With the Greek economy being the way it is and real estate prices plummeting, real estate transactions in the first six months of 2014 were less than 6,000 with Greek family home buyers almost disappearing. Real Estate representatives warn of random “pawnshops” involving the property market being created on the internet. These sites offer cash in exchange for people’s property with prices much lower than the objective value.

Members of the real estate industry blame the objective price values for the poor market situation that has spawned these shoddy real estate transactions. “At the start of 2014, the property market was frozen for two months due to strike action by contract lawyers that were opposed to new measures by the Ministry of Finance. Once the cycle of negotiations had ended we thought that the real estate market would have fixed data, however we found that the assets price relied on the objective value and not at the selling price where the actual price of the property is assessed. This measure has cancelled many contracts and is once again a Greek ‘innovation’, says E-Real Estate Chief Themistocles Bakas, refering to the two different prices relative to the property sold – one being the selling price and the other being the objective assets value written on paper.

Meanwhile, people desperate to sell their homes are turning to internet buyers who offer cash with express contracts, completed within a three-month term. The money offered is usually worth half the actual value of property. These internet agents claim to be in collaboration with interested buyers from Western Europe, such as Germany and France.