ATHENS – Germans have climbed to top place among foreign home buyers in Greece, spending increasing amounts on beachside property in areas such as Crete and the Ionian islands.

Data from Elxis, a leading provider of real estate services that specialises in high end holiday homes, shows that house sales to German nationals tripled in the first half of this year, relative to 2021.

This places Germans in the top spot among second home buyers in the country, above investors from other European countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK.

The figures from Elxis, which has been in the real estate business for more than 30 years, indicate that Germans also have the highest budgets, with home purchases averaging at close to 350,000 euros. This figure represents an increase of some 20 percent from last year amidst rising confidence in Greece, points out Elxis CEO Giorgos Gavriilidis.

“Greece offers exceptional value and investors are seeing this more and more. Overbuilt coastlines in countries, such as Spain, and very high prices in other Mediterranean countries are pushing buyers to seek other quality alternatives and turning to our country. Despite the challenges brought on by the Ukraine war and inflationary pressure, demand for homes remains solid and we expect this to continue,” said Gavriilidis.

“In response to these conditions, Elxis has been expanding and investing heavily in its operations. Changes such as increasing the number of German speakers on our team and the upgrading of our site’s German language version are aimed at best meeting the needs of our growing client base, in line with current trends,” adds Gavriilidis.