The Greek real estate treasury

The networking opportunities convinced Enterprise Greece and members of the Greek real estate industry to organize a huge booth in the Riviera Palais Des Festivals hall during Mipim. On the morning of the second day, the investment and trade promotion agency organized an information session where four experts, including Enterprise Greece CEO Marinos Giannopoulos, spoke to guests and casual passers-by about Greece's business opportunities.

Greece is gaining a reputation as a "business friendly" country.

Some international investors, such as global real estate company Hines, which participated in the session, have already worked with Enterprise Greece, which provides investment services including financial incentives and fast-track processes.

The bigger picture is that international capital is coming in. Companies such as GIC of Singapore, Hines, Quilvest Capital Partners, Azora, Goldman Sachs, Fidera, Cedar Capital Partners and Dromeus Capital Group have invested in the Greek real estate market. A record €1.65 billion was invested in commercial real estate in 2022, 40% more than in 2021. Net foreign investment rose 68% in 2022 to almost €2 billion.

"This is due to the progress the country has made in the last three or four years, with the development and improvement of infrastructure and the simplification of the investment process," Giannopoulos said.

The specific examples are Piraeus and cloud computing.

Specific examples are Piraeus, a port city within the Greater Athens region that is becoming a logistics hub with companies such as Cosco Shipping investing more than €1 billion in a new container terminal as the port expands to handle more than 7.2 million 20-foot containers.

There is also talk of Greece soon becoming a "global cloud computing center" and attracting three major international cloud services. Google has announced the launch of its first cloud computing center in Greece in a deal that could bring €2.2 billion to the economy. Microsoft and Amazon have also made announcements about setting up data centers and cloud computing centers in Greece.

Greece is attracting foreign investment.

According to Deloitte, Greece was recently ranked among the top 10 destinations for attracting foreign investment.

Greece is making the most of grants from the EU - €31.16 billion has been collected for grants and loans, and is expected to attract a total investment of €60 billion by the end of 2026, when all projects should be implemented. "Despite the volatility in the world, it is possible to attract investment," Giannopoulos said.

The auto sector is on the cusp.

Manoussakis said he believes the hottest sector at the moment is the hotel sector. It is a dynamic sector in crisis, inextricably linked to Greece's tourism industry. Already in 2012, investors were looking to open hotels in Greece, but with limited success. In 2019, the total investment amounted to €390 million, which increased to €450 million in 2020 during the pandemic and to €500 million in 2021. In terms of the number of rooms transferred, this represents an increase from 2,800 beds in 2020 to 3,600 in 2021.