BUY ON A GREEK ISLE.. FROM pounds 25K
Sunday Mirror, Aug 29, 2010 by KAREN ROCKETT
FORGET Spanish villas or Florida timeshares – there’s never been a better time to buy a holiday or retirement home in sunny Greece.
Back in 2006 Brits couldn’t get enough of Greek property, especially on the olive-oil rich island of Crete. The exchange rate was 1.45 euros to the pound and developers could not keep up with demand.
Then, when sterling began to fall in 2008 followed by the meltdown of the worldwide banking system, the UK and US property markets crashed and we found ourselves in recession. Greece was hit particularly hard.
And that’s when the Brits stopped buying there. Now, according to the agents, they are coming back – at least at the top and bottom ends of the market.
Spyros Mantzos, managing directer of www.apropertyingreece.com, a property expert for Greece Magazine and a director of Olympic Holidays, said: “Prices in some areas have dropped by around 20 per cent so it really is a good time to buy – I don’t think they will fall much further. The price drops are down to Greeks who work in the state sector having been badly hit by the crisis and are having to sell off one of their homes – many have two or three that have been in the family for years.
“In terms of price and variety of property on the market, there has never been a better time to buy.”
Desperate to lure foreigners, the Greek government has introduced new measures – including scrapping capital gains tax.
The biggest stumbling block for Brits wanting to retire to Greece is selling their home in the UK.
But Mike Saunders, managing director of Snobby Homes in Crete, said: “Is it really worth losing out on the rest of your life because you want to squeeze that last penny out of your house – when likely as not you’ll lose money while waiting?”
I can’t wait to start my new life in a little Crete village
ALLISON Gilbert is buying a home on Crete. She fell in love with the island 20 years ago when her lecturer dad took her to stay with a student and his family who had invited them for a visit.
Allison, 44, of Chelmsford, Essex, said: “It immediately felt like home. We stayed for a month and despite an outside toilet and shower and very basic amenities in the pretty village, in the back of my mind it was a place I loved and over the years I went back many times on holidays.”
But the play and park ranger for Chelmsford Borough Council says she made the decision to finally take the plunge and buy when she was diagnosed with SAD – seasonal affective disorder. Her GP said she needed sunshine and a complete change of lifestyle to be happy – so on a visit to the island with her mum Denise, 66, the pair decided to buy through a British company called Snobby Homes in a small development in Kamisian, a pretty working village amid olive groves.
Allison has bought a two-bedroom eco-friendly house with double- glazing, solar panels and a garden where she will grow her own vegetables.
She paid pounds 97,500 (119,000 euros) for her home, which she will move into in September. Her mum paid pounds 122,000 (149,000 euros) for a three-bedroom home. It is the first time Allison has owned her own home – before now she has always lived in tied properties with her job… and she cannot afford to buy in the UK.
She said: “Where I have bought there are just five homes and I have one and my mother has another. The intention is to live there permanently. I have a Greek mortgage and am just working now in order to pay off the bulk of it before I leave the UK for ever in September to start my new life in the sun.
“I intend to grow my own vegetables and keep chickens and be as self-sufficient as possible. We both have solar-powered electricity and I plan to go off-grid.
“I am not concerned about the problems in the Greek economy any more than I am here They have been more honest about their deficit and property prices are holding.
“I have a year’s salary saved up and, as a qualified riding instructor, I hope to be able to find work in that field. But the way I see it is I’d rather be broke in the sun than here. I am happy to live a simple life.”
FOR more information go to www.snobbyhomes.co.uk or call 0871 900 8690
Is it a safe bet?
NO one knows what will happen in Greece – even economists are not in agreement.
THE worst-case scenario is that Greece leaves the euro and returns to the drachma