The 4 Numbers We Check Before We Even Visit a Greek Property

Most investors looking at Greek real estate fly in, walk through five apartments, fall in love with the one with the best balcony view, and buy. That's not how we do it. We screen every property on four hard numbers before any human ever sets foot inside. If a property fails any one of these four, we don't visit.

1. Price per sqm vs. the 12-month neighbourhood median

We pull the last 12 months of actual transaction prices (not asking prices) in a 400m radius. Then we compare. Threshold: at least 8% below the median. Why 8%? Because the seller will usually negotiate 3–5%, and we need a real margin of safety on top of that. A property 8% below median, after negotiation, becomes a 12–15% discount — that's the entry edge.

2. Gross rental yield at conservative market rent

We take comparable rental listings (not the seller's optimistic claim) in the same building or block, take the lower quartile, multiply by 12, divide by total project cost. Threshold: 6.5% gross minimum for buy-and-hold, 8%+ for short-term rental plays. A property pencilling at 5.5% in a 'good' location is just a volatility-adjusted bond — you're not paid for illiquidity, capex, and tenant risk.

3. Renovation cost realism

We benchmark renovation cost per sqm against our own database of recent jobs by district. A light cosmetic in Athens 2026 is €350–€500/sqm. A full gut is €900–€1,400/sqm. A bathroom alone runs €4,000–€7,000. Threshold: actual quoted reno cost within 15% of our benchmark. If a broker hands us a €400/sqm 'estimate' for a 1970s apartment with original plumbing, we know the real number is double, and the deal almost certainly doesn't work.

4. Exit liquidity in the target segment

How many comparable properties in the same district sold in the last 6 months, and at what price band? Threshold: at least 20 comparable transactions in the prior 6 months within the target exit segment. This is the one most investors skip — they think about acquisition and forget that exit liquidity is a feature of the asset, not the market.

Why this matters

Of the 100,000+ properties our system tracks across Greece, roughly 5% pass these four filters. Of that 5%, only ~1 in 20 survives on-the-ground due diligence. That's the ratio you have to apply if you want to beat the market average. Most investors don't, because it means saying no to almost everything they look at. We do — because we're investing our own capital alongside our co-investors and we can't afford to be sloppy.