Are you despairing of the UK property market and looking for an overseas property for sale? Greece could be the answer for you. In recent years Greece has become more than a popular location for tourists: it is a popular destination for conventions, international exhibitions and major sporting events. There has been a large investment in the infrastructure sine the Olympic Games were held in Greece in 2004, and Greece has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe – in many villages people still leave their houses and cars unlocked.
Property Investments
Greece is a popular tourist and investor destination and there is plenty of potential in the property market. Greece offers a wealth of different properties, from tiny holiday apartments to large stone mansions set in acres of land, with just about everything else in between. Each region has a typical type of property, for example, stone mansions in the Peloponnese and Pelion peninsula, windmill properties in the Cyclades, or Venetian townhouses in the harbour towns. Most British house hunters tend to head straight for the traditional coastal areas of the Peloponnese peninsular.
Prices remain very affordable in Greece and homebuyers get much more for their money than in other popular European holiday destinations. Properties for sale in Greece are almost all freehold. Once you’ve found the property you want to buy, you normally pay a 10% deposit to secure the purchase and the price. If a seller backs out of the sale they have to pay back your 10% deposit and an extra 10% as a penalty. All in all it takes about six weeks for the searches to be made and the legal documents to be prepared before you complete on your purchase.
Greece has a foreign policy that is geared towards the acceptance of outside investors, however, Greece is aware of it status as an underdeveloped haven for those looking for a quieter life style. For this reason, there are very detailed rules about what can and cannot be built on any given plot of land.
I know of no studies so composing as those of the classical scholar. When we have sat down to them, life seems as still and serene as if it were very far off, and I believe it is not habitually seen from any common platform so truly and unexaggerated as in the light of literature. In serene hours we contemplate the tour of the Greek and Latin authors with more pleasure than the traveler does the fairest scenery of greece or Italy. Where shall we find a more refined society? That highway down from Homer and Hesiod to Horace and Juvenal is more attractive than the Appian. Reading the classics or conversing with those old Greeks and Latins in their surviving works, is like walking amid the stars and constellations, a high and by way serene to travel. Indeed, the true scholar will be not a little of an astronomer in his habits. Distracting cares will not be allowed to obstruct his field of vision, for the higher regions of literature, like astronomy, are above storm and darkness.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
Tourism
In a recent announcement, the Greek government underlined the importance of tourism for the economic development for the country, and every year Greece plays host to 1000’s of holiday-makers who come to enjoy the stunning landscape: there are miles of gorgeous coastline dotted with busy resorts and quaint fishing villages, and some breathtakingly rugged mountainous regions; clean water, and sandy beaches.
Greece has a great culinary heritage and there are lots of mouth watering dishes to be savoured. In most resorts there are a plenty of restaurants offering typical local fare, and don’t forget the bars for the famous Ouzo, an aniseed flavoured liquor that is enjoyed throughout Greece.
Geography
Greece is a republic with a population of 10 million, and is situated in the south east of Europe on the Balkan Peninsula. To the north is Bulgaria and Macedonia, to the north west Albania and on the east lies Turkey.
But it is fit that the Past should be dark; though the darkness is not so much a quality of the past as of tradition. It is not a distance of time, but a distance of relation, which makes thus dusky its memorials. What is near to the heart of this generation is fair and bright still. greece lies outspread fair and sunshiny in floods of light, for there is the sun and daylight in her literature and art. Homer does not allow us to forget that the sun shone,—nor Phidias, nor the Parthenon.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
Greece is a country comprised of over 3,000 islands, and has the richest flora in Europe with over 6000 species and 600 unique species. Greek countryside is diverse and varies dramatically throughout the country. There are over 300 days of sun a year, and the summers are hot and dry, often with a cooling breeze, while the winters are short and mild.
Conclusion
Greece is a beautiful country to live in and there are a wide range of properties to choose from. The property market in the UK may be rocky, but in Greece, property investors are making a good return. So when you’re looking for an overseas property for sale, Greece could be the market for you.
Jon Lane wrote the Article 'A Quick Review of Property for Sale in Greece' and recommends you visit http://www.homesoverseas.co.uk/property-for-sale-in-greece/1155 for more information on properties for sale Greece.