Significantly higher rent prices in Greece over past five years

Rent prices for college student housing in Greece have skyrocketed over the past five years, with significant increases recorded in just a year, a result of the post-pandemic economic “re-awakening”, years of very sluggish rates of new construction and, just as importantly, the so-called “AirBnB effect”.

According to a study by the Athens-based registered valuation firm Geoaxis, rents for so-called “student residences” in the greater Athens area over the past five years have increased by as much as 90 percent, with the average yearly increase being 18.7 percent. Similar increases have been recorded for Thessaloniki, Patras, Volos, Irakleio (Crete) and even the border city of Komotini, in northeast Greece. All of the latter municipalities host large higher education institutions, where tens of thousands of college students from the greater Athens-Piraeus region and other large municipalities study away from home.

Greater Athens, as expected, posts the highest cost for leases, while Komotini the lowest.

In a related development, the Bank of Greece (BoG) on Tuesday announced that overall apartment prices (in nominal terms) increased, on average, by 13.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2023.

According to the BoG’s provisional figures, in 2022 apartment prices increased at an average annual rate of 11.8 percent (revised data), compared with hikes of 7.6 percent in 2021.

Specifically, in the second quarter of 2023 the yoy rate of increase in apartment prices totaled 13.8 percent for new units (up to five years old) and 14.1 percent for older units.

According to revised data, new apartments prices increased on average by 12.4 percent in 2022, compared to an increase of 8.2 percent in 2021. Conversely, prices of older units increased by 11.4 percent in 2022, compared to an increase of 7.2 percent in 2021.