Infographic – At a Glance: Greece
The Greek housing market is all at sea, according to TheMoveChannel.com´s latest At a Glance report.
The infographic, which depicts the activity on the portal over the last year, shows that interest in mainland property is markedly low compared to homes on the islands, which accounted for an overwhelming 64.97 per cent of all enquiries.
The Peloponnese was the most popular region on solid ground, generating 15.49 per cent of enquiries, while Attica received some attention thanks to property in Athens, but northern areas, such as Central Macedonia, received far fewer enquiries. Some, such as West Macedonia, saw no enquiries whatsoever – indicative of a lack of sellers as much as buyer demand.
The islands, in contrast, are visibly full of investors and Crete is king, receiving almost one-third of all Greek property enquiries (29.71 per cent). Indeed, size matters, with the largest Greek island only rivalled by the South Aegean region, which took 19.65 per cent of enquiries.
The infographic also shows that a large number of buyers travel south when hunting for property, with the red bottom half of the chart getting warmer as it stretches into the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, North Aegean property, while more preferable than many mainland markets, attracted 5.72 per cent of enquiries, just one fifth of the number generated by Crete.
Crete´s profile stretches across the infographic to tower over buyer searches as well. Indeed, out of the 10 most searched-for Greek locations on TheMoveChannel.com, a staggering seven are located on the island.
The At a Glance series also charts buyers´ wider search behaviour on Google, revealing that when buyers are looking for Greek property on the internet, they like to look for villas. Indeed, "Greek villas" appeared in 3,000 searches in the last quarter of 2011, far overshadowing searches for "property for sale in Greece". That number almost doubled in the third quarter of 2012 compared to general nationwide searches, which only increased by 710.
Editor Ivan Radford comments: "Crete is undoubtedly the most famous of all the Greek islands. With its climate and tourist appeal, it´s no surprise that buyers are keen to look there for property. What is surprising is just how many shun the mainland altogether, although the lack of enquiries away from the popular hotspots may simply be an indication that there are fewer homeowners looking to sell during the ongoing eurozone crisis when prices are lower.
"While the words ´all at sea´ seem to describe Greece´s housing market in more ways than one, though, the Google search trends paint a promising picture. Searches for "Greek villas" peaked in the third quarter of this year, appearing in 5,900 searches. The curious thing is that the same thing has happened with of the other keywords too: after a year of falling prices, is interest in Greek property starting to reappear?"
Click here to view the full infographic.
Notes to Editors
Founded in 1999, TheMoveChannel.com is the leading independent website for international property, with than 400,000 listings in over 100 countries around the world, marketed on behalf of agents, developers and private owners.
The website address is http://www.themovechannel.com and the office address is 24 Jack´s Place, Corbet Place, Spitalfields, London, E1 6NN.
Contact Dan Johnson on 0207 952 7650 for further information.