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Greece: Attica

Overview

Nearest Airport – Athens (international).

The region of Attica lies at the south-eastern end of mainland Greece and includes the capital city of Athens. The Apollo coast is home to a number of crowded and overdeveloped resorts such as Glyfádha and Vouliagméni, which are popular with both visitors and Athenians at weekends, and home to a sizeable expatriate population. The famous historical sites of the Temple of Poseidon and Marathon are situated in Attica, while Mount Párnitha in the north has spectacular forests and rock scenery. The region is also noted for its extensive olive and grape production. The climate in Attica is temperate with hot summers, mild winters and low rainfall, although it can snow in Athens.

Athens (pop. 4.5m) is the oldest city in Europe and the birthplace of western civilisation and democracy, with a history dating back some 7,000 years. Many cultures have passed through Athens (named after the Greek goddess Athena), which in 1834 – soon after the end of Ottoman rule – was declared the capital of Greece. It remained a relatively small city until 1923, when a huge influx of refugees from Turkey forced a rapid expansion, and the city now covers some 450km2 (174mi2). In the intervening years Athens has grown from a population of less than 500,000 to 4.5 million, which has created considerable urban and environmental problems, although these have been reduced greatly in recent years. The city is largely a vast sprawl of virtually identical six-storey, cement apartment blocks known as ‘multiple dwellings’, hurriedly constructed to house the influx of immigrants, and is home to over two-thirds of the country’s cars.

The improvements made to the city for the 2004 Olympic Games transformed it into a ‘new’ Athens with vastly improved traffic systems (the nightmare traffic jams are almost a thing of the past), a cleaner environment, and new improved museums and cultural centres. Some Athenians claim the city is almost unrecognisable! Traffic jams have been reduced drastically by the new road network as has the thick, acrid smog (called néfos), a combination of traffic fumes and oppressive heat, which used to envelop Athens for days at a time during summer. The city is still extremely busy, however, and the cradle of Greek civilisation is visited by over 4 million tourists annually.

Athens has the best medical and education facilities in the country. The standard of living is also higher than in the rest of Greece and job opportunities are plentiful, as over half of the country’s industry is concentrated around the capital, which is the political, commercial and cultural hub of Greece. Athens is a fascinating amalgamation of cultures where east meets west in a vibrant, exciting ambience, with traditional coffee-houses and donkey carts vying for space with modern office blocks, deluxe hotels and the ubiquitous motor vehicles. Despite its rapid expansion, Athens is really a conglomeration of small villages, its people friendly and gregarious, with suburbs that are relatively calm and peaceful with beautiful restored 19th century mansions. You can also marvel at the Acropolis, which dominates the skyline from practically every street corner. When the hustle and bustle of Athens becomes too much to bear, an escape to the tranquillity of the surrounding mountains and countryside is never far away.

Communications are excellent in Athens and the city has comprehensive bus and metro services (three lines with connections to Piraeus and the airport), and a new and modern international airport at Spata, opened in 2001. Trains and buses leave the capital at regular intervals for the rest of the country. Piraeus, Athens’ port and one of the Mediterranean’s busiest, is also Greece’s ferry hub from where ferries and hydrofoils service most of the islands. Athens is connected by road to western and northern Greece by the E75 motorway.

In keeping with the high standard of living, house prices in Athens and the surrounding beach resorts are the highest in the country, where property is in high demand. Prices have risen nearly 50 per cent in most areas of the capital since 1997. Property in the leafy suburbs (e.g. Kifissia, Kolonaki and Plaka) with their spacious villas is highly sought-after and houses generally sell quickly. Expect to pay from ?80,000 for a small one-bedroom flat in a less desirable area to over ?400,000 for a new apartment in a good area. Houses range from €400,000 to over €5 million.

© Survival Books Limited 2005

“Buying a Home in Greece” 3rd Edition, Joanna Styles.

Reproduced with the permission of Survival Books Limited.

Further information on buying a home in Greece can be found in “Buying a Home in Greece” 3rd edition, by Joanna Styles.

For extensive information about buying a property in Greece, you can purchase this book at www.survivalbooks.net

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