Perfectly balanced on the border between the Aegean and Libyan seas, Crete offers one of the most temperate and healthy climates in Europe. Cretan properties currently attract players from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Britain, and are now attracting additional buyers in the 40-50 age group who might otherwise have gravitated to Spain. Delighted by the benefits that Crete offers over the UK (better climate, lower cost of living, home-grown food), most potential buyers of property in Crete are looking to spend at least three or four months of the year on the island, and they see their investment as a good way to reduce living costs.
The cost of living in Greece has actually risen 4.9% since last year, according to the latest consumer price index, while its economy will only grow 3% in 2008. Staples like bread and pasta they now cost 18% and 26% more respectively this year than last, a price increase that Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis attributes to the turbulent world economy.
But Crete remains a much cheaper alternative to the UK: a couple can expect to achieve a good standard of living on an income of £12,000 a year. The Cretan property charges no fees if it is less than 150 square meters in total, while water, electricity and heating bills will cost £200 and £500 per year respectively, says John Batty, managing director of the Anglo-Greek agency. Aegean Blue. “Similarly, property prices in Ctrete are lower, even in urban areas: buyers should expect to pay between €200,000 and €300,000 for holiday homes. With so much fruit, vegetables, oil, wine and meat produced on the island , most foods Costs are also very low.”
Long-term prospects for capital appreciation are also good, adds Robert Key, director of Cluttons’ Greek branch. “Unlike Spain, there has been no crisis in the property market in Crete. Planning permission is much stricter than in Spain (construction within 50 meters of the coast is now prohibited under the new building regulations), so the great disorder in which many Spanish towns became will not be repeated in Greece”.
But the current global economic climate is likely to limit property price growth in Crete to a low of 5% on the island in the short term, Batty continues. “One place that is likely to appreciate is anything located near and to the west of Chania, rather than the east, particularly in the Apokoronas region, where price increases have been steeper in recent years.”
Chania, located on the northwest coast of the island, has long been a favorite with shoppers, thanks to its seaside location and evocative mix of old buildings, revealing the city’s roots and history throughout. an eclectic fusion of Byzantine, Venetian, Turkish and Greek. styles. EasyJet’s recent decision to fly weekly to Chania is testament to its growing popularity as a destination. Still well preserved despite heavy German bombing during World War II, renovation work to restore the city’s old streets and walls is underway, while the eastern side of its old harbor is experiencing a chrysalis from the quayside. dilapidated to a modern loft-style water point.
One project worth keeping an eye on is Leptos Estates’ Canea Corniche scheme, a redevelopment of the island’s first olive oil treatment plant building, which was established by a French chemist in the 1880s. Minutes from the the city’s old Ventian port, and located just west of the center of the old part of Chania, the project is currently one of the few city center schemes available in Crete, one of the few parts of the western world that does not suffers from an oversupply of apartments. Each of the 200 apartments on offer will boast ocean views, while the site’s original features – two factory chimneys and a series of ovens – will be restored as part of a plan to create a small museum with artifacts and tools in the original use of the site. . The finished product will be flanked by olive trees and landscaped gardens. Construction work on the site is scheduled to begin in October, when prices will be announced.
A more traditional project on offer is the Leptos Aphrodite Villas scheme, a cluster of 64 villas and apartments surrounding a communal swimming pool, located just a few meters from Pyrgos Psilonerou beach, slightly west of Chania. Prices here start at EUR434,000 (£344,000) for a three-bedroom villa and EUR174,615 (£138,000) for a one-bedroom apartment.
Heading west from Chania towards Maleme, Cybarco Real Estate Development also recently launched the Maleme Project, a beachfront development in the Platanias area comprised of 16 two-bedroom apartments and eight three-bedroom duplexes located 17 kilometers from the city. . Each house has access to communal gardens and a central pool, while some duplexes have private pools, while the beach is just a few hundred meters away. Designed for both holiday home owners and permanent residents, the houses come with plenty of storage space, making them a multi-purpose home and holiday rental investment – rental returns in this area can reach EUR 1,500 (£1,200) a week. during high season.
Similarly, Cypraaegean Properties’ Artemis Gardens project in Maleme, a two-minute walk from the beach, is developed around a series of gardens, bordered by orange trees and centered around a communal swimming pool. With a mix of 18 bungalows, townhouses and one- and two-bedroom apartments, the company currently guarantees 5% rental income for two years. Prices range from €130,000 (£103,000) for a one-bedroom basement to €230,000 (£182,000) for a two-bedroom townhouse.
Buyers after Cretan property renovation projects on the resale market (wrecks can still be bought for as little as £35,000) have generally been put off by the difficulty of working through the complex property system of the island land, whereby a single parcel of land can have multiple owners who cannot all agree to sell. But now that Greece has established its own land registry, the process will be much simpler, says Key. “It is now as safe from a property point of view to buy a resale property as it is to buy a new build. It takes a good lawyer and a surveyor to check the legal and technical details before making the purchase. All property sales are performed by signing a contract in the presence of two lawyers and a notary public, then the contract is deposited in the title and property registries in the name of the new owner.
As a member of the European Union, Greece allows foreign buyers to buy in the country and live there permanently, although a visa and residence permit are required after three months, but only if you want to buy a car or get a license. greek driving Contact the Embassy of Greece in London for more information.
money matters As the credit crunch continues to hit, it’s impossible for most buyers to even consider buying a home abroad without first having a mortgage offer. But help is at hand, with Greece’s banks offering a variety of mortgages at favorable rates.
Leptos Estates offers loans with up to three years of interest-free credit for buyers who can fork out a down payment for off-plan properties, make staged payments throughout the construction process, and then accumulate the final amount upon completion. “But Greece has good banking facilities anyway, which have improved considerably in recent years,” says Christos Pateras, the firm’s marketing manager. “Most banks prefer to offer mortgages of between 75 and 80% of the value of a property, which are normally amortized over a maximum of 30 to 40 years, and are available to buyers between 70 and 75 years old.”
Piraeus Bank UK (PBUK) currently offers rate packages starting at 6% interest on repayment loans and collects GBP from borrowers’ UK bank accounts, reducing costs to the buyer by converting installments monthly without charging commissions, and offers market rates to help buyers convert the amount in pounds sterling of the deposit in euros required for the purchase. Piraeus’ standard packages offer loans at rates of value of 80%, repayment mortgages with interest rates of 1.75% above the euro interbank offered rate (EURIBOR) for between five and 25 years, and mortgages of interest only up to ten years. “Buyers should try to rent their home abroad for at least part of the time to offset some mortgage and maintenance costs,” says Irini Tzortzoglou, head of retail banking at PBUK. “Crete, with its longest season and mature tourism market, is one of the best places in Europe to generate rental income.”
Most banks prefer to offer mortgages of 75-80% of a property’s value, though some are happy to lend up to 100%, Key adds. “There are a lot of mortgages on offer with fixed-rate offers starting at around 3.7% and tracker mortgages starting at 5.25%. Several banks also offer Swiss franc mortgages, starting at a lower interest rate. 2.46%, while it is also possible to obtain mortgages in sterling or dollars, which may be a good bet due to the lower interest rates in these countries as a result of the current economic situation”.