# advice on moving to Greece



## janhannah (Jan 22, 2012)

Hello - this is my first posting!

my partner and I moved from Scotland to Bulgaria 3 years ago, and now for a multitude of reasons we feel it's time to try pastures new i.e. Greece. This June/July we'll drive down and explore Peloponnes and Evia. We wont have a great budget, depending largely on how we sell here, and will be looking for something old, traditional and either on it's own or in a small village. 

Can anyone give me advice on who might be good to contact? For example here in BG there are certain estate agents who really shouldn't be in buisness, but you cant know these things through google search. Perhaps it's better just to turn up and speak with locals?

Any advice would be welcome
Thanks
Jan


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Hi Jan, and welcome to the forum 

My advice is always to come and look up close. Mainly because most properties aren't listed online anyway. You can use some Greek real estate websites to get an idea of prices in different areas. Any site that you would want to look at it would be in Greek. The English language sites are aimed at foreign buyers and usually have inflated prices. But even the national Greek sites have very, very few properties outside Athens and Thessaloniki, which is why you really have to come here and drive around to different towns and visit estate agent offices. 

If you can limit your geographical area (Peloponnese + Evia is huge!), or at least come up with some conditions like "must be within 10 km of the sea" or whatever, you can start to compile a list of villages/towns that you are interested in visiting. You can plug them in online to see what properties there are going for but I do this all the time for my part of Greece where I'm on the market too, and I'll be lucky if a new property is added for our city of 70,000 more often than every 3-4 months, it's basically a waste of time. And 90% of them are without photographs; if they do have photographs, they are tragic (like one photo, showing the balcony railing and not much else).

So there is really no replacement for going in person and looking around. As far as whom to avoid, I would avoid anyone who seems to be aiming at foreign buyers - or at least, be very, very cautious.


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## janhannah (Jan 22, 2012)

thats great advice and makes perfect sense. We're hoping to drive round both places in about 2 weeks! maybe taking on too much. So the whole housing movement is slow? Same here - which might be our greatest problem. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to reply

cheers
Jan :clap2:


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

The housing market is down, but even when it wasn't, the internet wasn't a major player. It's too bad, because it would be convenient for those located outside the country.

At least in our city, prices haven't come down at all over the past 12 months that I've been watching them.

Also if you do use sites, bear in mind that they aren't always on top of updating them. Some properties may have been sold or taken off the market, or prices changed, without updating.


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## janhannah (Jan 22, 2012)

.....has the current crisis not effected prices at all? and I take it one can bargin, like everywhere else. Do you think it's still a good country to move to? difficult question.....!


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

To be honest, I've only been watching our market, so I can only speak for one city, where it seems the affect of the crisis has been that fewer properties are on the market. Prices - I've seen some go up, some come down (by €2,000 or so) but most haven't changed. Of course you offer what you want to offer.

Whether it's a good country to move to will largely depend on 1) what you are looking for , and 2) what kind of resources you have and from where.

If you're moving here to look for a job, no, it's not a good place to move.  There are however certain circumstances where it would be a good place to move - for example, if you love Greece and want to live here, and will not be needing to work.


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## Jolly Roger (Dec 4, 2011)

If you like an area, I think the best option is to rent initially. I believe Greece has to come out of the Euro sooner or later, so buying a property could become a lot cheaper, maybe 50% of current prices.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

I second Jolly Roger's suggestion... one reason we haven't made a move yet is we are waiting to see what will happen with the currency. And it's always a good idea to get to know an area well before you buy, that goes for anywhere of course. In a non-urban area, you should be able to get a standard 2 br apartment for around €220/month - obviously will vary a lot by location, age of building, amenities, etc., but if someone offers you a great deal at €700/month, you should know that's extremely expensive for Greece; anything under €150/month will likely have significant problems unless you're in the middle of absolutely nowhere.


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## janhannah (Jan 22, 2012)

Good advice! I'll keep an eye on the news and see whats happening with the Euro. What will happen to the economy if it withdraws? And renting is a better plan.

and Thasolutions - thank you too but I think we have already spoken about a year ago when I was looking for somewhere to rent over the winter....remember the bagpipe maker and the ex art teacher?! Our circumstances have changed now and so we're looking to move full time, and although your cottage is absolutely ideal, your island is too far north for us!

Thanks to everyone


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## Jolly Roger (Dec 4, 2011)

janhannah said:


> Good advice! I'll keep an eye on the news and see whats happening with the Euro. What will happen to the economy if it withdraws? And renting is a better plan.
> 
> and Thasolutions - thank you too but I think we have already spoken about a year ago when I was looking for somewhere to rent over the winter....remember the bagpipe maker and the ex art teacher?! Our circumstances have changed now and so we're looking to move full time, and although your cottage is absolutely ideal, your island is too far north for us!
> Thanks to everyone


Greece desperately needs to devalue to become competitive again. If it went back to the drachma, put very simply, imports would become very expensive but items purchased in other currencies would be cheap.
See the thread here.........
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/greece-expat-forum-expats-living-greece/99763-drachma.html


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## janhannah (Jan 22, 2012)

Interesting! and nothing that frightens me off yet


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## adamc (Feb 16, 2012)

I have lived worked and traveled throughout Greece for last 13 years and my advice would diffidently be not to rush into anything travel first find a place you like rent for at least a year and search for properties locally more often then not with locals you have meet. Locals are far more aware of properties that are available ten any estate agent. One strong word of advise that I would suggest through experience of my own avoid a new build at all cost! much better to find an older property that is legal and requires a bit of renovation good luck.. keep us posted
Try Aegina Island or Angistri Very Nice!


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

adamc, good advice and welcome to the Greece forum! hope to see you posting more around here in the future.


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## kris22 (Mar 18, 2012)

not likely for greece to come out of the euro, but property prices might get a bit lower still
you do have to go check yourself ,make sure you get what the package says, and also HAGGLE!!!!!!!
i got a flat in the summer for 2/3 of the asking price
good luck


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