1. Introduction: The Greek Real estate market’s transformation from private ownership to professional investment.
The post-war decades marked a period of intense urban expansion in Greece. During the 1960s to 1980s, rapid urbanization fueled a construction boom that reshaped city centers. In the prefecture of Athens alone, 133,356 properties were built between 1960–1970 and 172,680 between 1970–1980. The antiparochi system—a property exchange arrangement between small landowners and developers—enabled this surge by allowing construction without significant capital. It met soaring housing demand, empowered individuals and small builders, and established Greece’s tradition of widespread home ownership. According to the 2021 building census, nearly half (48%) of Attica’s 812,883 buildings were constructed between 1960 and 1985.
By the late 1990s and 2000s, the market shifted toward bank financing and mortgage lending. Easy credit spurred new construction and home purchases, often beyond real demand, making households increasingly reliant on loans and more exposed to debt risk.
The 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent Greek debt crisis exposed these weaknesses. Property values plunged, non-performing loans (NPLs) soared, and after long-held protections against auctioning of primary residences were lifted, many properties were eventually auctioned or transferred. This created opportunities for foreign professional investors and real estate funds, who began to gradually entering and dominating the recovering market.
Today, Greece’s real estate landscape has evolved from one of individual ownership and small-scale development to a professional, investment-driven market. Institutional and foreign investors now lead this transformation, leveraging Greece’s economic stabilization, urban demand, and renewed global appeal.
2. A Market in Transition: New Market Dynamics.
2.1 The Illusion of Shortage: Understanding Greece’s Hidden Real Estate Supply
In recent years, the Greek real estate market has undergone significant transformations that have effectively reduced the number of properties available for sale or lease, despite sustained demand from both domestic and international investors. Industry professionals often refer to this phenomenon as an artificial scarcity—a shortage created not by lack of interest, but by structural and regulatory factors. Among these are the widespread conversion of residential properties into short-term rentals such as Airbnb, increased acquisitions by foreign investors under the Golden Visa programme, a slowdown in new construction activity, the prevalence of complex ownership structures that complicate decision-making and the existence of multiple properties owned and or managed by the state, which remain dormant. Most notably, however, a substantial portion of the country’s property stock has been tied up in auction process in recent years, effectively delaying it from reaching the open market. The General Secretary of Demographic and Housing Policy estimated in 2025 that between 700.000 to 900.000 properties remain closed and unused throughout Greece.
The emergence of Greece as a prime destination for foreign real estate and hospitality investments—driven by the sharp decline in property values and service costs during the economic crisis, combined with government initiatives aimed at attracting international capital—has significantly reshaped the market. In recent years, many properties have been withdrawn from general circulation, either converted into hospitality units or kept vacant to preserve the visa rights of their new foreign owners. At the same time, new construction activity has slowed considerably, partly due to uncertainty surrounding the New Building Regulation. Several of its provisions were declared unconstitutional by the Council of State, leading to the suspension of all building permits issued under this framework in 2024. Adding to these challenges, a substantial number of properties remain effectively unavailable for sale or rent due to fragmented ownership structures. Many of these assets have been passed down through generations without formal partition, resulting in multiple heirs each holding small ownership shares—an arrangement that complicates decision-making and prevents these properties from being productively utilized. Finally, many closed properties are held or managed by the State, which, constrained by complex administrative procedures, is often slow to manage them efficiently
However, perhaps the most significant and least explored factor is the shadow inventory of properties currently undergoing onboarding after being sold through mandatory auctions resulting from Non-Performing Loans (NPLs). This has been the result of a major boom in mandatory auction from 2022 to 2024, which led to a very large number of properties being transferred to, mostly, institutional real estate investors and Property Servicers. Specifically, the year 2022, in which 5.760 properties were sold in auction, saw the largest percentile increase in property auctions in Greece in all the years from 2013-2021, namely 140%. This initial increase in property auctions, however, was just the start of a major auction boom, which saw the number of properties auctioned sharply increase to 9.279 properties of a total value of 1,1 billion Euros in 2023 and following that to a staggering 12.476 properties of a value of 1,32 billion euros in 2024, an increase of 19,4% in just one year. To provide a meaningful comparison in terms of the potential market impact these properties could have, the number of properties which were part of the Golden Visa scheme from its introduction in mid- 2014 up to the first quarter of 2025 was 18.363.
The “auction boom” of recent years has resulted in a substantial number of properties currently classified as dormant assets. This is largely due to the often lengthy process of establishing ownership and acquiring possession following an auction—particularly in cases where previous owners pursue judicial remedies to delay or challenge the transfer. Although such legal actions rarely succeed, they can significantly slow the onboarding and marketability of these properties for their new owners. Without such judicial actions, the onboarding process typically spans from six months to two years, depending on the responsiveness of key parties—including notaries, legal advisors, bailiffs, cadastral offices, and land registries—as well as any legal actions initiated by any occupants to delay vacating the property.
