Real estate: In a high seven-year residence prices – Turn to smaller houses

Over twice as many are their prices in the first months of 2024 as in 2017, where it was the year one of the largest falls in their values was recorded throughout the country. Today, in some of the most popular regions of Attica, they can be increased by 214% compared with seven years ago. At a time when purchasing interest has been removed from the large surface dwellings and has turned to smaller and more flexible houses. Greater is the average price difference over the last seven years in areas of the center such as Ambelokipi, where the price for a property over five years today moves to 2,283 €/ sq.m., while in 2017 it was only 725€/sq.m., with an increase of 214.9%. Similar large price deviations exist in Exarchia, where in 2017 they reached 675 €/sq.m., while today they have recorded an increase of 209.6%, reaching an average of 2,090 €/sq.m. A special case is Koukaki, which is an area of the center which also has high housing selling prices, due mainly to Aibnb and the Golden Visa, which closed the real estate market in previous years. In the first months of 2024, the average selling price of the houses was 3,020€/sq.m., when in 2017 the values reached 1,275€/sq.m., a deviation of 136.8%. Impressive increases have noted in the last seven years and Galachi, which are expected to continue when Metro’s new line 4 passes. Specifically, the houses in 2017 cost 950€/sq.m, while today they are formed at 1,900 €/sq.m, having increased to 100%. All the above figures show that in the country’s large population centres prices have risen more than in the rest of the territory and especially in high demand areas. According to market professionals, although the rise in prices will continue, the sales records of previous years have already been ‘cut ceiling’ and this will soon lead to signs of price balancing. However, high prices have turned prospective buyers into smaller surface properties compared to the past. According to market trends, small properties first come to the preferences of buyers due to the flexibility they have in their use. Second to the preference of buyers come the largest 70 sq.m. surface residences with 85 sq.m. that can accommodate a family. The latest data from the survey of the Observatory show that in the city the average property remains smaller than in the suburbs, but the average of square metres increases from year to year. For example, in the southern suburbs of Athens there was a gradual increase in the area of the average residence from 75 sq.m. in 2021 to 79 sq.m. in 2023. In the areas of eastern Attica the area of the average property increased to 103 sq.m. In the centre of Piraeus, the middle squares increased by 9 sq.m. i.e. I reached 77 sq.m. while in the suburb of Piraeus they increased by 5 sq.m. i.e. 75 sq.m.