Penthouse in Athens Sells for a Record $20 Million

A 320 sq.m. penthouse apartment in Athens was recently sold to a Swiss national for 18 million euros ($19.78 million), making it the city’s most expensive piece of real estate.

The penthouse is located near Herodou Attikou Street which is adjacent to the National Garden of Athens and has a panoramic view of the sea south of the Greek capital and the Acropolis.

The apartment, which is in need of renovation, was one of the few available properties in the area.

Herodou Attikou Street is named after the ancient Athenian rhetorician, magnate and major benefactor of the Roman era, Herodes Atticus as its direction is towards Panathenaic Stadium, at the east hill of which (nowadays Pangrati) his mausoleum was found.

Penthouse sold in Athens on the most expensive street in Greece

The tree-lined one-way street runs from north (Vasilissis Sofias Avenue) to south (Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue) connecting the districts of Kolonaki and Pangrati. It is, by far, the most expensive address for real estate in Greece and among the most expensive in Europe.

The five-block-long eastern side of the street is lined with luxurious apartments and mansions, foremost among them the Presidential Palace, the official workplace and residence of the President of the Hellenic Republic, and the Maximos Mansion, the official workplace of the Prime Minister.

“The transaction shows the interest that exists for Athens. Traditionally, buyers of this caliber invest in the Zurich and New York markets,” Giorgos Petras, managing director of Engel & Volkers estate agents said.

“In contrast to Athens, one or two transactions of this size are recorded each year in Mykonos,” he added.

Property market in Athens and the rest of Greece booms

From the Athens Riviera to the islands of the Aegean, from the island of Crete to northern Greece, new landmark projects are buoying the country’s property market and underscoring the strong investment interest in Greek real estate.

Foreign investment in the sector recorded an all-time high in 2022. According to data from the Bank of Greece, 1.975 billion euros flowed into the local realty market from abroad last year.

That was 68% higher than in 2021 when the corresponding amount had not exceeded €1.17 billion. At the same time, the performance of 2022 surpassed by 37% the previous record set in 2019, when foreign investments had reached €1.45 billion.

The country has become one of the leading destinations for real estate investors in Europe and is seeing across-the-board interest in every segment of the market.

In the last few weeks, Greece’s Lamda Development reported record sales of more than €200 million for its luxury residences at its flagship Hellinikon project along the Athens Riviera.

On the north shore of Crete, Greece’s privatization agency this month signed the official contract for the €200 million redevelopment of a former U.S. military base just east of Heraklion.

In May luxury hotel operator Domes is set to open its fourth Greek resort in the north of the country – one of two that it plans to open this year in Greece.

American multinational Goldman Sachs is set to join other foreign companies that have been investing in Greek real estate, which is booming.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the American company will initially invest approximately 150 to 200 million euros in three seaside resorts in Halkidiki, northern Greece.