Who would have imagined a few years ago that a home in a new apartment complex in Pagrati, delivered now, in late 2025 – early 2026, would cost €8,250 per sq.m.? And yet, it’s not only the southern suburbs where prices have skyrocketed. Listings in traditional urban neighborhoods of Athens now flaunt unrealistic prices for the admittedly few new homes costing over €1 million, such as a 140 sq.m. 4th-5th-6th floor maisonette in Pagrati, on a popular pedestrian street between the Panathenaic Stadium and Proskopon Square, for which the asking price is €1.155 million.

The same, however, applies to older constructions: in the same area, for a furnished, 3rd-floor apartment of just 47 sq.m., renovated in 2025, in a 1959 building without autonomous heating but with central heating, the asking price is €323,000 – that is, €6,870 per sq.m.! The numbers in the listings confirm what the Bank of Greece is now officially observing: in the third quarter of this year, the annual rate of change in apartment prices across Greece reached a comfortable 7.7%.

Real estate prices appear to continue climbing, even though market insiders note that the balance between sellers and buyers has already shifted—and will shift even more soon—toward buyers, with properties that are not correctly priced now staying on the market significantly longer.

In this context, it is no coincidence that Greeks—who traditionally, since the distant past, have had a very close relationship with real estate—have in recent years become more… European, even more so than Italians, Spaniards, Belgians, and Portuguese. Over the past 20 years, the homeownership rate in Greece has fallen by 15 percentage points, from 84.6% in 2005 to 69.4% in 2024, according to Eurostat data—now very close to the European average of 68%—while Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium still have higher homeownership rates, above 70%.

Market Data

From the official Bank of Greece (BoG) data for the third quarter, the first significant observation is that properties with a lower baseline—i.e., outside Athens, which was also the first city where the big price rally began seven years ago—are now recording the largest price increases.

As a result, according to the residential property price indices across Greece, when considering geographic location, the annual rate of change in apartment prices is lower in the capital, reaching +6.6% in Athens in the third quarter of this year. At the same time, in Thessaloniki, which is now experiencing a major comeback on all levels, the rate stands at +9.6%.

Slightly lower but still high, at 8.9%, is the annual increase in other major urban centers across Greece, and 8.5% in other regions of the country. The gap, however, between Athens and the Greek provinces—whether Thessaloniki or other areas—is enormous when considering that in the most expensive area for buying a home right now, the southern suburbs, the average price listed in the third quarter is €4,091 per sq.m. (based on the Spitogatos listings network).

In the provinces, specifically in Kastoria, which is the cheapest area in the country for buying a home, the average is much lower, just €530 per sq.m. The numbers skyrocket if we focus on Athens’ most expensive suburbs, where, for example, in Vouliagmeni, the average asking price in listings is €7,586 per sq.m., whereas in Thessaloniki, the most expensive areas for buying a home, based on average asking prices, are Kalamaria at €3,059 per sq.m. and the city center at €2,895 per sq.m.

Historically High Prices

The second observation is that nationwide, the prices recorded in this period are historically the highest, even surpassing the 2007 peak. This is confirmed by the BoG with indices measured since the 2000s: prices in Athens had already exceeded the peak of the “golden decade” of real estate by late 2023–early 2024. However, this year marks the historic high for Thessaloniki as well as for other urban centers and the provinces. In all cases, for any geographic area across Greece, current sale prices now exceed the 2007 peak.

Older Properties on the Rise

The third important observation concerns the gap between newer and older properties, which appears to be narrowing, as older (and cheaper) homes that started from a lower baseline are being pulled up by the rise in prices of newer ones.

Indeed, BoG data for the third quarter of this year, based on property age, show that the annual price increase for new apartments was lower at +6.6%, compared with +8.5% for older ones. The return to—and surpassing of—the 2007 peak also occurs here: prices for new homes up to five years old had already returned, surpassing even the levels of the 2000s, by 2024. However, this year is the first in which older homes also exceed the 2007 peak.

The only encouraging sign for prospective buyers from BoG data is that the rate of price increases has at least slowed compared with the previous two years: in the third quarter, the rate of change, as mentioned earlier, was +7.7%, while for 2024, apartment prices rose at an average annual rate of 9.1%, compared with an even higher increase of 13.9% in 2023.

Decline in Homeownership

The continuous rise in property prices has led to a decline in homeownership in Greece, bringing it close to the European average. According to the latest Eurostat analysis of housing in the EU (27/11/2025), in 2024 almost 7 out of 10 Europeans are homeowners, while 32% rent.

In Greece, the homeownership rate has now fallen to 69.4% (the remaining 30.6% rent), whereas a few years ago, in 2019, the corresponding rate was 75.4%. During the country’s fiscal crisis, from 2009 to 2018, the share of Greeks owning their own home did not fall below 73.3%. A drop below 73% has been recorded since 2022, partly due to the large rise in Greek real estate prices.

Across Europe, Romanians are the top homeowners, with a homeownership rate of 94.3%, followed by Slovakia at 91.6%. Hungary also has a high rate at 91%, as do Croatians and Poles, who complete the top five at just over 70%.

On the other hand, housing cost burdens for Greek households remain the highest in the EU. Between 2010–2024, European housing prices rose by 53% and rents by 25%. In Greece, households spend an average of 35.5% of their disposable income on housing—the highest in the EU—while the European average is 19%. After Greece come Denmark (26%), Sweden, and Germany (both 25%), with the lowest percentage, 11%, in Cyprus.

Additionally, the average household size in the EU is 2.3 people, while in Greece it is slightly higher at 2.4.