While Kachmazov’s targets are mainly Russian investors, they also include Turks, Arabs and Chinese buyers who want a golden visa for access to the European Union’s passport-free Schengen area and who want to “diversify away from local risks and get an income in hard currency,” by renting apartments out to tourists or students.
Why Athens?
“The country’s residence-for-investment scheme is the best in Europe as it’s cheap at 250,000 euros; property in Greece is cheap; yields for short-term rentals are high, and the country’s growth potential is greater,” Kachmazov said.
In Portugal, an investment of 500,000 euros in any real estate project or of 350,000 euros in a 30-year-old property can get you a resident permit under certain circumstances.
Another draw for investors is the returns they can make from their Greek property. The country’s tourism industry is stoking an increase in demand for short-term rental properties, which combined with “significantly” low property prices, means there’s an opportunity to generate high rental yields and capital gains, Kachmazov said.
Visitor numbers in the nine months to Sept. 30 rose 10.3 percent from the same period of 2016, according to the Bank of Greece.
EU Visa
Property inquiries in Greece from Chinese buyers rose almost 159 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period of 2016, Law said. For Chinese investors, getting a resident visa is the key reason to invest in the country, she said.
“It’s one of the more lax visas that allows you to use property investment to get yourself onto the path toward EU citizenship,” Law said. Additionally, Greece is three to four hours closer by air to China than Barcelona and Lisbon, two other popular cities in countries that also have appealing investor visas, she said.
Greece awarded 2,053 golden visas between 2013 and October 2017, with Chinese investors accounting for 43 percent of them, according to Enterprise Greece, the state agency responsible for promoting investments and exports.
Russians are in second place with 18.6 percent and investors from neighboring Turkey third at 8.4 percent. Greece has raised more than 513 million euros in foreign investments from the visa program.
Bank e-auctions
Both Kachmazov and Law said that there’s a great deal of interest in properties that Greek banks are auctioning as part of efforts to shrink non-performing exposures. Lenders are trying to meet bad loan reduction targets to avoid raising capital.
“We aim to participate in Greek real estate e-auctions and to acquire properties directly from banks,” Kachmazov said. Law says she is seeing similar interest.
“We have some buyers who are very interested in Greece’s e-auction process,” she said. “They believe it will offer opportunities to purchase at the bottom of the market.”