Rents of the real estate in the central areas of Athens have increased significantly over the past year, mainly because of the high desire of the owners to offer their property on the Airbnb or Booking.com platform, according to the Greek real estate website Spitogatos.

This mainly concerns the central quarters of the Greek capital, such as Metz, Exarchia, Metaxourgio, Pangrati, and Kukaki, which are located near the Acropolis. In addition, the available apartments are now quite small, since many owners prefer to rent them out on platforms like Airbnb, rather than rent for a long time.

It is noted that in 2017, at the beginning of the boom with Airbnb, the average cost of renting an apartment in Athens was € 5.9 per square meter, whereas in 2018 the price rose to € 7.1 per square meter.

It is also noted that due to the mass renting of apartments for short-term rent, the price also noticeably increased in other areas, where people who had previously rented apartments in the now “tourist zone” moved.

However, taking into consideration the huge market of vacant real estate offered for rent, the transition of 15-16.000 apartments from the long-term lease to short-term did not have a significant impact on the price. After a noticeable surge in prices, they will soon decrease slightly.

Prices’ Rise

According to the publication, the cost of renting apartments for students increased by 17% in Athens, 14% in Thessaloniki, and 6% in the rest of Greece. The biggest cities in Greece with large universities, such as Thessaloniki, Patra, Volos, and Heraklion, have a similar trend.

And on such popular islands as Santorini and Mykonos, local residents or hired professionals who do not have their own homes have already faced a serious problem. That is because property owners refuse to renew the lease agreement in the desire to make the most on daily rent. In Santorini, because of this, there was even a problem with the doctors and school teachers who work on the island for distribution.

But according to analysts in the field of real estate, in 2018 was the peak in this market. The massive construction of hotels in Afimnakh, as well as extremely serious state control and high taxes, diminished both the demand for rental property and diminished interest from homeowners themselves. After calculating their real earnings after paying taxes, they seriously thought about the prospects of this business.