16 replies to this topic

[nicka]

Hello,
I'm new to this site and looking forward to sharing and learning with you all.
How much does an average house in crete cost to purchase? I'm looking at some options of possibly moving there in a few years. My dad is from rethymnon.

Nick

[maisie]

Morning Nick,welcome to the forums,and best luck when you go to Crete to live,we love Crete,been the past two years to Stalis doing the tourist things. My hubby walked the Samaria Gorge the two years and enjoyed it very much,took some lovely photos too. Keep us posted about your move and good luck.

ps/ im sure someone will get back to you about house prices.

[Laid Back Lil]

Nika - how much research have you done so far? How many times have you visited Crete both on holiday and to look at property? You need to do a huge amount of research as to where you want to live and purchase (in any country you consider) before deciding to up your roots. You haven't said what you're looking for either, one, two bedrooms, house, apartment, coastal, in land, new, old, renovation/renovated, the list goes on. Maybe you could be a bit more specific and also use the search engines to have a look at different prices and different properties with different agents and builders. Good luck in your quest though.

[Emma1310]

The classifieds section on this board even has some property for sale.

[Pam]

Hi, Nick I agree with the others - you really need to have an idea of what you are looking for to get a meaningful answer. However, if it helps, I look at a couple of web sites fairly regularly to keep and eye on what's available and I have see properties as low as 20k euros, but these are pretty much ruins, and as high as 500k euros, but these are the high end luxury places. There seems to be a good selection of reasonable condition houses at around the 150k mark. If you like I can send you a PM with details of these web sites.

Good luck anyway.

Pam

[Emma1310]

I was chatting to a Cretan who said he'd bought land and built the basic structure (steel frame and concrete) of 3 houses and that had cost 80 000 euros. One of the houses was complete and he was hoping to sell it for 350 000 in order to finance the completion of the other 2 houses. I think it was a 3 bedroom family house with an office/4th bedroom but I can't remember how many bathrooms.

I imagine location might make a difference too. This house was near to Limenes Herssonissos on the north coast so although very touristy perhaps he was hoping for a rich tourist to buy it!

[Tim]

Nick
You may read my comments and think I am not being helpful - but I think it is worth risking unpopularity to give some straight answers.
I don't live in Crete, I would not wish to - but don't let that fact make you think I don't love the place- and I have done so from the time I first set foot there 17 years ago.
Making a successful move to Crete , as Lil says, requires a lot of work. Any fool can watch a TV "Your home in Crete", part with a big wad of cash and spend ages regretting what they did. On other sites there are dozens who have boasted of their new Greek home, their holiday home - or whatever. Many have quielty disappeared having lost lots of money.
That said, there are a good few people around who have put a lot of effort into finding out about the property market, the law relating to owning a house there, how that impacts upon work, your vehicles, your taxes, your will etc etc etc. How will you derive an income to live there, some expect to walk into a high paid job- few do. Those who do the research seem to stand the best chance of making a move to Crete successful.
It seems, from the problems others have had, that you need a good developer, a good builder, a good estate agent, a good lawyer, a good accountant - and a good knowledge of the language helps.
There are good professional people about, I can't recommend any from personal experience but other may (but don't just take one persons word for it). Be selective in who you take advice from. Be very wary of some ex-pats who are making money out of fellow countrymen- there are a few real crooks out there.
Compared with some other sites, members here with a property in Crete are fewer - but our members seem to have fewer problems. Seek out the real successes, not the vociferous and usually short lived boasters.
One final word. If, when you have taken all into account, you are still serious, then rent in Crete for a year. That gives you time to really see how things are, to find out where you might want to settle, and to experience the seasons, the cold of winter- and the relentless heat of summer!
Whatever you decide, good luck with it.

[nicka]

thanks for your replies. All of your input is helpful and I do need to research what exactly my needs will be. Everyone has different want and needs but it's good to get an idea of what your up against.

Gia Sou!

[Fotini]

First of all I suggest that you should find a helpful real estate agency. All the others are easier and we are certainly here to help you since we are fluent in the Greek language:)You should definately try using the search engines and don't worry about thw rest of the information because we can provide them to you.

[Wim]

Neither did you mention something about your motivations. Are they the result of a holiday or is there an emotional reason you want to live in Crete.

I could not learn much of you in your forum profile. But, as extensivly mentioned in this thread and "some" other ones on this forum, buying a house in Crete is not quite something like making a cup of tea on a sunday afternoon. I have up to now two (girl) friends who, for the emotional reason, started to live in Crete.
One also bought a house near Sitia. The first left Crete a few month ago after living and working in Chania for more than 5 years. She was left alone in the cold by the sometimes "complicated" friendliness of the locals. In this case the landlord was the malefactor.( )

The other one, from Sitia, had to end the relationship last month because she could no longer handle the machismo of her friend. Maybe you want to buy her house (without friend)






Stay cool and

[househunter]

Hi Everyone.

