Demand for Luxury Villas in Greece on the Rise

Panel discussion during the ShortStay Conference 2023 in Athens. Photo source: ShortStay Conference

Demand for luxury villas in Greece is increasing as more travelers seek privacy, security, high-end amenities and location, found this year’s ShortStay Conference 2023 held in Athens.

According to findings presented at the two-day event attended by over 800 participants, including property owners and managers from 10 countries, bookings for luxury villas in Europe are up by 5 percent.

The Top 10 destinations in Greece, according to James Cassidy, senior director, partner Success Vacation Rentals, EMEA at Expedia Group are Chania, Heraklion and Rethymno (Crete), Attica, Corfu, Santorini, Rhodes, and Kefalonia.

Travelers from the US, UK, Germany, France and Canada account for the bulk of rentals. According to event speakers, the bulk of sales and business activity is handled by managing companies or travel agencies.

Last year in Greece, a total of 20,876,000 overnight stays at short-term rentals generated 3,468,000,000 euros, said Sally Henry, vice president of Business Development for EMEA presenting Key Data findings.

There are currently 155,000 properties registered on Airbnb and VRBO 20,740 of which are in Athens. This year, bookings in January were up by 43 percent compared to first month in 2022.

In Heraklion (Crete) short-term rental listings online this year increased by 25 percent over 2022 to 1,307. In Thessaloniki, the number of properties found listed are up by 27 percent to 3,090, in Kalamata and Corfu up by 26 percent, and in Chania by 24 percent to 2,421 properties.

In Athens, meanwhile, 11,000 properties are can be found online available for short-term rental and 20,000 in the whole of Attica.

Oia on Santorini accounted for the largest share of professionally managed rentals (74 percent), followed by Mykonos (61 percent), and Athens (52 percent).

According to data presented by Tom Payne, enterprise account executive at Transparent, short-term rental occupancy in 2022 surpassed hotel occupancy increasing to 66 percent from 62 percent.