Russians create Greek Property Boom?

Believe it or not the Greek Property Industry is one of the few areas where business has actually increased over the past six months. Russian buyers have snapped up homes in Greek vacation spots, while the Mediterranean country continues through it's economic crisis.

The Greek real estate market had dropped 30 percent over the past three years, according to the Bank of Greece. However at the same time, Russian demand of many tourist-area properties has actually increased significantly.

Yannis Revithis, President of Greek Real Estate Agents Federation said, "We would say that there is an increase in demand of at least 200% from interested Russian buyers and this shows also in the demand for tourist accommodation from Russians (which increased) by at least 100%. So we see a huge shift in Russian interest and by Russians in the Greek market."

As a result, many real estate agents have started hiring Russian employees to work with the growing client list.

Buyers from Germany, Britain, and France have generally dominated the Greek vacation housing market. However, recent economic woes have scared off some of these vacation-home hopefuls, but apparently not those from Russia.

These same buyers are purchasing property of all sizes, from small houses to small islands.

Greece has just had it's legislative election and whilst it's too early to make predictions, the markets have reacted positively with the news.