Courtesy of Alex Pettas
- Alex Pettas bought property in Athens in 2024 to rent out on Airbnb.
- He has family in Greece and uses his property as a vacation home when visiting.
- Long-term renting was an option, but he prefers Airbnb’s flexibility.
This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Alex Pettas, 54, an architect and a landlord in California since 1998. In April 2024, Pettas purchased an apartment in Athens, Greece, and has since been renting it out on Airbnb. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m from the Bay Area, and around 1996 and 1997, as the internet was a brand new thing, I could tell that it was going somewhere. So I felt that it would be a good idea to get a rental property in San Francisco. I approached my dad and suggested a deal in which he puts the deposit down and I do all of the work, and then we split the profits over time.
Right now, I have a two-unit in San Francisco and a three-unit in Glendale, California, which is in Los Angeles. The San Francisco building was purchased in 1998, and the Glendale building in 2015.
Each one brings in just around $9,000 a month. But even though we have owned property for a while, the barrier to entry is quite high in Los Angeles, with buildings that I might be interested in buying starting at about $1.5 million.
So a decision was made to buy in Greece based on multiple things: My family is Greek, so we have a strong interest in it, and the dollar was very strong against the euro. The Greek crisis was ending, but I caught the last little bit of it, so I wanted an apartment in Athens. The dollar was doing great, so it was like everything was 20% off.
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The crisis had lowered prices, and I felt I could Airbnb it and it would cover itself. It’s done far better than that.
I could do a long-term rental, but short-term makes more sense
Buying property in Greece is not harder, just different.
I have Greek family, so I was assisted — and I do speak Greek, so it helped, but it is a complicated thing, more complicated than I’m used to.
I gave my cousin power of attorney to purchase the property in my name, so she did some of the signing, which definitely helped.
Particularly in Greece, the main issue has been that the land registry — we call it the recorder in America — has been going from paper to digital. At times, the paper can be 100 years old, so there are many issues with the title in Greece.
Many people have been buying property for the Golden Visa in the last 10 years. [Ed note: In Greece’s Golden Visa program, foreigners are granted a five-year residency visa in exchange for purchasing property in the country.] It’s been a huge thing in Greece for foreigners buying properties because the prices were outrageously low.
For me, buying was more about a family connection, a nostalgia connection. My father and I had always wanted an apartment in the center of Greece. He passed away a couple of years ago, but I finished the project and bought one.
I bought in Athens near the Acropolis for 425,000 euros, or about $456,322 in April 2024, when I closed.
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In Athens, it’s very typical to have an apartment. The one I bought is in a four-unit building. So, a small-scale apartment building, which is so ubiquitous in Athens. The building is from 1950, and it’s an 84-square-meter two-bedroom.
We started Airbnb-ing in mid-July of 2024. I made a few trips to furnish it — it was, of course, completely empty, needed paint, and some minor stuff.
It’s been on Airbnb just over a year now, and it’s done quite well — better than I expected.
The first year, which is not ever going to be the best year, has been as low as 1,300 euros a month. That’s net for me after HOA dues, Airbnb manager fees, Airbnb fees, cleaning, et cetera. The highest, so far, was 3,300 euros.
I probably could rent it for 1,400 or 1,500 euros a month long term, but I was one of the last people to get an Airbnb license in the historic center of Athens. They immediately suspended them a couple of months after we got our license.
The government’s trying to slow that down to encourage long-term rentals. Some apartment buildings have HOA laws restricting Airbnb use. Those are probably the tonier apartments in the area.
You can no longer Airbnb in the historic center. It has become a housing issue for Greeks, with many properties downtown being used for Airbnb. But you can just make more money on Airbnb.
We also want the flexibility of staying there. I just went for two weeks with my daughter. We go as often as we can.
It’s way easier getting paid in Greece
One of the things that’s different is I receive money digitally in Greece — that’s actually easier than America. The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) that you have in Europe is much easier to convey money back and forth between people.
In the States, I use Baselane. I used to use paper checks until someone did a change of address on me, and then that upended everything.
In Europe, if they have your IBAN, which is basically your account number, they just send you the money. It’s insanely easy.
Leases in America, if done well, are much more thorough than in Greece. Our experiences with folks moving out of apartments is much different in America. I also manage two of my mom’s units in Greece, and I’ve been dealing with those on and off for a long time.
Courtesy of Alex Pettas.
In Greece, they tend to leave apartments in a poor state. They’ve painted all the walls funky things, they don’t paint things back, they leave trash. I went recently, and both tenants left my mom’s two apartments a mess.
In America, it’s much tougher to do that kind of stuff. I’ve never had that really happen in 30 years in America. I think there’s much more teeth in the leases in America.
But I’m personally always looking at Greece, Italy, and Spain for more units — I like those countries.
Ten years ago in Greece during the crisis, I would’ve bought everything I could lay my hands on. The return on investment that I’ve achieved on a 425,000-euro apartment has been great.
Now, I’m a really picky buyer. I was really careful, and not everyone’s going to have that same success. I went many times. I was very thorough in my selection of places, but having five units in America, I did want to diversify, and it gives me an excuse to travel to places that I like.
If I could get a rental property in Italy, it is just a reason to keep going with my family. So I’m mixing business with pleasure in a way.
Athens has been amazing. No one ever used to want to stay in Athens, now it’s a year-round destination, and I did well in January, even. So for me, in that particular situation, I would’ve done it over and over if I could have.