In a recent international real estate article, the New York Times featured Crete and its housing market, highlighting a villa situated in Plaka in the northwest of the island. The 2,690-square-foot, two-story Villa Ioanna has seven bedrooms and four bathrooms and “sits on a sloping, 1.23-acre lot near several olive groves and overlooks Souda Bay and the Mediterranean Sea,” the Times reported, adding that the whitewashed concrete house was built in 1994 and was once a two-family home, but a renovation six years ago made it one-family.
The real estate market in Greece had been in a slump for nine years during the financial crisis. but things are improving steadily. The Times reported that “in 2018, real estate investment increased by 20 percent and prices by almost 2 percent, according to the Bank of Greece, and the volume of building permits, which had fallen for seven straight years, rose more than 10 percent. The turnaround coincided with the end, in August 2018, of Greece’s $360 billion bailouts by the International Monetary Fund.”
Foreign buyers from various countries including Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, and the United States are drawn to Crete for the real estate bargains compared to the ever-popular Mykonos, for example.
Read the full article at thenationalherald.com
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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