As a result, the majority of these assets have been acquired by institutional investors, real estate companies controlled by the NPL investors , and professional real estate investors who possess the liquidity and operational capacity to absorb the time required for these investments to mature and re-enter the market. These stakeholders typically have the organizational structure, expertise, and, crucially, the specialized legal counsel necessary to manage what is known in the industry as the onboarding process. This involves conducting initial due diligence of the liens of the property, registering the transfer of ownership, and ensuring that all liens and encumbrances predating the auction are effectively cleared and that any occupants successfully vacate the property. After onboarding a property, the maturity process involves a thorough technical and legal due diligence of the property to ensure it is in good order and can be marketed for sale.
Onboarding an auctioned property is a complex and interdependent chain of actions, where precision and coordination are critical. Each stage must be handled by experienced legal professionals to ensure efficiency, mitigate risks, and prevent procedural errors that could delay the investment’s maturity and reduce its overall value potential.
2.2. Unlocking Value: The Imminent Reintroduction of Properties to the Market
The previously constrained supply in the Greek real estate market is now poised for a significant shift. This change is being driven by a combination of factors, including new policy initiatives and regulatory guidance at the governmental level aimed at addressing the challenges outlined above. At the same time, a large number of properties that had been tied up in the auction process are now reaching legal resolution and maturity, enabling their gradual reintroduction to the open market.
As profit margins for individual short-term rental owners declined, many were incentivized to return to long-term leasing. This shift was driven by tighter reporting and transparency requirements for platforms such as Airbnb, which reduced opportunities for undeclared income, as well as the introduction of new insurance, fire safety, and operational standards that increased compliance costs for small-scale, non-institutional hosts lacking economies of scale. This development, combined with upcoming measures offering substantial tax incentives to owners who convert short-term rentals like Airbnbs into long-term leases within 2026, as well as to those whose previously vacant properties are leased long-term during the same period, is expected to bring a significant number of property stock back onto the market as long-term housing.
Additionally, the increase of the thresholds for obtaining a Golden Visa introduced in 2024 for properties in areas with high demand such as the centres of Athens and Thessaloniki, along with popular Cycladic islands, has already led to a shift of the steady strong investor interest in increasing property stock through opening up otherwise unused properties and converting their use from office spaces, industrial spaces, storage units to residential use, in order to take advantage of the lower thresholds to obtain Golden Visa still applicable to such spaces which were unused for more than 5 years. Real estate stakeholders and Investors are already tapping into this hitherto untapped property stock, creating a separate market for properties for which demand was until now non-existent.
Third, as the legal challenges of the New Building Regulation are steadily reaching maturity and interim guidance for the issuance of new permits is being provided, renewed developer confidence increases, as evidenced by a 20% increase in June 2025 in building permit issuances throughout Greece compared with the numbers of the corresponding months from last year. The relevant increase for Athens, the location where most of the challenges of individual permits and the building regulation were brought, has been 40% compared with June 2024, evidencing many new project launches and building permit growth.
Finally, after many voices of the industry underlining closed properties acquired through auction as the “silent supply suppressor”, governmental stakeholders reached out to major institutional players on the market for feedback on how to address the issue. As a result, internal guidelines were provided to Cadastral Offices to prioritise requests concerning properties transferred via auction. Legal practitioners, including our firm, are now witnessing a notable increase in responsiveness and cooperation from public authorities.
This streamlining and acceleration of onboarding procedures comes at a pivotal moment, as many properties acquired during the auction boom of 2022–2024 are now reaching onboarding maturity. Consequently, a significant rise in the number of assets entering the market is expected in the coming period.
3. Sophisticated Investors need sophisticated legal advice: how expert legal guidance can help navigate the transforming Greek Real Estate Market.
As Greece’s real estate market enters this new phase of expansion and complexity, investors face a landscape that demands informed and strategic decision-making. Sophisticated investors require equally sophisticated legal support to navigate evolving regulations, manage risk, and secure long-term value. This evolving landscape does not only affect institutional players. Individual buyers and families seeking to acquire a home are navigating the same complex market dynamics — from regulatory constraints to title irregularities — and equally benefit from the guidance of experienced legal professionals to ensure secure and compliant transactions.
a. Onboarding properties acquired through Auction:
Navigating judicial and electronic auctions requires a legal team with the expertise, experience, and organizational capacity to manage every stage of the property onboarding process with precision, efficiency, and speed. From engaging with key stakeholders — including notaries, bailiffs, land registries, and potential occupants — to identifying and resolving issues early on, expert legal counsel plays a decisive role in ensuring smooth transactions. Common challenges such as discrepancies between Land Registry and Cadastral Office records, erroneous lien registrations, or existing leasehold arrangements can otherwise cause significant delays in transferring ownership and registering the investor’s proprietary rights. An experienced legal team can also handle subsequent steps, such as coordinating the removal of prior occupants and overseeing the eventual resale or monetization of the asset.
