A crushing seven-year-long economic crisis has hit Greeks hard but it’s not stopping the rich and foreigners from snapping up luxury homes either to buy or to rent, with prices on the popular island of Mykonos reaching as high as 30,000 euros ($34,272) a week.
Data from firms in the industry put the figure of holiday homes around Greece that have obtained the Greek National Tourism Organization stamp at over 10,000, with 80 percent of them having been added over the last three years, the newspaper Kathimerini reported.
Mykonos – not even the most popular island destination, a distinction that belongs to Santorini where nightly rentals can reach 4,000 euros ($4,569) – is now rivaling the French Riviera and Cannes in the south of France for the price of luxury rentals. .
Constantinos Sideris, an analyst at international real estate consultancy firm Algean Property, told Kathimerini said the demand is still peaking during a record-breaking tourism summer for Greece, surviving on foreigners spending, which otherwise has been disappointing despite the hordes arriving, many in package deals that find them in high-end hotels.
“This year we noticed for the first time some strong interest in luxury holiday home renting as early as May, which did not happen in the past. The extension of the rental season lays the groundwork for securing even higher revenues this year,” Sideris said.
Some hotels are now adding or renovating units to make them even more desirable to the rich who are enjoying Greece at the same time many Greeks were sweltering in record-heat with almost no municipal swimming pools and public beaches blocked off by unlawful clubs who charge for entry to public areas with no government intervention.
The financial news service Bloomberg said Airbnb, the international rental site for private properties, is taking aim at the Greek luxury market too although the government is putting big taxes on those who use the site after complaints from hotels.
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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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Source: thenationalherald.com
