Galery

1

Overall, those who are very rich perceive the property as a "liability", i.e. as a cost, for an expensive trip or buying a yacht, not as an "asset", that is investment.

In an average Greek household, the majority of the property is associated with real estate. In many cases and for many Greeks real estate is the only property they have. Therefore, the 35% drop in property prices and the increase in taxes combined with the reduction in income and the surge in unemployment caused the collapse of thousands of households in the crisis years.

For a middle-income Greek the picture is the following: Net financial wealth of $111,405 (compared to $96,646 in the second quarter of 2013), real estate worth $83,907, other investments to the amount of $46,604 and obligations to the amount of $19,106. Compared to the second quarter of 2013 there was a significant increase in investments in shares, bonds and other securities by about $11,000, increase in property by about $6,000 (mainly due to the expensive euro) and a small $400 increase in obligations. In fact, there was a decrease in accounts payable in euro.  

Impressive is the decline in deposits in Greek banks, namely from 184.9 billion euro at the end of 2009 to 128.1 billion euro in the first quarter of 2014. Equally impressionable is the increase of deposits of foreign nationals and companies in the Greek banks even in the crisis years. From 6.4 billion euro at the end of 2009, the deposits of foreigners exceeded 28 billion euro in the first quarter of 2014.  

At the same time, Greek citizens and companies have always put part of their capital into foreign bonds. In the first quarter of this year, Greeks (individuals and companies) held Greek bonds worth 1.2 billion euro and foreign bonds worth 6.9 billion euro. The trend of buying foreign bonds began in the year 2000 and culminated in 2006, when their value amounted to 25.8 billion euro. At that time, the total value of investments in bonds was 33.9 billion euro.

In the second quarter of 2013, the investments of Greek citizens and companies in financial products (deposits, bonds, stocks, etc.) amounted to 342.1 billion euro. A year later, they increased to 424 billion euro, which was primarily due to the increase in share values. It is worth noting that in 2013 the main index of the Athens Stock Exchange rose by 28%.