Holy Monastery of Rousanou, Kalambaka, Greece by Dennis Jarvis

Affordability

Because of the declining tourist market, there has been an increase in the sale of holiday homes in Greece due to dwindling interest and falling rental incomes, often at a loss. This has also had the effect that there has been an increase in interest for people looking to buy a holiday home. At the moment, there has been an influx of property sales in northern Greece from people from neighbouring Bulgaria. The city of Thessaloniki is a popular tourist destination for many Bulgarians, so people are snapping up the chance to purchase their own holiday home at a lower price. Us Brits are starting to take notice too; although many are employing a ‘wait and see’ tactic when it comes to Greek holiday homes, there has been a steady increase in interest.

Know your turf

If you’re thinking of taking advantage of the situation and you’re looking to buy your dream holiday home, make sure you do your research. If you can, talk to locals and ex-pats to get a feel for how the financial crisis is impacting the area. This will also put you in good stead when navigating the sea of red tape that comes with buying a second home in another country. It could be that what you see as a potential honey pot is actually going to cost you more in the long run.

Financing the dream

If you think you’re onto a winner, then you should look to protect yourself in the event that things take a turn for the worse. The current big worry is that Greece will secede from the EU and renounce the Euro as its currency, reverting back to drachma. If you borrow Euros in order to buy a Greek second home, then you will still owe Euros even if the country reverts to drachma. With fluctuating exchange rates, this could potentially put you out of pocket.

One of the most classical photos from Santorini: the boat at Firostefani by Klearchos Kapoutsis

With the current tourist market the way it is, it is likely that any holiday home you purchase will be left unoccupied for a while until things stabilise a little more. With that, it’s a good idea to look into holiday home insurance, which protects the house during periods of vacancy and can also help during times when your rental income is in jeopardy.

Depending on which area of Greece you’re looking at, going for a second home as a source of rental income isn’t going to be the best short term objective. If you’re willing to wait out the crisis, you can grab a potential bargain and enjoy a few weeks or months soaking up the Greek sunshine in your new Greek home.

Written by J. R. Gibbs,  armchair explorer and writer at large for holiday home insurance comparison site Confused.com

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The creation of this Japanese garden started in 2007 by Šarūnas Kasmauskas in collaboration with the architects of Japanese gardens from Japan (e.g. Hadžime Watanabe, Hiroshi Cunoda…) and is still in progress. The works slowed down considerably sudden economic crisis in 2009. The largest Japanese garden in Europe (16 ha) will be called the Valley of singing stones (Lithuanian Dainuojančių akmenų slėnis). It is located on a hill musicians (Lithuanian Musicians kalnas), the highest hill in the area (its altitude is 32.4 m above sea level). During the establishment of a pond on the hill, a total of 24 springs have been revealed.

The project has no official sponsors yet, nor by the European Union, nor by the Lithuanian State. All funding is coming from the owner – S. Kasmauskas, his family and from charitable donations.

Japanese gardens are one of the important aesthetic elements of Japanese culture. Impress even those that are not closer interested in the culture of this country. The rules of their creation have been developed almost a thousand years. Although the western style gardens are very different, they attract anyone who has a sense of beauty.

View Mažučiai – Largest Japanese Garden in Europe Lithuania in a larger map

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