"At all hours, people call in wanting to sell or wanting to rent or wanting to expand because places now are so much cheaper. (...) Last year, there were just 3,600 sales in all of Athens – I repeat, all of Athens."
"In a market that has hit rock bottom in the maelstrom of Greece's financial meltdown, basement flats are selling for as little as €5,000 (£4,150) in the less salubrious parts of Athens. On the isle of Mykonos, cash-strapped Greek celebrities have been selling luxury villas for a song."
"Greece's social and economic crash is reflected in its property slump. Data released by Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, earlier this month showed that the country had suffered the second steepest decline in house prices after Croatia, the bloc's newest member."
"Since the outbreak of the Greek debt crisis four years ago, property values nationwide have dropped by around 32%, according to the Bank of Greece; estate agents contacted by the Guardian estimated the decline at nearer 50%."
"The situation, says Bletas, is so dire that home ownership – at nearly 87% the highest in the EU – has become cause for black humour. "The joke now doing the rounds is: if you want to punish your child, you threaten to pass on property to them," he said. "Greeks traditionally have always regarded property as a secure investment. But now it has become a huge millstone, given that the tax burden has increased sevenfold in the past two years alone.""
"At no time has there been such a glut of property on the market, according to the Hellenic Property Federation (Pomida), which reckons more than 500,000 property owners want to sell. Across Greece, about 300,000 residences are believed to be empty."
"For northern Europeans who want to buy a holiday home or a plot to develop for business, it's a golden opportunity," says Stratos Paravias, Pomida's president. "The tax burden is not so big when you have one property; it is when [like most Greeks] you have two or more."
"With the market's stagnation also being blamed for the lack of liquidity in Greece, politicians across the board are quietly hoping that non-Greeks will help save the day."
"We are in a very peculiar situation where prices are falling but the market isn't moving. If the recession eases in Europe, and foreigners start to return, it would be part of the solution to one of Greece's biggest problems."
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The project has made a strategic decision to look into the real estate sector in terms of cross border sales potential. It makes sense business-wise to focus on cross-border sales of properties as this is something that is currently being pursued also at governmental level in Greece through the selling of key properties mainly for touristic exploitation by foreign investment groups.
Selling houses cross-border is not something new for Greece were Northern Europeans have been investing on retirement houses for many years now leading to the development of complete communities of foreigners in several islands and coastal areas.
However, this business was always operated by foreign real estate agents on local level (e.g. U.K.) who identified the potential very early. e-Commerce will give the opportunity to local real estate businesses to sell cross-borders smaller properties to a much wider audience, potentially leading even to an increase in pricing through bigger demand for properties which are now on a stand still.
This is were the e-Commerce "Genie" is strategically aiming to make a difference in for the real estate sector.
