# New to Thessaloniki - short term lets and nurseries!



## alspot (Sep 12, 2014)

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help.

My wife, daughter and I have recently moved to Thessaloniki until the end of the year. Wanted to ask the expatforum collective 2 questions:

Short term lets
We are currently staying with family, but expected to be able to rent for 3months in Thessaloniki. This is proving hard/ expensive. The rental websites - which have really reasonable prices c.250-400euro/ month - the agents don't want to rent out for only 3 months, and then the more travel websites - aka airbnb, are coming in at c.900-1000euro/ month - which seems crazy in comparison.

Does anyone have any tips/ other sources/ know a vacant property that may be of interest??

Secondly, nurseries
My daughter is 2 and a half, and we'd like to enrol her into nursery for 2 or 3 days a week. Any advice or recommendations for nurseries in Thessaloniki - anywhere between the centre and kalimaria would be ideal.

To note, my wife is Greek and has only ever spoken to my daughter in Greek, so she has a reasonable command of the language.

Any tips/ advice would be most gratefully received!

Many thanks,
Alex.


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## karenh1963 (Jul 5, 2014)

*Renting in Thessaloniki*



alspot said:


> Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help.
> 
> My wife, daughter and I have recently moved to Thessaloniki until the end of the year. Wanted to ask the expatforum collective 2 questions:
> 
> ...


Hi have you tried the web site HomeGreekHome.com, they advertise long and short term rentals also some private rentals too, we moving there in October this year and have some good properties to view when we arrive.


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## DavidFontaine (Jan 30, 2014)

Go on the property section of XE and look for places to rent in Thessaloniki. Look for the ones without company logos next to them as these will usually be private. You should be able to rent somewhere from a private landlord for a short amount of time as it's money in their pocket rather than nothing.


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## karenh1963 (Jul 5, 2014)

DavidFontaine said:


> Go on the property section of XE and look for places to rent in Thessaloniki. Look for the ones without company logos next to them as these will usually be private. You should be able to rent somewhere from a private landlord for a short amount of time as it's money in their pocket rather than nothing.


Hi David thanks for your input, can you please tell me who/what is XE ?, as I am also interested in renting private for long term :smile:


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## DavidFontaine (Jan 30, 2014)

karenh1963 said:


> Hi David thanks for your input, can you please tell me who/what is XE ?, as I am also interested in renting private for long term :smile:


www.xe .gr/property (remove the space)

XE is kind of the Greek equivalent of Gumtree I suppose. You can find cars / property etc. It's in Greek though - so you'll either have to speak Greek or translate it with Google Translate


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## karenh1963 (Jul 5, 2014)

DavidFontaine said:


> www.xe .gr/property (remove the space)
> 
> XE is kind of the Greek equivalent of Gumtree I suppose. You can find cars / property etc. It's in Greek though - so you'll either have to speak Greek or translate it with Google Translate


Do you live in Thessaloniki? whats it like, and is their many expats around?, sorry for all the Qs Dave but we will be new to the area.:smile::smile:


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## DavidFontaine (Jan 30, 2014)

karenh1963 said:


> Do you live in Thessaloniki? whats it like, and is their many expats around?, sorry for all the Qs Dave but we will be new to the area.:smile::smile:


No, I'm in Athens but I've visited Thessaloniki several times. It's a nice city - much more 'Balkan' than Athens. I have no idea about the expat numbers, but there definitely will be some. I think a lot of connections with other expats are made through work. Unlike other places further east, there aren't vast, closed-door communities of expats. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that most expats out here are very happy and so do not feel the need to have a network of other Brits around them to complain with.

There are a few English pubs there though so I'm sure you'll find something if you wish.

October is still warm enough to swim (if you're not Greek)


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## DavidFontaine (Jan 30, 2014)

As an aside, another indication of the expat community is this forum. There are plenty of other Brits in the country but the expat forums are dead. For comparison look at a Middle East/Far East forum and you'll find there's a huge difference - I think it speaks volumes


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## karenh1963 (Jul 5, 2014)

DavidFontaine said:


> No, I'm in Athens but I've visited Thessaloniki several times. It's a nice city - much more 'Balkan' than Athens. I have no idea about the expat numbers, but there definitely will be some. I think a lot of connections with other expats are made through work. Unlike other places further east, there aren't vast, closed-door communities of expats. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that most expats out here are very happy and so do not feel the need to have a network of other Brits around them to complain with.
> 
> There are a few English pubs there though so I'm sure you'll find something if you wish.
> 
> October is still warm enough to swim (if you're not Greek)


