Remax Greece: Real estate buyer preferences – Why older properties are preferred

The majority of Greek real estate buyers prefer the purchase of apartments, detached houses and maisonettes, followed by those who choose plots of land and arable plots, while the number of those who prefer the purchase of offices and shops is smaller. At the same time, those who proceed to buy homes, almost exclusively choose those that are over 20 years old. The above results from the data of completed real estate sales carried out through the country’s largest real estate network, RE/MAX Greece. The analysis of sales data shows that more than 7 out of 10 properties sold in Greece last year were apartments, detached houses or maisonettes and the rest were commercial properties, plots of land and plots of land.

Of particular interest are the data of this network not only for the type but also for the age of the properties chosen by buyers in 2022 nationwide. 70% of those who chose to buy a home chose to be over 20 years old, as this way they secured lower prices compared to comparable newer properties and future capital gains.

Distribution of sold properties by type of property

According to the detailed breakdown of sold properties nationwide by type of property, as shown by the data recorded by the RE/MAX Hellas network, which has 81 offices and more than 1,045 real estate consultants throughout the country, 75 out of 100 properties (75.3% of the total) that were sold throughout the territory concerned residences (apartments/detached houses/maisonettes), while plots of land and commercial properties had a much smaller share of 19.5% and 5.2 % respectively.

In Attica, 87.3% of the properties sold were residential. Plots of land covered 7.5% of all sales, while 5.2% was the percentage for commercial real estate.

In Thessaloniki, almost all of the properties sold (percentage of 90.2%) concern residential properties, 4.7% land plots and 5.1% commercial properties.

In the rest of Greece (except Attica & Thessaloniki), residential properties were at the top of preferences at 68.5%, while plots of land moved to 26.3% of the total sales and commercial properties to just 5.2%.

Distribution of sold properties by property age

Of particular interest is the age distribution of the properties sold. Focusing on residential properties, given that they have the highest sales rates across the country, it follows that the trend of previous years continues, with interest being focused on old homes over 20 years of construction at a rate of 73.6%, while newly built and up to 5 years they reached 7.8%. The intermediate age categories of real estate, i.e. from 11 to 15 years, gathered the interest of 7.7% of the final buyers in total, while from 6 to 10 years only 3.1%.

In Attica, 80.3% of the properties sold were older than 20 years, in contrast to the newly built and new (up to five years) that covered only 6% of the total sales.

The same trend is reflected in the sales that took place in Thessaloniki: the highest percentages of preference are found in properties over 20 years old at a rate of 74.1%, while on the opposite side are newly built buildings up to 5 years old which moved at almost the same levels as 2021 (6%) covering 7.8% of total sales.

In the regions of the rest of Greece (except Attica and Thessaloniki), 71.7% of buyers preferred old homes (over 20 years old) and 9.1% homes between 16 and 20 years old. Newly built properties aged up to 5 years were chosen by 8.3% of buyers, essentially approaching the levels of 2020 (7%).