The stabilization of the country’s economy that was recorded during the last months seems to have affected not only the Greek tourism industry but also the real estate market.

Thousands of properties are available for sale in Greece, with the vast majority being country houses on Greek islands. Their owners can no longer afford to maintain these houses and they are looking to sell them to foreigners, especially Europeans.

In some cases, as ”Imerisia” Newspaper reports, experts estimate that the demand for holiday homes has reached pre-crisis levels, although the number of transactions in not high enough yet to completely change the picture.

The numerous international media articles that praise Greece and its beauties, ranking the Mediterranean country among the top destinations worldwide, especially for this summer, have caused a surge of investors’ interest in the Greek islands, where they can find great opportunities in real estate.

For example, the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine have recently voted Santorini as the most beautiful island in the world, followed by Hawaii, Bali and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, while according to The Guardian, the tourism industry’s contribution to the Greek economy rebound is extremely important, as Athens hotels reported a 25% increase in occupancy in the first 5 months of 2014.

As Mr. G. Veronis, a Real Estate Agent from Naxos told Imerisia newspaper, there is a surge of interest in the so-called Small Cyclades, i.e. Iraklia, Donousa, Shinous and especially Koufonisia. “In Naxos the buyers are 100% foreign. French, Italians, Belgians and Norwegians are looking for houses and land to buy, and after many years of absence, Germans buyers are also back. As for the prices of the country houses, they range between 2,500 and 3,200 euros per square meter. In Naxos the most popular locations are Mikri Vigla and Orkos”.

It should be noted that for the period January – May 2014, 17% of the estate purchases involved country houses purchased by foreign buyers, 50% of whom came from EU countries.