Thank You again David, for your information, don't get me wrong when I say im not big on having lots of expat friends, as I lived in Cyprus for six years and visited most of the Greece Islands over the years, I really enjoy the Greek life style, but it would be nice to get to know a few ex pats. thanks again for your information x


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## aliland (Jul 19, 2013)

To alspot - agencies are a bit of a pain in your position. As your already here, drive around a bit - you should see some properties with rent notices and could negotiate with the landlord direct. Unfortunately now is a popular time to move and many of the cheaper apartments landlords may be reluctant to rent to you and risk not being able to find tenants later.

You said the center to kalamaria would be ideal. Perhaps you may consider Thermi or Triadi. There are lots of empty places around - so landlords might be less choosy.

As for Karen, IWOG (international women of Greece) use to be a good place to meet Brits and Americans. I don't know if they still do stuff - but networking with native English speakers is not really needed in Thessaloniki in my opinion.


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## karenh1963 (Jul 5, 2014)

aliland said:


> To alspot - agencies are a bit of a pain in your position. As your already here, drive around a bit - you should see some properties with rent notices and could negotiate with the landlord direct. Unfortunately now is a popular time to move and many of the cheaper apartments landlords may be reluctant to rent to you and risk not being able to find tenants later.
> 
> You said the center to kalamaria would be ideal. Perhaps you may consider Thermi or Triadi. There are lots of empty places around - so landlords might be less choosy.
> 
> As for Karen, IWOG (international women of Greece) use to be a good place to meet Brits and Americans. I don't know if they still do stuff - but networking with native English speakers is not really needed in Thessaloniki in my opinion.


Thank you very much Aliland, you have been helpful, we have decided to have a drive around, and have a good look around after all we are retired and have no ties in any area , just as long as we have access to hospitals we have healthcare in place, and close to somewhere that doesn't completely close for winter. thanks again


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## aliland (Jul 19, 2013)

I didn't get you were reetiried. If I were you, I'd go for Paraia. There are fantastic deals for small flats with fantastic viwes. The 200 to 250 range of properties are really nice - they are cheap because far to travel daily to work in thessaloniki - but only half hour to hipokrarieoi ( the big hospital in thessaloniki) if you can go to 300, the propoties are fantastic. The big advantage, you can walk to the sea!

I didn't really understand from your posts why you are moving here. Perhaps if I did, I could me more helpful.

Also, when you move up, I'm happy to meet you for coffee if you would like a bit of face to face talk, but don't expect me to know much. But I'll meet you if you you like.


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## karenh1963 (Jul 5, 2014)

aliland said:


> I didn't get you were reetiried. If I were you, I'd go for Paraia. There are fantastic deals for small flats with fantastic viwes. The 200 to 250 range of properties are really nice - they are cheap because far to travel daily to work in thessaloniki - but only half hour to hipokrarieoi ( the big hospital in thessaloniki) if you can go to 300, the propoties are fantastic. The big advantage, you can walk to the sea!
> 
> I didn't really understand from your posts why you are moving here. Perhaps if I did, I could me more helpful.
> 
> Also, when you move up, I'm happy to meet you for coffee if you would like a bit of face to face talk, but don't expect me to know much. But I'll meet you if you you like.


Hi Aliland
We love the Greek way of life, food, and well everything, we have been coming to Greece for over 10 years and prior to that I lived in Cyprus for 6 years. we always said that we would retire to Greece and the surrounding areas of Thessaloniki, Paraia and kalamaria are very appealing to us, but the only place we see any property to rent is on the HomeGreekHome website , but we are prepared to go driving around and seeing first had, and maybe get a good bargain, we are looking for a two bed place in the rental price range of 250-450 euro a month that's what we would be comfy with, and because we are retiring it would be nice (a dream) to live right on the sea front, but close enough to amenities ( a bus drive away ) would be fine but don't want to be too isolated if you get my meaning, I had a health scare in may and so we have got a good health cover, and that's why we decided to do it now before it became too late to do anything.(plus the UK is so, so expensive to live now its unbelievable So we are having a holiday in Skiathos from 30th September to see friends, then over to Volos and up to Thessaloniki via train then hire a car for a month or so until we get where we want and sort ourselves out. Any information would be grateful ,and it would also be great to meet up for coffee too.


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