At present I am just researching property in Crete. There is a program on the local radio station which brought up the topic of House prices in Crete. The people involved are returning home in order to look after their elderly parents here and have been trying to sell their house for over a year without success to date.

They mentioned that the market for 2nd hand houses has fallen badly in the last few years and most buyers are buying new, even then they said the new properties are getting harder to sell due to their being so many for sale at present.

Hopefully there will be someone on this forum who could verify or contradict that the market is difficult at present.

In general are secondhand properties selling well?

I also read elsewhere about several English people wanting to return to the UK and that they were finding it hard to find a buyer and this radio program is saying much the same. Is this the situation at present?

Thanks.

[Wim]

If you enter house for sale Crete the WWW comes up with a plethora of hits.
It looks like (holiday) houses in Crete is a booming business especially the ones that do not fit the landscape properly. An old lecturer of mine always responded to our housing designs, yes it's beautiful but is it area bounded or can it also be build in Timbuktu.

There are however a lot of stone houses for sale that need rebuilding, restoration etcetera. In my opinion these are the ones to go for. They already fit the landscape or village and are more fun because less expensive at the end. And not the least reason to do this; it can be rebuild by local craftsmen. This way the money ends up in their pockets.....

So if you have imagination and a feeling for it contact me next year and we'll find something like this?

[househunter]

Unfortunately I won't be able to get to Crete (or anywhere this year ) but I see several "interesting" properties that I bookmarked about 5 or 6 months ago
have dropped their prices by approx 20/25%.

This could be because they were overpriced to start with but I don't think so and not by that amount.

Is the property market in Crete on a downturn like many other places?

A drop in the asking price on one property is one thing but this is on about 6 or 7 properties.

[Retired in Crete]

"Is the property market in Crete on a downturn like many other places?"

I think that you have to understand that there are several property markets in Crete. Estate agents (who were unknown here 'till the Brits arrived) cater for different markets. The British agents, selling only to the Brits are struggling because of the UK credit crunch. On the other hand the agents who sell mainly to Russians are experiencing a boom. In the middle are those who cater for the Dutch, German and other markets which are still fairly active. Obviously the multi-lingual agents are doing quite nicely.

It will also depend on which part of Crete you are interested in. In the greater Chania area, where most Brits go, I suspect that houses are selling much slower. Here in the east, the Russians seem to be buying everything.

As an illustration, I have a Greek friend who does day yacht charters, last year his clientel was almost exclusively English with a few Germans. This year, so far, all his customers have been Russian.

Hope this helps.

John

[yannis_s]

John is 100% right. I think young Cretans should start learning Russian quickly...

[Laid Back Lil]

I might sound biased here (face bothered?) but I do hope that the Russians aren't buying everything. What I'm afraid of is that they will slowly push out the Greek businesses and take them over eventually which would be terrible. I know it's not good to judge different nations by one's experience of just a few people you meet from that country, as the French do believe the English aren't nice - mainly due to the lager-louts getting off the ferries and throwing up etc after boozing duty-free on the boat all the journey...and being a pain in the butt (which being English I am ashamed of them and the example they are giving). I know the English make jokes about the Germans always getting their towels on the sunbeds first (so get up earlier then....) and so on... but my experience of about twenty or so Russians I met in an expensive hotel in Turkey was that they were very rude to the waiters and bar staff, snapping their fingers and shouting at them, not queuing and waiting their turn, and generally being quite aggressive to everyone around them. No offence meant to any Russians reading this forum - obviously I cannot speak for every single person...- I am purely giving my opinion of twenty or so Russian tourists (not in one party I might add) who I met a few years back. Years ago my mum and dad ran a house where students from all over the world came to stay while they were learning English. I have met Saudis, Spanish, Greek, Icelandic, Guatomalo (sorry can't spell this early in the morning)..., Italians, Finnish, Dutch, Danish, German, Japanese, Swiss, Norweigan, and many many others and a lot of them would come again and specifically ask the schools to place them back with us - and they were of all ages, the youngest being 15 and the oldest from Finland who was 91. I don't want to live soley among English in Crete. I don't want to shop at English shops in Crete. Along the road from us here in England we now have a Polish supermarket. I don't want to go to my local village in Crete and find the mini-market is no longer run by local Greeks, or drink in a bar which has been taken over either. I am for a free world, but bought in Crete because I fell in love with the country and it's people and I don't want that to change. Thoughs please? and again - I do not wish to cause offence to anyone reading this - just saying my experience of people....and I know you can't tar everyone with the same brush....

[Wim]

Hear hear Lil.

John is 100% right. I think young Cretans should start learning Russian quickly...

I think so too Yannis, if only to tell them to behave and try to adapt to the local culture.
But let's face it we all know a lot of our own countrymen seem to forget who and what when on holiday. And not even then...
Must have something to do with education or rather the lack of it.