2023-08-12 20:56:13
First Mykonos, then Santorini and now Paros – the run on the islands is not new, but is spreading from year to year. First came the hippies, later the celebrities – and mass tourism followed in the slipstream of the jet set. In the second summer following the pandemic, demand seems limitless and is fueling the gold rush mood in the tourism industry. Hotels, holiday apartments and houses are springing up all over the place.
As the Greek newspaper “Kathimerini” reported, the number of building permits on the archipelago in the Aegean Sea has increased in recent years from 916 (2018) to 1,280 (2022). The frontrunner is the small island of Paros, on which 1,101 permits were issued in these four years alone, on Santorini it was 1,001. In addition, there are illegal buildings, which – generally not uncommon in Greece – are only legalized followingwards, if at all, and are therefore not included in the figures of the Greek statistical authority.
picturedesk.com/Louisa Gouliamaki Stars like Johnny Depp, Katy Perry and Brad Pitt have vacationed on Paros – there is no better tourism advertisement
„Fast anarchische Situation“
Thanos Pagonis, urban planning expert at the Institute of Architecture at the Technical University of Athens, described the situation on Santorini, Mykonos and Paros to “Kathimerini” as “alarming”, on the smaller islands of Andros, Tinos and Sifnos also as “conspicuous” – there it seems but to give “internal resistance” that would at least slow down the construction process. Overall, however, it is an “almost anarchic situation” that leads to a disproportionate burden on the common infrastructure of the islands.
master plan required
Eleni Maistrou, President of the Greek Society for Environment and Culture (ELLET) Committee on Architectural Heritage, warns that the steady increase in unplanned construction projects might have unprecedented dimensions in terms of financial, environmental and energy burdens on local authorities and the state . Congested roads and ferry connections, interruptions in the water and electricity supply and an increase in waste are issues that, given the rapid development, might hardly keep pace without a master plan.
Pagonis takes the same line. In particular on Santorini, Mykonos and Paros, the generous granting of building permits must be stopped completely, “because all borders have been exceeded”. The Italian island of Capri has managed to maintain its good reputation and its high level of tourism through strong state control, as construction activity is heavily controlled by the state. “We must therefore take action to limit construction until the islands’ spatial planning is finalized.”
IMAGO/Sophie Gallier The typical Cycladic style: white, low houses with blue windows and doors. The number of pools on the islands is also constantly increasing.
Big hotel project stopped
The Supreme Administrative and Constitutional Court of Greece obviously takes a similar view. In mid-June, it blocked a plan for the construction of a large hotel complex with hotel and villas in Paros, implicitly but clearly censuring the government’s Central Urban Planning Council, which had approved the proposed project without sufficient justification, according to Greek media.
According to plans, a five-star hotel and a huge sports and leisure facility should have been built on 32.7 hectares in the north of the island near Naoussa. The area includes, among others, an archaeological zone and a nature reserve. The court pointed out that the island’s infrastructure capacity had not been taken into account. In addition, the court reiterated the need to consider the overall capacity of each island rather than individual projects when making permits.
The arduous way to the land register
Everything that has to do with buying, owning and building real estate in Greece is made more difficult by the fact that the country is the only one in the EU that still does not have a complete land register. After all, following years of pressure from Brussels, a mixture of financial incentives and threats as well as a detour via an attempt at an Excel cadastre are being approached. To this day, however, many ownership structures are just as unclear as those of the dedications to agricultural land, building land, nature conservation areas and forest areas.
picturedesk.com/Louisa Gouliamaki
Price rally as a problem for the Greek population
In any case, the interest in real estate in Greece – both on the mainland and on the numerous islands – comes from different directions. The real estate price rally triggered by this – in the Cyclades, for example, prices rose by 21 percent in the previous year – poses major problems for Greeks. Purchase prices, but also rents, have risen disproportionately compared to the wage level for many in times of high inflation and high loan interest rates and are difficult or even impossible to afford.
As reported by the National Bank of Greece, foreign real estate investments in 2022 amounted to €1.97 billion in 2022 (a 68 percent increase from 2021). 64 percent of them came from other EU countries. A large proportion are large foreign investors who see their money well invested in hotel projects and expect high returns.
Getty Images/Ioannis Tsotras A lot is also being built on the smaller islands, such as Tinos
High demand for “golden visas”
There is also a strong increase in the number of people from other EU countries who buy the “golden visa” when purchasing a Greek property. This group mainly includes investors from China and India, but also people from Great Britain and the USA. The prerequisite for this is that you invest at least 250,000 euros in real estate, in high-demand areas – such as Athens and Santorini – soon even 500,000. With Portugal looking to phase out a similar scheme, interest in the Greek variant is mounting.
Investments from eurozone countries also increased, albeit not as fast. Last year, a total of 590 million euros flowed out of the euro zone, which is 25 percent more than in 2021. An increase of 49 percent to 106 million euros was also recorded in investments from other EU countries – led by Bulgaria.
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