short term rentals and, despite the ban, there are still listings in Palma on Airbnb.
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At least, unlike most illegal immigrants, tourists bring cash and eventually leave.
12
"Less than a year after Greece emerged from a multibillion-euro international bailout."
It should be noted that Greece has not really emerged from the bailout. That will take a generation or two, to pay off loans and interest. And it may never happen.
Bailouts are largely to assure that people who had money, the capitalists of capitalism, invested in Greece wouldn't lose it. And that is done at the expense of every one who doesn't have that kind of money.
Bailouts are self-serving.
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@Jim Greenwood
It is also not a “bailout” since these are loans that Greece is repaying, with interest.
It’s more like a bailbond.
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What’s the alternative? Total collapse? Countries citizens that don’t participate in the tax system can’t have it all.
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@Joe
The creditors, who hoped to make good money by taking on risky debt, could pay the price for taking on the risky debt, and lose their money. The country fails to pay those debts, do its credit rating falls, and THAT's when the IMF and WB step in, to actually help the country and its citizens. Let the lenders suck it up.
If I lend money to a friend who is a known risk, and he doesn't pay me back...who's gonna bail ME out?
3
Government built or subsidized affordable housing is one route to more balance. Tax the new real estate owners and users and dedicate the money to affordable housing for those losing out.
9
Hmmm...lots of sour grapes in these comments. As I read it, some are benefitting. Some are not. However, when the crash happened everyone suffered. Doesn’t the current situation, at the very least, offer hope that things will get better? What I read made it seem as though there is a degree of economic sunshine finally coming to Greece. Glass half full? Really?
6
The big losers: the Greek working class people. First they have seen their benefits slashed so the Greek Government could pay back the bankers. And now with the "golden visa" program they will not be able to afford an apartment or a home, thanks to the foreigners, mainly Chinese, whom are buying and causing a raise in the cost of living under a roof.
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I agree with the author that Greece should maintain it's current conditions and disallow foreigner, especially the Chinese, to buy up properites in the country. Btw, "a family of six" from China? What the author states sounds unfamiliar for a society under the one-child policy.
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@YN
Grandparents, parents and one child equals 7 people!
13
Foreign investors in Greece for the most part must be unaware of the Byzantine, complicated and ever changing tax codes, banking regulations and restrictions. Foreign residents are often asked for documents whose equivalents are unavailable from their country. Similar translated documents, certified at Greek embassies might not qualify.
Furthermore, unbeknown to a buyer, a property Greece might not be complying with building codes. Disclosure might be elusive. One can get caught up in a terrible maze.
On the other side of the matter most apartment buildings are condominium types in Greece, but unfortunately without any type of effective managing authority.
Anyone can buy or rent in a building without approval, thus the building has no way to obtain information on the new buyer and/or renter. This can affect a building's financial and orderliness in a very negative way. It's not unusual for an apartment building to have unknown unit owners.
In the matter of Airbnb, besides removing long terms rentals from the market, a building can have added wear to elevators, entrance doors, locks, and infrastructure areas due to uncontrolled number of transients, without being able to recoup costs from Airbnb operators.
Folks purchased or rented apartments in
traditional residential properties only to encounter hotel like traffic in their buildings.
14
"and real estate prices rose by nearly 2 percent, the first increase in nine years, according to the Bank of Greece. " Wah! even places like Houston, house price has increased more than 2%. And Athens is no Houston. With Airbnb and foreign tourists visiting Greece, it should be good for Greeks. One Giannis Antetokounmpo exporting to NBA is not enough to life Greek economy. I wish those investors and tourists will come to Houston to boost the economy and housing price. Nothing is perfect. I just want my house price appreciates more and faster.
1
The Greeks may pay a price for "selling their country"...The Chinese have a way of "creeping" into an economy for their own benefit and not for the locals.
On the islands, though, believe the locals may not wish to integrate Chinese non Greek or English speakers into their island's society...
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@RH that will be true if their children can make a living there, and don’t leave.
@RH
Perhaps the Chinese are late to the party there. I no longer visit my favorite island since its breathtaking expanses of land and beach were bought by Germans for their condo communities. While I can well understand the glee of finally making decent money, especially after being impoverished and globally humiliated for years, I fear the Greeks are short-sightedly selling out their country, including its people, traditions and future.
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@Judith Schlesinger, PhD
They’re selling excess real estate, that’s all. There are lots of other Greek islands to explore...
So, basically it’s private colonialism.
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The Greeks, in attempts to boost the economy and get some cash of their own to make ends meet are essentially risking ethnocide. Chinese dangling suitcases of cash, the Greek government offering golden visas to tourists from Russia, Turkey and the Middle East, and Airbnb buying up homes from cash-poor homeowners to accommodate the wave of tourists smells of gentrification, only in this case, they're kicking out the lower and middle classes to conform to the needs of wealthier foreign investors.
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@November-Rose-59
Take note, Airbnb does not, to my knowledge, buy up houses anywhere. People buy the properties and list them on services like Airbnb, Homeaway and VRBO. There have been vacation "villas" and apartments available for short term rentals for decades but the rise of these internet based popular services has made many more people aware that they can book profits fairly easily.
