Greece: sea view, low dispense – ZEIT ONLINE

After rumors of an island purchase by Warren Buffet many interested for Greek real estate. Even German looking bargain holiday homes in the Aegean.

21st July 2015 21:37 Clock

view of the bay of Santorini | © Louisa GOULIAMAKI / Getty Images

Pericles is a vision in white. Four rooms, five bathrooms, a terrace with lush vines, fountains and, of course, a wonderful view of the sea. The house with its three towers and 220 square meters of living space on 6,000 square meters of land is in a Greek mountain village and is currently be had for 320,000 euros. But hardly one gets a three-room apartment in major German cities. At the Aegean many properties are currently give low – and not only that stone, several islands for sale. And above all German buyers access to.

Even for almost one million Euro you can grow in a private island in the Mediterranean Sea. Rumored it said in recent days, Warren Buffett, US investor and multi-billionaire legend, had bought an island. For St. Thomas southwest of Athens he should have spent 15 million euros. However, the denied, the message was fictitious.

Here you can currently make good investments in Greece: For 45 million Buffett would get even plenty of mountains in the bay of Ithaca, namely an island with 300 meters high cliffs, several sandy beaches, a number of ports and “plenty of space for a holiday resort,” as the provider Vladi Private Islands writes on his website about the island. The company has six Greek islands from 1.6 to 45 million euros on offer. A total of currently 19 Hellas Islands for sale

Because the state needs money urgently, about 6,000 islands belong to Greek territory -. And most of them are actually owned by the state. They together account for one-fifth of the total area. And are uninhabited generally. Now, because the European Union is increasingly forcing the country to privatization, some of these spots will probably hit the market. In addition, around 500 islands wealthy private individuals who frequently disconnect also times of such lands. As recently as the Onassis clan who ceded his home island for proud 160 million euros to a Russian oligarch. Also, the Emir of Qatar lay down for 12,000,001 pieces to the Mediterranean, and Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp should have also not left such buying opportunities untapped. Brad Pitt probably holds also just out.

The Greek population is not at all thrilled that their coastlines are sold off to celebrities. Newspapers and online portals call the privatization and the sale of properties to foreigners the “Big Sale”. While the residents grow the debt over his head, and they barely get by on the money to live, now en masse foreign investors buying a the most promising places in the country. No wonder, since the crisis of 2008, property prices have fallen by 50 percent or more.

In coastal towns and tourist hotspots such as Rhodes house prices remained indeed more stable, but even there they slumped at least 20 to 30 per cent , Recently the government nor the real estate transfer tax has reduced from ten to three percent, and the buying process 2013 facilitates just for foreign investors. This attracts now a large number of real estate hunters from the EU and from further afield. Since then, buyers get from third countries for a residence permit when they purchase a home for more than 250,000 euros, even the Chinese Greece run a the booth.

“In the first three months of the year, business was better than ever never, “says Georg Petras, branch manager of the German estate agent Engel & amp; Völkers on the island of Rhodes. “We had spectacular many buyers. Especially from Germany.” But British and French looking houses in the Cyclades or the Peloponnese. During the reign of Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza party customers were indeed become increasingly more cautious and almost came completely retained in June during the negotiations. Well, but as Greece’s fate seems assured in the euro, “we have four times as many requests per week as usual,” says Petra. At the moment he can not perform as fast houses, how he could sell them.

“You can bargain here but no longer make,” he warns. “The there is only on the Erstwohnsitzmarkt when locals have to sell their homes out of necessity. But that is then often the sixth floor in the rear house in the big city.” This is confirmed by Antonis Arvanitopoulos, since 2008 real estate brokers at Acropolis Real Estate in Athens: “Although property prices have fallen by 60 or 70 per cent since 2008, foreign buyers are not interested in real estate in crisis-ridden neighborhoods of Athens.” From the large sell-you can not therefore speak.