HISTORIC RECORD OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT

The Bank of Greece (BoG) recorded a historic performance in the amount of direct investment in the domestic real estate market. The total inflow for 2022 amounts to 1.975 billion euros, up 68% compared with 2021's 1.176 billion, surpassing even the previous record of 2019 by 37% with 1.45 billion.

According always to the figures of the bank, the record amount is largely due to the dynamic fourth quarter of the year, with investments reaching 700,000,000 €, which represents a historic quarterly high. A look back at the records of the same source, with 2007 as a landmark — a milestone year for domestic real estate — shows investments recorded at 308,500,000 €, and in 2017 inflows of 415,000,000 €.

The restart of the Greek and international economy after the pandemic crisis in 2022, and particularly in the second half of the year, attracted investments of 1.18 billion, an amount equivalent to the total amount of 2021. From the eurozone for 2022, total investments amounted to 590 million compared with 473 million in 2021, with Germany at the top with 160 million, Cyprus with 134 million, France with 84 million and Luxembourg with 59 million. Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands followed, with investments of 30–40 million, and Ireland and Italy with 10–15 million. Investments from third countries touched 1.27 billion, leaving behind the high amount of 1.06 billion of 2019. Hong Kong stands at the top of the list with the most property purchases, amounting to 294 million; the USA with 166 million compared with 62 million in 2019; Singapore with 44 million; the United Kingdom with 71 million; Israel with 78 million compared with 66 million in 2019; Turkey with 46 million compared with 14 million in 2019; Canada and Australia with 21 million; Lebanon with 20 million; Egypt with 19 million; and China with 16 million compared with 184 in 2019 — an analysis that clearly shows the investment inflow via Hong Kong. Of the remaining countries of Europe, Switzerland stands at a high level with 179 million, Russia with 10 million compared with 24 million in 2021, and Serbia with 15 million compared with 8 in 2021.

As emerges from the analysis of the data, the capital inflows of foreign investors contributed to the maximum to the recovery of the real estate market on a nationwide scale, raising the level of confidence of domestic and foreign funds owing to the high yields. A major contribution to this historic achievement came from the Golden Visa, when in September 2022 the increase in the investment threshold was announced, with the result that 1,216 applications for the grant were submitted in December 2022, compared with 337 in the corresponding period of 2021, according to figures from the Ministry of Migration Policy. A second factor that attracted the strong interest of buyers was the high yields deriving from the management of properties in short-term rentals. Cities with high tourist footfall show very high occupancy levels, a fact which, according to property market players, will positively affect the increase in investment demand at an undiminished pace in 2023 as well, in an economic climate where our country has an enormous competitive advantage over the other European destinations, owing to the much lower commercial value of properties, since for the same size of surface area in most cities abroad, four times the capital and more is required. Infrastructure projects and bureaucracy are two very significant factors that slow down development, mainly as regards the exploitation of public property and a large part of the building stock, which requires declassifications through the intervention and cooperation of different bodies and services.