For better or worse, someone who has been unemployed for five or more years will gladly and readily sell something they own for 250,000 euros.
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@November-Rose-59
When real estate is the only asset left and you need cash, that's what you sell.
Get it?
4
@November-Rose-59
Russians have been coming to Greece for years. Americans, British, French, Spanish, Portugese, Dutch etc have all ben going around the world for generations and starting "colonies." The US is 99% immigrants and then Americans started going elsewhere. I have friends who live at least part of the year in New Zealand, France, Italy, Argentina and other countries. And my best Danish friend's son lives in Florida and just married a woman from Maylasia. Time for the world's population to get over the idea of "ethnocide." It is like the White Nationalist from Australia who was so angry about immigration to "his" country that he shot a bunch of people in another country. If the original Australian aboriginals had had guns they might have been able to stop the white invasion. Same for Native Americans here!
22
Sooner or later, the ordinary Greek person is going to wake up and wonder why their adult children cannot find an affordable play to live for his family.
This same scenario has been playing out in London and other places for more than a decade.
85
It has played out in real time in Vancouver BC, Canada.
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@Ex New
Suck it up. Greece was desperate for influx of cash. That's why real estate is an asset.
The Japanese bought Rockefeller Center in 1989. Then they sold it in 2000. It's still there and the Japanese are not.
That's what real estate investment is all about.
8
Eventually, many of the people who work in the restaurants and service businesses that they hope to lure tourists and temporary residents to spend money in won’t be able to afford a place to live in near their work. Lots of half empty neighborhoods,ugly new construction,a city losing it’s soul....just like Manhattan !
32
When life is only about making money, you get all kinds of evil against normal people. Nothing has ever changed and your Greek Democracy is a joke, Democracy only ensures that the rich can stay in power.
19
I keep looking for ways to do something like this, but to go for good, with a path to citizenship in the new nation. Everywhere has its problems, but the US just feels too downward bound these days.
Having lived in Spain before, I know what to expect. Now on bad days I can dream of una visa dorada and a house in a little town that has lost its young people to the cities.
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@Peak Oiler
There was a story in the Times a couple years back about a beautiful medieval castle city in France which had become largely empty because of the younger population moving to the cities. The comments revealed that there a dozens of other towns just like it scattered throughout France. But I have read that it is very difficult to move to France unless you are totally fluent in the language just in order to navigate the entangled bureaucracy. In Greece, everyone speaks English.
4
@Patrick my Spanish is quite good. I do love Greece, but I think Spain would be a better fit. One day, perhaps...
3
Except the Chinese and Russian and Middle Eastern “investors” don’t actually “come” to Greece. Once the paperwork exercise is complete and free world E.U. visas (eventually citizenship) and laundering engine is structured. A place abroad to hide, for perhaps one day when the money stops and the pitchforks appear at home, after robbing the poor in the authoritarian pyramid scheme. Passport in Greece, money in Switzerland, kids at Oxford, parents anywhere the EU passport takes them- safe from eastern Rule of Man by western Rule of Law.
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@Mick
Wealthy people in all nations across the world have more in common between themselves than they do with their respective citizens.
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@Mick you make that sound evil. I fear the day when Americans of means have to do the same, as bad governance by men like our current “leader” slides into chaos and warfare at home.
10
@Mick Except it seems most Greeks are Left Behinds. Unless all this "investing" actually restarts the Greek economy where people have jobs and security, none of this will help Greeks. And I think like in 2008 it can come crashing down, hard.
8
Build more housing. And change the law to only allow foreigners to buy newly built apartments. That way a new housing supply is available and construction jobs for Greeks are created.
Stop treating the supply of housing as static. This isn’t Venice or central Paris. Take advantage of the opportunity rather than accepting the false choice of gentrification displacement or economic stagnation.
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@H
Many Greeks own two or three houses so this is actually good for their citizens. Greece has among the highest proportion of home ownership in Europe.
Building more is always smart but there is nothing wrong with the current direction until the economy fully recovers.
2
@A. Simon Many? What percentage of Greek Nationals do you believe own multiple houses? Your point is built on a false premise.
3
@GDRKN
What percentage do you “believe” do not? The article is not referencing every single apartment or home in the country but rather points to a growing trend. My comment stems from having visited the country many times and from having read Greek newspapers printed in English such as Kathimerini. Real estate and tourism is often covered at length.
“Many” rural Greeks moved to cities such as Athens and left their farm houses behind. This led to overpopulation in Athens. When the financial crisis hit many of these people rented out or tried to sell their city apartments and headed back to rural life. In some cases they simply left the second homes vacant and abandoned them since taxes were raised (per the EU) on vacation or second homes. That led to a housing glut. Also many diaspora Greeks from abroad own vacation properties in Greece.
As far as my quantifying “many” — If you are looking for precise figures and detailed statistics perhaps you shouldn’t expect to find them in the comments section.
3
It's great until it isn't. What eventually follows, corruption, money-laundering, inequality, inability to live in the area you work in, etc. Disaster Capitalism at its finest...
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This exact scenario played out in Vancouver BC.
13
Thoese locations mentioned are all tourist destinations- densely populated and much more expensive than other areas of Greece off the beaten path, so to speak ... globalization at its finest
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