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Macedonians buy property after property in the Perea resort near Thessaloniki, being in a hurry to take advantage of the low prices at which owners sell them to get rid of taxes.

This becomes clear from a publication in the Skopje newspaper, Telegraph, quoted by the online edition, voria.gr. According to the newspaper, Perea begins to turn into a "Macedonian" suburb of Thessaloniki, since lately the interest of the Macedonians in the coastal village has grown considerably.

However, brokers in the village do not come across clients from Macedonia, for the simple reason that prospective buyers do not ask Greek brokerage firms, but prefer brokerage companies in Bulgaria that have branches in Skopje and that even supply them with Bulgarian passports to buy property.

According to the article, the reason why Macedonians choose to buy property in Thessaloniki through ... Bulgaria is because they fear of the possible noise that may be raised because of Greek-Macedonian relations. Moreover, as stated, purchase and sale in Bulgaria is faster as the procedure in Greece is more complicated, and the transaction must be performed through a bank, which may require a document of origin of the money.

As stated in the publication, the coastline of Thessaloniki where, especially in the summer, every second car is with Macedonian numbers has always been favoured by Macedonians. "Properties are sold for 300-500 euros/sq.m. And what is really important to Macedonians is the sea. Perea is located in the southern part of the municipality of Thessaloniki, 7 km from the airport, 15 km from the city centre and only 40 minutes from the beautiful resorts of Halkidiki », says the publication.

"We bought an apartment for 300 euro/sq.m. and it is nearly 50 square meters. Although the apartment is old and needs refreshing, it is really cheap. Former owners knew they sold it at very low cost, but irrespective of that they were not able to pay for its maintenance because of high taxes", said a woman from Skopje for the newspaper, who recently bought an apartment in Thessaloniki.

The newspaper notes that there is another aspect of the purchase of real estate in Greece, as tax rates are particularly high. "One of the measures taken by the government to address the crisis was the introduction of new taxes on real estate, which forced many to sell real property. The fact that in many cases homeowners pay for taxes more than what they receive from rent is interesting. And, if in the past tax evasion was "a national sport" for the Greeks, today’s inspections and sanctions are much more severe", says the publication in the end.