For institutional and professional investors, close collaboration with a law firm that combines scale with specialization is essential. A firm capable of managing multiple properties simultaneously — supported by an established network of attorneys and bailiffs across the Hellenic territory — can ensure that properties acquired through auction are onboarded, regularized, reach maturity and are re-introduced to the market in a timely and cost-efficient manner, even in the most remote regions of Greece.
b. Resolving Complex Real Estate Assets
A major untapped property stock, which has many prospects for large investment yields, are properties that are under complex ownership structures, whether that is a fractured proprietorship with multiple individuals holding a smaller percentage of property rights on the same asset, or assets that have been previously subject to expropriation by the state , properties that have been bound for special use by the state (e.g. for communal parking spaces) which was never applied and needs to be revoked, or properties where special type of establishments (such as petrol stations) were previously set. These type of properties are characterised by very competitive pricing due to their complexity, which usually requires the expert handling by legal advisors and engineers to resolve. From providing expert guidance on resolving complex ownership rights and structures, to examining public authority decisions and assessing the risks of their withdrawal or reinstatement (for example, in cases of expropriation), to advising on risk mitigation steps prior to acquisition, and even undertaking certain actions traditionally carried out by sellers—thereby reducing their costs and incentivizing them to proceed with a sale or agree to a lower price—a dependable legal advisor can make a decisive difference. The right counsel enables investors to successfully execute such complex transactions and unlock the potential of this underutilized yet highly rewarding segment of the market.
c. Golden Visa Compliance
For investors, real estate developers, construction companies and real estate agents seeking properties that are eligible for Golden Visa programme, it is imperative to ensure compliance, avoiding pitfalls that may arise from the newly introduced stricter requirements. Since the recent amendments to the scheme brought by the Law 5100/2024, compliance is no longer determined solely by the property’s purchase price or surface area. The asset itself must meet a range of additional eligibility conditions, which require careful legal and technical review before acquisition.
An experienced legal team can conduct the necessary due diligence to confirm that the property qualifies under the updated framework. This may include verifying the property’s title history, reviewing utility records and occupancy data to ensure the asset has not been used for residential purposes within the past five years, and examining building regulation amendments to confirm that the property’s registered use — particularly in the case of commercial or non-residential assets — aligns with current Golden Visa requirements.
d. Dormant Properties held or managed by the Greek State
When it comes to properties held or managed by the State, the challenges often stem from complex administrative procedures, overlapping regulations, and fragmented ownership or management responsibilities. In such cases, an experienced legal professional can play a pivotal role by navigating the multiple layers of bureaucracy and identifying practical pathways to activation. From clarifying ownership status and verifying cadastral and land registry data, to assessing regulatory or zoning restrictions and facilitating communication with public authorities, a skilled advisor can help unlock value in assets otherwise stalled by administrative inertia. Furthermore, by being proactive in their identification of the issues arising for the lease or acquisition of an asset and providing clear structure in lease agreements, or acquisition frameworks in compliance with public regulations, legal counsel can help an investor tap into and access these dormant state-held properties, turning them into viable investment opportunities while ensuring transparency and regulatory security for all stakeholders.
e. Structuring Lease Agreements
Experienced legal advisors can structure and negotiate lease agreements that are fully aligned with current market practices, while also anticipating potential risks. This includes defining clear terms on rent adjustments, maintenance responsibilities, renewal rights, and early termination conditions; ensuring compliance with zoning and building regulations for the intended use; and integrating provisions that protect against default or misuse by tenants.
4. Conclusion:
The Greek real estate market today stands at a pivotal moment. Demand remains strong across many segments — mostly residential and hospitality — supported by sustained interest from both domestic buyers and a steadily expanding base of foreign investors. While property prices have shown consistent upward movement in recent years, a trend that is expected by the Bank of Greece to continue, Greece continues to offer a compelling value proposition compared to other European markets, combining attractive yields with favourable legal and regulatory conditions for investment. As supply improves and more assets return to the market, opportunities for well-informed investors are expected to multiply. In this evolving environment, Greece remains not only a market of high demand and solid prospects, but also one of enduring competitiveness for international capital.